Bay City Commissioner Andrea Burney-Obershaw doesn’t want local police deputized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because she believes they need to focus instead on “white crime.”

“We have a lot of crime lately and we do need you officers instead of worried about immigration, we need you guys for our city because we have a lot of crime,” Burney-Obershaw said at Monday’s commission meeting. “So I wanted to look up to see who’s doing the crime, because we don’t need officers for the government we need you within the city,” she said.

WATCH: A Michigan city commissioner says local police shouldn’t be deputized by ICE because they need to focus on “white crime.”

“Immigrants are not doing these crimes,” Bay City Commissioner Andrea Burney-Obershaw said. “These are privileged white people who have done these… pic.twitter.com/Q6QG0TfnU1

— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) March 18, 2025

“So I had to look up some crime statistics,” she added. “So on Feb. 22, um, these are all white crimes, there are no immigration crimes in the city in the past … month. On Feb. 22 we had a terroristic, a terrorist attack you could say, here in Bay City, Michigan, at the police station by a judge’s son.”

As Burney-Obershaw attempted to denigrate police for allegedly not informing city officials, she was interrupted by a fellow commissioner who argued her comments were inappropriate.

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But Burney-Obershaw persisted in her racist rant.

“We need to be informed of white crime!” she insisted. “Immigration people, immigrants, are not doing these crimes. These are privileged white people that have done these crimes in the past month. Not immigrants,” she said.

“This is what I’m saying, we don’t need deputize these officers for immigration,” Burney-Obershaw said. “This is white crime … not immigrants.”

The comments aren’t the first time Burney-Obershaw has leveraged bombastic statements to attack policies or people she doesn’t like. She was removed by police from the commission’s March 3 meeting following a profanity-laced tirade against First Ward Commissioner Stephen Prince, whom she has repeatedly personally attacked on social media and in emails, MLive reports. Burney-Obershaw was also charged in a domestic violence case in which she allegedly struck her sister.

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She was also removed from a June 2023 meeting after accusing commissioners of secret back-door meetings that didn’t involve her, according to WNEM.

The commission ultimately voted 5-4 to approve the resolution at Monday’s meeting that bans local law enforcement from being deputized by the federal government for immigration enforcement. The resolution further prevents local police from inquiring about immigration status or enforcing immigration law, with an exception for when it’s required by state or federal law, or court order, the Midland Daily News reports.

While several who spoke at the meeting supported the resolution, others noted it could cost the city far more than it’s worth, putting both state and federal funding in jeopardy.

“If we do not receive the federal or state funding, cuts will have to be made at a local level to try to fix this. I don’t think we can afford to make those cuts,” local resident Denise Davidson said, pointing to a resolution approved by state House Republicans to block some funding for jurisdictions that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants. “I worry about allowing criminal activity to advance further into our city — like human trafficking, drugs and more crime.”

Commissioner Rachel Hilliker offered a motion to instead consider and prepare for funding cuts before approving the resolution, but was rebuffed in a vote of 5-4.

“This resolution does two things that lead me to a place where I cannot support it,” Hilliker said. “One, it makes a promise that is not legally or realistically able to be enacted. If this resolution was a true protector of people, it would be an easy yes for me. Secondly, this resolution puts our city at financial risk.

“The federal and state leaders have made their policies very clear,” she continued. “Any city or municipality enacting sanctuary or city resolutions will be targeted and will see financial repercussions.”

Commission President Prince offered a similar perspective.

“Federally, it would put our Community Development Block Grant at risk,” Prince said. “That is funding that we do not have a replacement for. Considering that we have never been deputized by the federal government to enforce immigration law, this would be us potentially throwing away vital funding to pat ourselves on the back and feel good about ourselves — and I’m just not willing to do that for a symbolic gesture.”

Bay City Mayor Chris Girard now has five days to decide whether or not to veto the resolution, which would send it back to the commission for reconsideration during the next commission meeting.

“Personally, I am very concerned about the potential financial impact,” Girard told MLive after Monday’s meeting. “I’m going to take it all into consideration. We’ve had a lot of folks in support of the resolution come in person, but there’s also been a lot of conversations (with people) not necessarily coming in. So, I have to take it all into consideration.”

The resolution and Burney-Obershaw’s comments about white crime follow just one week after the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan highlighted 46 illegal immigrants who have been arrested and charged with a range of crimes so far in 2025, from drug trafficking and illegal firearms possession to child pornography offenses.

The cases involve individuals from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela, including many who were previously deported, in the country illegally with prior convictions for human smuggling, drug trafficking, drunken driving, assault, and theft.