NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (KGTV) - National City is embracing it's new title as a "compassionate city" after a unanimous vote by the City Council Monday night.
The council chamber was packed with people cheering after the decision. The resolution doesn't change any existing laws or policies or special protections, the mayor emphasized.
The resolution means the city is taking a symbolic stance against federal immigration raids and arrests.
National City has a large Hispanic and Filipino population, according to council members, and many of people at the meeting were there to speak in support of the resolution.
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The call for a resolution against federal immigration raids and arrests intensified in late May after federal officials separated the Duarte family. They took the parents and left the children alone in the care of the oldest son, 19-year-old Francisco Duarte.
"It can't be that our families are torn apart, and it can't be that the people who love our children are torn apart," Michelle Gates, a family friend of the Duarte family told the council.
The Duarte children's mother was released on bail.
