New Bedford Councilors Push Ballot Question and Ordinance on Police Citizenship

NEW BEDFORD (WBSM) — The New Bedford City Council is now getting involved in the controversy surrounding the hiring of legal permanent residents as police officers in the city with a pair of initiatives designed to limit police employment solely to U.S. citizens.

Two councilors are pushing to put the issue to voters on this November’s ballot, while another has filed a motion to craft an ordinance making citizenship a requirement for police department employees.

A July 16 article by the New Bedford Light profiled Edwin Yat Toj, the NBPD’s first Mayan officer and first speaker of the K’iche’ language.

“Toj said he came to the U.S. when he was 5 years old as an undocumented immigrant in 2005 with his mother, a monolingual K'iche’ speaker. He said she did it for her children,” Kevin G. Andrade wrote in the piece. “He said his mother normalized his status and her own when he was still a child. He is now a legal permanent resident.”

That led to confusion as the New Bedford Police Department’s own website said U.S. citizenship was a prerequisite for employment; the website was later amended for what was dubbed “inaccurate information” and that it is “the long-standing policy of the NBPD that its officers must be U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents.”

READ MORE: First Mayan Police Officer in New Bedford Sparks Policy Clarification

Mayor Mitchell Defends Non-Citizen Hires

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell later defended the hiring of permanent legal residents as police officers in his weekly appearance on WBSM.

Councilor Gomes Wants to Craft an Ordinance

Councilor at Large Brian Gomes, the chair of the council’s committee on public safety and neighborhoods, has filed a motion for the August 21 city council agenda to address the issue.

He is requesting that the council’s ordinance committee meet with legal counsel David Gerwatowski to establish an ordinance requiring any person hired by the New Bedford Police Department be a U.S. citizen.

It would also require that the NBPD will “provide the city council with a checklist of the hiring of officer candidates,” and that any newly-hired officers would appear before the council for confirmation and to be sworn in by the council, as was done in the past in New Bedford.

Councilors Choquette and Oliver Want It Put to the Voters

Ward 1 Councilor Leo Choquette and Ward 3 Councilor Shawn Oliver are working on an initiative to have a ballot question on the upcoming November ballot asking the voters if legal permanent residents should be hired as police officers.

“Hiring non-citizens as New Bedford police officers is not responsible government,” Choquette said in an appearance on WBSM’s SouthCoast Now with Chris McCarthy, addressing his comments directly to Mayor Mitchell. “I don’t know why the city council wasn’t asked. Since when does the executive branch of the government make law?”

READ MORE: Meet New Bedford's New Police Chief

Choquette said although he is “happy to hear” that Gomes wants to have an ordinance, he said there still should be a ballot question.

“A ballot question does two very important things,” he said. “No. 1, it stimulates voter turnout in a year when the mayor is not running, and No. 2, the mayor needs to hear from the people.”

“He needs to hear from the people and then make his decision as to what he’s going to try to do,” Choquette said.

Legal Permanent Resident Officers Are Seeking Citizenship

The NBPD said that Officer Toj and another legal permanent resident officer from Cape Verde are both seeking U.S. citizenship.