OGDEN, Utah — Concerned residents filled Tuesday night’s Ogden City Council meeting to share their worries about immigration enforcement in their community.
“Keep an open mind on the idea that we are not where we were a year ago,” said Demetrios Pagonis.
Pagonis spoke at the meeting and said he looked at the data obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that ICE was detaining people at the facility beyond the hours they were supposed to, including overnight. This violates the conditional use permit for the property issued by the city in 2000.
WATCH: Ogden community protests ICE field office building, concerns with city code compliance
Ogden City shared with FOX 13 news that no code violations had been found and that they would investigate any complaints seriously.
Mara Brown, the city's chief administrative officer, reiterated that before public comment began. She also said that under the Supremacy Clause, local ordinances cannot override federal actions.
For over two hours, people came to the podium or shared their comments online about concerns with ICE operations in the city — from teachers sharing that their students are afraid to come to school, to people from immigrant families worried about seeing their neighbors taken away.
“My concern is that this detention with multiple use violations is going to be used as an assembly center for the concentration camp that was just bought by ICE in Salt Lake. I want people to be safe,” said one speaker.
“I want to speak to something we keep hearing from this council and mayor, that there is nothing you can do about ICE operating in our city. I don’t believe that’s true. Cities across the country are not accepting that answer,” Kim Haslam added during public comment.
People said they want the city to look into what’s happening in that building. One council member said he would look into it.
“I’ve sent an email requesting a fire inspection and ask that I can accompany along for it,” said council member Kevin Lundell.
When members were ready to adjourn after public comment, council member Alicia Washington asked if the council would go back into a work session to discuss what people shared about ICE after the meeting, since the next regularly scheduled council meeting is two Tuesdays away. It was after 9 p.m. already, so council vice-chair Dave Graf asked if they could meet another day, and members decided to schedule a special closed meeting next week to discuss possible actions.
People said they want to see change.
“At the end of the day, this is just not about codes, reports or technicalities. It’s about people. It’s about how we treat human beings in this community,” said West Haven resident David Belnap.
