Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake reaffirmed Thursday that Baltimore welcomes immigrants and refugees, joining a growing number of mayors across the country who say they are trying to allay fear in those communities after the election of Donald J. Trump as president.
Baltimore's mayor said city police will not check the citizenship status of people with whom they interact. Her administration is publishing a community guide that urges immigrants in capital letters: "Do not panic." And city officials are working to steer immigrants toward legal and other resources offered by nonprofits.
Rawlings-Blake said Trump's election creates "a very scary environment for new Americans."
"The efforts that were touted during the election were not about us being safe," she said. "It was about dividing our country, and that is what we're here to stand up to."
Trump said during the campaign that he would withhold federal funds from cities that have lenient policies for handling illegal immigration. Such places are commonly called "sanctuary cities." Trump's advisers are drafting plans to carry out workplace raids and increase pressure on local police and jails to identify undocumented immigrants.
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The president-elect says he wants to deport 2 million to 3 million illegal immigrants that he says are criminals. He also has proposed building a wall along the Mexican border and banning Muslim immigrants from entering the country.
Mayor-elect Catherine E. Pugh, a Democrat who will succeed Rawlings-Blake in December, indicated she would continue the outgoing mayor's policies, including a 2012 executive order that prohibits city police from asking about a person's citizenship status.
