Latest news with #Tuerk
Daily Mirror
26-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Famous doctor's warped excuse for strangling wife and dumping her in pond
A once-prominent doctor, Ingolf 'Harry' Tuerk, who has now been sentenced, said he'd been defending himself when he strangled his wife of five months, Kathleen McLean A surgeon who strangled his wife before throwing her away "like a bag of trash" has shared his excuse during sentencing, in an apology to the deceased. Back in April, Ingolf 'Harry' Tuerk, a once prominent doctor from Dover, Massachusetts, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Kathleen McLean. The court heard how Tuerk, who was sentenced to 12 to 16 years behind bars, strangled 45-year-old Kathleen and "disposed of her body in a pond and weighed her down with rocks". Testifying during his trial, Tuerk, 63, told the court that he hadn't intended to harm mum of three Kathleen, whom he'd married just five months before her death on May 15, 2020. CBS News reports that Tuerk confessed to putting his hands on Kathleen's neck but stated that he had been defending himself during a fight, in which he claimed she'd thrown a glass at him. Tuerk, the former head of urology at Boston's St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boston, testified: "I snapped, I kind of blacked out. I grabbed her. On the neck." Remarking that Tuerk had thrown Kathleen's body away "like a bag of trash", the judge said: "I can't imagine a human being's last moments on earth while being strangled by her husband, it's simply difficult to fathom." On the same day that Kathleen's body was recovered, with "injuries and bruising consistent with strangulation", Tuerk was found unresponsive in a Dedham hotel and taken to a nearby hospital. As reported by PEOPLE, the Commonwealth's sentencing memorandum shows that Tuerk married Reiki master Kathleen in December 2019, and the relationship 'quickly deteriorated". In February 2020, a restraining order was issued against Tuerk, who was asked to leave the marital home. Allegations of domestic violence were also made against the defendant, including claims that Tuerk allegedly beat and threatened Kathleen. Reconciliation attempts were made, and on May 14, the couple spent the evening together at home with Kathleen's three children, all of whom gave witness impact statements. As per Law & Crime, Kathleen's now 21-year-old daughter recalled the night of her mother's death, telling the court: 'Five years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, looked down the stairs, and saw Harry Tuerk. "I instantly knew something bad had happened. We made eye contact and since then I've been filled with a whole new level of fear I didn't know was quite possible.' Kathleen's sister, Beth Molanson, also paid tribute to a woman she remembers "as vibrant and full of life". She shared: "She always had a smile, she was calm, she had more patience than anyone I know, and most importantly, she was a mother to her three children, Sophie, Gracie and Sam. Everything she did in her life centred around her three babies." A specialist in the field of robotic and laparoscopic surgery for urinary obstruction, Tuerk earned some fame in his profession but was ultimately terminated from St. Elizabeth's Medical Centre after coming under investigation for inappropriately billing the Medicaid program, the Boston Herald reports. In a statement read aloud before the court, Tuerk apologised to Kathleen, as reported by Boston25News, saying: 'I'm sorry, Katie. Please forgive me for having reacted in such a way on May 15, 2020, that it caused the end of your life. I'm thinking about you every day. I wish I could make it all unhappen.' He also apologised to Kathleen's three children, continuing: 'I've been waiting for five years to be able to reach out to Katie's children. Please accept my condolences and apologies, Sophia, Grace, and Sam, for having taken your mom away from you. I can't even imagine the pain I've caused you.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
He Said He 'Snapped' — Now the Surgeon Who Strangled Wife and Dumped Body in Pond Learns Fate
Ingolf Tuerk was sentenced to 12 to 16 years in prison for the strangulation death of his wife Kathleen McLean Tuerk was convicted in April of voluntary manslaughter At sentencing, Tuerk apologized to McLean: 'I'm sorry, Katie. Please forgive me for having reacted in such a way on May 15, 2020, that it caused the end of your life,' he said. A once-prominent Massachusetts surgeon has been sentenced to 12 to 16 years in state prison for murdering his wife, whose body was found in a pond weighed down by rocks near their home in 2020. "I can't imagine a human being's last moments on earth while being strangled by her husband, it's simply difficult to fathom," a judge said during Ingolf Tuerk's Friday, May 16 sentencing, CBS News reported. Tuerk, 63, was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter on April 11 in connection with the death of 45-year-old Kathleen McLean, a mother of three. He was initially charged with murder. During his trial, Tuerk testified that he grabbed Kathleen's neck after she threw a glass at his head but said he didn't intend to harm his wife of five months. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. "I snapped, I kind of blacked out," he said, per CBS News. "I grabbed her. On the neck." After the killing, the former head of urology at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boston was later found unresponsive at a Residence in Dedham and was taken to a local hospital. According to the Commonwealth's sentencing memorandum obtained by PEOPLE, Tuerk, who went by Harry, married McLean, a reiki master who owned Birch Tree Energy and Healing in Sudbury, in December 2019 but the relationship 'quickly deteriorated.' A restraining order was issued against Tuerk to leave the couple's home in Feb. 2020. However, the couple attempted to reconcile and on May 14, they spent the evening together with her three children at their home. Later that night, per the sentencing memorandum, Tuerk strangled McLean after an argument and 'disposed of her body in a pond and weighed her down with rocks.' 