Why Mayor Quinton Lucas says Kansas City doesn't need a sanctuary city resolution

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mayor Quinton Lucas clapped back Tuesday at local and state officials who distorted his remarks from last week welcoming migrants with legal work permits. His critics wrongly suggested, instead, that Lucas was promoting Kansas City as a place that would support an influx of people who entered the United States illegally.

“There is nothing that has been proposed that suggests we are a sanctuary city,” he said. “There is nothing that has been proposed that suggests that this city is funding or in some conspiracy to help create more illegal immigration.”

Lucas said, therefore, he saw no reason to advance a resolution proposed by Councilman Nathan Willett that would assure the Missouri General Assembly that Kansas City was not on the path to becoming a city that would provide legal sanctuary to people in the country illegally.

But he didn’t apologize for his earlier remarks, either.

“I think it is fair for us to say all who are lawfully present, absolutely, are welcome in a community that has been made better over the centuries of the existence of this community, based on its very real diversity,” he said.

The mayor’s remarks came at the end of a boisterous committee meeting in which seven people testified in support of Willett’s resolution, after which people in the audience heckled Councilwoman Andrea Bough for voicing her opposition to the measure. After his requests for respect were ignored, Lucas threatened to clear the room.

“I cannot support this because I don’t think it has any legal effect,” Bough said when the room quieted. “We are not creating a sanctuary city … and I don’t think that we are needing to do anything because I have not been asked by anyone in Jeff(erson) City to do this.”

Willett said the resolution was necessary to protect Kansas City’s interests as state lawmakers make budget decisions that could negatively affect the city. A state law allows the legislature to deny grant financing to sanctuary cities.

“Right now, in Jefferson City, because of the mayor’s comments in the past week or so, they believe our intentions are becoming a sanctuary city,” Willett told Bough and Lucas. “I know that that’s not what I want. I know that’s not what you want. We need to firmly communicate that.”

Bough and Lucas did not agree. And as they were the only members of the three-person council special committee for legal review in attendance, that was enough. The resolution will not be heard by the full council on Thursday, as Willett requested.

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