"For me, nothing has changed," says a nonchalant mayor Virg Bernero. "We're a welcoming city that keeps all of its citizens safe, that respects diversity, that respects all of our citizens."
Bernero is calm after putting what he calls a target on the city's back.
"We're taking a stand," he says emphatically, "but we believe it's a lawful stand. We believe it's the right thing to do, and that it certainly does not put our residents in harms way."
The order the mayor signed Monday night will keep police from reporting undocumented immigrants or refugees to ICE unless they have warrants for their arrest.
"They're merely kind of looking the other way as opposed to actively going out and reporting them and turning them in," explains attorney James Heos.
He says the city isn't disobeying the federal government, simply not doing their work for them:
"There's a difference between inaction by the police and trying to misguide federal ICE officers in doing their job."
Lansing police chief Mike Yankowski says the order gives comfort to every person living in Lansing, whether they're a legal citizen or not.
"When you have a population of your community that is fearful, whether it's the Muslim population, the Hispanic population or whatever refugees that are coming into this welcoming city, we want them to feel like they can contact a police officer and not be in fear of being deported," says Yankowski.
He says that is vital for his department to do its job in the community.
But the order could have repercussions. President Trump has threatened to cut federal funding for sanctuary cities that harbor illegal immigrants, which means the mayoral candidates may have to foot the bill if that does happen.
"I'm always leery of losing federal dollars," says rep. Andy Schor, one of the two announced Lansing mayoral candidates.
He sees both sides. He doesn't think the city can afford to lose federal funding, but he thinks police shouldn't be forced to serve as immigration officers. He says the order will be looked at again if he's elected.
"I'll see what happened in the preceding months," explains Schor. "Did we lose significant federal dollars--six, seven million in federal dollars--and is that going to hurt the way we serve our residents? And we'll go from there."
Schor's opponent, Judi Brown Clarke, was one of the councilmembers that unanimously agreed on the sanctuary city ordinance.
She says in a statement "as an elected official, I also serve as a steward of the city's resources. If Lansing should face any financial sanctions from the federal government as a result of our renewed Welcoming City status, I am committed to doing my due diligence to fully protect the city, its residents, and its resources."
Schor argues that the order shouldn't be enough to cut the city's federal funding.
"I still hold, and I will hold to the federal government, that the police have never been immigration agents and if the language was just clarifying that, then that shouldn't really change anything."