'When her body was recovered, she was clothed only in yoga pants,' according to the sentencing memorandum. 'The defendant had placed two rocks in her pants, to weigh her down.' At one point he texted a friend: 'I am sorry brother But she is a vindictive devil, she played us all, I am really sorry brother, but she manipulated us all love you Harry.' The father of two rose to local fame as a doctor specializing in robotic and laparoscopic surgery for urinary obstruction at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, where he was head of urology. He was later terminated after being investigated for inappropriately billing the state's Medicaid program, court records show, according to the Boston Herald. During Friday's sentencing, in a victim's impact statement, McLean's son Sam Rocca told the court that the 'past five years have been the worst, loneliest years of my life," he said, per CBS News. "It's hard to have a childhood when you can't sleep, you're crying all the time and just everything feels like a lot and you have no mom to tell you, 'don't worry, it'll be OK.'" Tuerk also spoke out, apologizing to McLean. 'I'm sorry, Katie. Please forgive me for having reacted in such a way on May 15, 2020, that it caused the end of your life,' he read, per Boston25News. 'I'm thinking about you every day. I wish I could make it all unhappen.' He also apologized to McLean's children. 'I've been waiting for five years to be able to reach out to Katie's children,' Tuerk said, according to Boston25News. 'Please accept my condolences and apologies, Sophia, Grace, and Sam, for having taken your mom away from you. I can't even imagine the pain I've caused you.' If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mass. doctor sentenced for manslaughter in wife's 2020 killing
A Dover medical doctor who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing his wife inside their home in 2020 was sentenced to prison on Friday. Ingolf Tuerk was sentenced in Norfolk Superior Court to 12 to 16 years in prison on May 16 by Judge Mark A. Hallal. Tuerk faced a first-degree murder charge for killing his wife, Kathleen McLean, in May 2020. He admitted to doing so when he took the stand in his own defense and during a police interview the day after her death. Tuerk argued that he did not intend to kill McLean, and had been drunk fighting with her when he strangled her to death. He then put her body in a nearby pond with a pair of rocks in her pants to weigh her down. The 12-person jury in Tuerk's case returned its verdict in about 24 hours. Voluntary manslaughter is a lesser included offense of first-degree murder. During his closing argument, Tuerk's lawyers tried paint McLean as manipulative, as the couple was headed for divorce but had agreed to reconcile. The defense claimed McLean only agreed as a ploy to own Tuerk's home and money. But Elizabeth McLaughlin, an assistant district attorney for the Norfolk County District Attorney's office, revealed further about the pair's relationship. She noted that McLean obtained a restraining order against Tuerk in February 2020, not long after the couple married in Las Vegas the previous December. When Tuerk reached out to see if she would consider reconciliation, McLean was unsure, but wanted to make it work — she wanted stability for her three children. By May, the hope for reconciliation had ended when Tuerk killed McLean, a killing prosecutors said was 'motivated by greed.' After signing a post-nuptial agreement and adding McLean's name to the deed of his home, Tuerk became angry — he 'wanted to make sure she wasn't going to get his house,' McLaughlin said. 'Are you threatening me?': Video displays Worcester councilor's confrontation with police Worcester releases body cam footage of woman's arrest by ICE agents Parole granted to man once sentenced to die behind bars — but the board was divided Worcester to release body camera footage of police response to ICE arrest It was labeled and looked like Adderall. But thousands of pills were meth and caffeine Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
IDLES Teams Up With Guitar Giant Fender to Unveil New Player II Modified Line
Fender announced today that they're releasing a new update on their popular Player II guitar line called the Player II Modified. This new guitars take some of the immensely popular Player II models and add upgrades to them that many owners would do to their own guitars, like the addition of noiseless pickups, locking tuners and other upgraded hardware and electronics (such as treble bleeds, coil splits and brass block saddles). More from Spin: Janelle Monae, The Roots To Anchor Newport Jazz Festival Sophia Warren Doesn't Want You To Feel Alone Broke Records: An Independent Label Navigating Success in the Digital Age 'Pickups are undoubtedly one of, if not the most common mod,' says Jim Tuerk, Reverb's Director of Business Development and resident guitar expert. 'The hum of single coil pickups is a ubiquitous issue for a lot of guitarists — and Fender has had many variants of noiseless pickups — but noiseless pickups have typically not been standard on the low- and mid-priced lines. For a beginner or intermediate player, that's a big unlock with the Player II Modified line.' Tuerk also points out that entry- and mid-level guitars often come with underwhelming tuners — another welcome upgrade on Fender's Player II Modified line that will lead to newer guitarists spending more time playing and less time re-tuning. They're important upgrades to one of Fender's most popular and accessible lines, and one that many consider to be a direct replacement of the old 'Standard' series as the baseline for Made in Mexico (MIM) Fenders. 