Voces Unidas de las Montañas and Voces Unidas Action Fund denounce the Town of Silt and its Board of Trustees for their performative and divisive resolution declaring the Town of Silt as a “Non-Sanctuary Community.”
As a Garfield County-based Latino and immigrant rights advocacy organization, we are disappointed that the Town of Silt has taken this unwarranted action to convey the message that some are not welcomed in our community. This resolution perpetuates a detrimental divide in our community by signaling to Latinos and immigrants that they do not belong here. It does nothing tangible to better the lives of anyone living in Silt.
In unanimously passing this resolution, the Silt Board of Trustees denigrates a group of people under the guise of a lack of “financial resources” or the “operational infrastructure” to accept them, further amplifying hurtful stereotypes of Latinos and immigrants by using words like “illegal” when referring to newcomers. We interpret this resolution to say that the Board of Trustees does not value any immigrants, documented or undocumented, and only some groups are welcomed in the Town of Silt, not others.
Not only does this resolution completely undermine the true values that our community holds, but Trustee Samuel Flores claiming that people must “earn” their way and “join the community legally” while simultaneously rejecting them as part of that community is the definition of flawed logic. Such statements, along with this resolution, have no place in our community.
The hollow rhetoric that immigrants only take and don’t contribute is both prejudicial and erroneous, and it must end. Neither the Town of Silt nor any other municipality in our valley should put our immigrant community on the chopping block with such divisive “Non-Sanctuary” resolutions. Instead, we call on our elected leaders to shift their focus toward creating real policy that will improve the lives of all who live in our communities, regardless of immigration status.