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West Bloomfield Officials Vote To Keep 'Welcoming City' Designation

WEST BLOOMFIELD (WWJ) - Less than a year after designating itself a "Welcoming City" for immigrants, West Bloomfield Township asked local officials to consider dropping that title.

That movement lost a 3-2 vote among West Bloomfield Township board members on Monday night.

According to Peggy Dahlberg, a representative of the Syrian American Rescue Network and the first to speak out about the refugees, told WWJ Newsradio 950 that the conversation over the matter got heated, but was a good conversation to have.

West Bloomfield is one of ten Michigan communities with the "Welcoming Cities" (and counties) designation — approved in April 2015 in partnership with the Welcoming Michigan program — allowing for better integration of communities with diverse ethnic backgrounds into the overall community.

But WWJ's Tom Jordan reports, since terrorist attacks in France last November, some West Bloomfield residents have expressed concerns about an influx of Syrian refugees and asked township leadership to dump the "welcoming" designation.

After hearing comment, West Bloomfield Township board members unanimous agreed to consider this and revisited the topic at a meeting Monday evening.

Resident John Horum said he's concerned on behalf of himself and other Chaldean Christians, who he says make up about 25 percent of the township's population.

"They insinuated in their hearings that these people living and working with you are really, really bad people. We're just saying hold on, hold your horses here," Horum said.

"The first people ISIS kill are the Christians and then the Jews; and Chaldean Christians have been coming here since 1898," he said. "They fear they are being discriminated against."

Along with West Bloomfield, Detroit, Sterling Heights, Hamtramck, East Lansing, Clinton Township, Meridian Township, Grand Rapids and Macomb County and Kalamazoo County all have the designation.

What does it mean?

"These communities support locally-driven efforts to create more welcoming, immigrant-friendly environments," reads a message on the Welcoming Michigan website. "Local governments and community leaders are working together to maximize opportunities to build mutual respect among receiving community members and immigrants and refugees, as well as foster an inclusive environment essential to growth."

This comes after Gov. Rick Snyder called a temporary halt to accepting refugees into the state until, he said, he could be satisfied that the federal government is properly vetting people.

Christine Sauvé, Southeast Michigan Communities Coordinator for Welcoming Michigan, said she hasn't been told that West Bloomfield is planning to leave the program, only that a group of residents — primarily Lakes Area Tea Party members — had at previous board meetings expressed worry about refugee resettlement in the township.

"We're going to have a conversation tonight, hoping to clear up some misinformation," she told CBS Detroit. "There might be some confusion about how this fits into the welcoming township program."

Sauvé stressed that all decisions regarding refugee placement are made on a federal level, and the "Welcoming City" designation has nothing to do with that.  The program is, she said, about creating a climate in the community that is welcoming and supportive to immigrants who are already there.

Since November, Sauvé said, they've actually seen increased interest from Michigan communities in the Welcoming Michigan program. Recently, they've been talking to both Battle Creek and Ann Arbor.

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