'The Player II effectively has replaced the MIM series for consumers looking for a basic Fender, as it effectively is the MIM models with updates and upgrades from what was being done in yesteryear with more colors and configurations,' Tuerk says. 'The Player II Series have been popular in the market, as you would expect for a mid-priced guitar with Fender on the headstock. The Player II Modified Series gives a great option for picking up a pretty cool instrument for the money. On Reverb, you'll find even more competitive prices within a month of launch on a gently used instrument. Fender's Certified Pre-Owned program will also have well-priced, like-new Player II Modified guitars in their store.' But rather than simply announcing the new collection, the massive musical instrument manufacturer teamed up with the Grammy-nominated rockers in IDLES to show off the new goods. Beyond just being a massive band, the connection also makes sense since IDLES is far from a traditional rock group — the perfect fit for guitars that go beyond normal expectations. SPIN sat down with IDLES guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan as well as vocalist Joe Talbot to discuss the new guitars, IDLES' recent Grammy nomination, and much more. SPIN: You've partnered with the guitar giants in Fender to unveil their new Fender Player II Modified line, what are some of the important upgrades you see with them? Mark Bowen: The big thing for me is just the durability of it all, and what makes a big difference for me is the saddles. For a long time, Fender has used these vintage kind of saddles. I play really heavy strings and I play really hard, and those saddles tend to buckle and break. (1:06) These ones are indestructible. Plus, they've got locking tuning heads. It's designed to be a constant, where you can throw whatever at it with your playing, and it's just going to take it. It's going to hold and stay, because it's for a player. Lee Kiernan: It's for actually going out and playing shows, not sitting at home or just sitting on a wall. You can actually use these properly. Joe Talbot: For legal purposes, I think we have to say that 'indestructible' is just a subjective adjective. And IDLES is obviously very much a guitar band, but it's not the simplest rock band out there. How do these guitars (and your other equipment) factor into the band's diverse sound? Bowen: We want to be a guitar band that doesn't sound like a guitar band. We aim high to sound like our influences. We want to sound like electronic music. We want to sound like hip-hop. So we need to have these tools that we can chuck into pedals and can become this transformative thing where you really focus on the sounds and be very creative with it. But we're also about having those moments where you pull it back and it becomes a guitar band again. It's not chaos pads in the middle of the guitar and all this wacky stuff that just doesn't sound like it's from Earth at any point. We want that human aspect of it. We create these very simple big blocks of sound, and it's very important that the nature of the player comes across. It's the characteristic of how we play those simple chords that make the difference. If it was just very simple and it was played simply, it wouldn't have that essence, that character, that personality. So it's all about being able to get that across as readily as possible, with a massive consideration for the live show. It's got to be something that has a visceral energy to it where you can see the expression of the players — where you can dig in and do all that stuff and you can see it, you can feel it. It's all these subtle nuances that need to be translated, from the source of the player, through the guitar, into all these million pedals, and then through our sound engineer in order to create this sound. Speaking of the live show, IDLES played a ton of gigs before officially releasing an album or anything. What went into building that live experience before nailing down the recorded side of things? Talbot: It's imperative for us as people, but I'm not saying it's imperative for anyone else. There's a million ways to skin a cat, but one of the things that made our band successful — before any outward monetary or audience success or that bullshit — was the combustion in the room of us together. It was about us understanding that and maneuvering it in a way where we all felt like we were speaking the same language. That didn't happen very often at first, but when it did, it was magic. Our old drummer — Jon Harper of the Cooper Temple Clause fame — told us we needed to get out there and play live. That's always my advice to people, no matter how terrible you are or how terrible you think you are. It's the most freeing and punishing experience. It's electric, and it makes you feel alive. It also makes you realize where you need to improve, because it's the deep end and you drown very quickly — and that's the best fucking feeling in the world. Bowen: It's instant feedback. You start to understand what it is about your identity as an artist and as a band that resonates with people and resonates with the audience. (6:33) And then you can hone that in and say 'How do we become even better at it? How do we become even more successful in that? How do we relay that in that heightened kind of mood?' A stage requires amplification of your personality and your intent as a band to convey it and to get that energy back from the audience. It's a huge learning curve. Talbot: I've been describing the songs recently as a mirror, and when you put up the mirror, the audience holds up a mirror to the song. The song is both of our mirrors, but we see completely different reflections. When you start writing songs and playing live, it starts as a frame. You're wearing other people's hats and trying new things. That's the beauty of it. There's nothing wrong with trying to be David Bowie or pretending to be hip-hop. That's the fun of it. When you're a kid, you put on costumes and you learn. Then, over time, you become fluent in your own shit. When you go out there and play, that instant feedback makes you realize the payoff comes from finding your own language in that mirror. It takes a long time for some of us, but not everyone. If you watch the Sugarcubes, Bjork was already Bjork back then. Some people just have that sense of vitality. Whereas I, as a frontperson, didn't. I was desperate to please, and I couldn't be myself fully in that moment of terror performing in front of eight drunk people. Bowen: I was reading an article with Ian Brodie of the Lightning Seeds — who's also a producer — and he said something really interesting that resonated with me. It was something like 'You have to find what the band thinks they sound like.' Because we'll be like 'Oh, this just sounds like the Stooges,' but it doesn't. It's IDLES playing the Stooges. It's IDLES thinking they sound like the Stooges. It's not the same. It has a different energy and a different feel. It has a different context that makes it just that thing. By playing live for as long as we had, we were able to piece together those things, like how we can wear our influences without being pastiche or without being them exactly. Talbot: I think that's just natural. It's not what our influences are, it's what we love. I am exactly what I am because of what I love and my traumas and what I dislike. Certain people lean on their dislikes more than others, whereas I just don't fucking listen to what I don't like. I want to celebrate what I love, and that's my language. It's not our influences as much as it is our passion. On a different note, what was it like to be nominated and attend the Grammys earlier this year? Bowen: It was great! It's one of those things that you don't aim for. You don't consider it when you're making the music. But it's like if someone says they like your band, that's an amazing thing — and being a part of the Grammys is someone just shouting really loudly 'Hey, this band's sick! So to get any kind of recognition from anyone is fantastic, and the more bums on seats we can get, the better. That's just more people we can try and convert to the IDLES train. It feels like IDLES has become one of the most successful rock bands in the world, but in a very organic way. Every year, it seems the band receives bigger audiences and more accolades instead of having one major hit and then coasting on that. Talbot: I think it's the healthiest way for us, but I think that depends on how strong you are. I can speak only for myself, but my emotional maturity's taken way longer than a normal person — maybe because of trauma or maybe that's just because of whatever else. But if I had a huge amount of success early on — and I mean monetary and attention — I would have been an egomaniac. I've always been insecure, but the grind is what I was passionate about with IDLES and it gave me a dedication and a sense of purpose. That purpose is why we're still here, because that's how we've learned. Let's not beat around the bush, a Grammy is basically two things: a platform boost and a dopamine boost. There's only one of those I need, because I get enough dopamine just living a privileged life. I'll always take the platform boost, but I would have been a fucking horrible cunt if it'd had that kind of real immediate elevation. It's just not healthy for people with fragile egos, which is definitely what I've come up from. This trajectory also allowed us to learn our language as an artist slower and not be pushed and pulled around by temptations, needs from labels, audiences, the growth of that. It's a different organism, and I think that's earned us a very loyal fan base that's grown with us. We have a sense of being carried, which keeps us humble. But why wouldn't we be humble? We're fucking terrible at our instruments and we look like shit. Kiernan: I think it's been a very healthy process for all of us as people, as friends, and as a musical group together. With us spending all this time together, we've learned so much about each other. We know how much time we need to spend with each other and how much time we need to give each other as well. It's provided some of the most beautiful moments we've ever had and some of the most hellish situations whilst on tour. We would never have gone through any of them or experienced them together if we didn't do the grind. Talbot: People complain all the time about shit that is insane in this industry. They're turning up late for their own shows, and complaining about this and complaining about that, whereas we slept in a van under bin liners in minus-whatever degrees, and were happy about it. We enjoyed the experience, because we had five more people at that show than we did the night before. That sense of gratification comes from your own determination, and I think that's a really healthy thing. You have to be uncomfortable to understand how beautiful comfort is. Bowen: And you can't question each other's commitment to the craft. Everyone has put everything into this, even when it didn't look like we were going to get anything back from it. We were getting what we needed at every point. And stylistically, you're a pretty far cry from a lot of the poppier rock bands that have seen as much success as IDLES has. Bowen: That's unquestionable for us. Our success and how big our band is and the rooms that we fill and the awards, blah blah blah — none of that is even remotely a consideration at any point. It comes as a big surprise to us, because while our intention isn't to make difficult music, we appreciate that it's not necessarily middle-of-the-road or accessible. But it's real. Talbot: It's an amalgamation of all that we love. Today, I've listened to Eric Dolphy and Bob Seger, and I want all of that in our album. That's just part of what I'm into, and I think you can grow yourself as a person and a musician opening up to fucking sick music. But that's not to say the middle-of-the-road stuff is always bad. We would always argue the case for Coldplay early on in our career because it's just an easy band to fucking berate in the UK because the UK hates success. They hate people that are seemingly nice and kind because we're distrusting due to a crippling class system and fucking tirade of bullshit from the British Empire. But why pretend to not like Parachutes? That's fucking insane. It's an incredible album. In 50 years, people will be treating it like people do the Beatles now. No one dislikes the Beatles, or at least they can appreciate how important they are. The UK has that sense of cutting down the tallest poppy, whereas we always just try to celebrate whatever it is we love. But normally we have a collective dislike for stuff that has the intention of fame or money. You've hit a lot of accomplishments in your career, but what else is left for IDLES to do? Talbot: We just want to maintain a healthy career built around dedication and love for the music we have written. That's it. Whatever comes with that is great. The worst thing you can do — to quote Tom DeLonge — is stay together for the kids. We've got to stay in this because we love it. and we do. Bowen: I just want to be excited about every album we make and every show we do. So whatever needs to happen to make that happen, that's what I want. To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Allentown adopts policy of non-collaboration with ICE as part of welcoming city movement
A view of the skyline in Allentown, Pa. (Getty Images) Eleven years ago Allentown was at the center of a federal court ruling that put local governments on notice that they could face legal jeopardy for collaborating with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania's third-largest city formally adopted a policy that bars police and other city employees from supporting or assisting ICE and other immigration officials unless ordered by a federal judge. In unanimously approving the ordinance, Allentown joins Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania communities on the path to becoming a 'Welcoming City' and part of a growing movement across the country to make local government more accessible to immigrant residents. 'It makes it so that people who are living here undocumented in Allentown and are not committing crimes can live without fear of themselves and their family members being rounded up,' Allentown council member Ce-Ce Gerlach, who sponsored the legislation, told the Capital-Star. Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, is the state's largest city with a majority non-white population. More than half of the city's roughly 125,000 residents have Hispanic or Latino heritage and one-fifth of the city's roughly 125,000 residents are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With President Donald Trump's campaign promises to conduct mass deportations and news of ICE raids indiscriminately taking in immigrants regardless of criminal history or status in cities across the nation, Allentown's residents are on edge, Gerlach said. At the start of Wednesday's council meeting, however, Gerlach's bill was 'doomed to fail' she said, with Mayor Matt Tuerk and several council members in opposition. After more than two hours of testimony and a compromise amendment, the bill passed. One councilmember told Gerlach he was moved by testimony that children in the community were living in fear as a result of the politics surrounding Trump's immigration policies. Tuerk said he opposed the ordinance even though he embraced its intent. He told the Capital-Star his primary objection was that Gerlach's bill would have tied the city's internal policies to the mission of a nonprofit organization called Welcoming America, which advances policies to help cities become 'more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs.' In addition to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Erie, Lancaster, State College, the Allegheny County borough of Dormont, and Allegheny County have received certification from the group. Gerlach said leaders from neighboring Bethlehem and nearby Easton have started movements to pass similar legislation since Gerlach introduced her proposal in December. Tuerk said he dropped his opposition to Gerlach's proposal after it was amended to make seeking Welcoming America certification optional rather than mandatory. 'I had already begun the process of establishing certification for the city of Allentown with Welcoming America, but I didn't want it to become a matter of policy through an ordinance,' Tuerk said. The ordinance doesn't change the city's practices, Tuerk said, noting that Allentown police do not collaborate with ICE. Allentown and Lehigh County were defendants in a lawsuit filed in 2010 by a New Jersey-born man of Puerto Rican descent who was arrested in a drug raid on the jobsite where he was working. Despite telling police and Lehigh County jail staff that he was an American citizen, Ernesto Galarza was held for a weekend under an immigration detainer issued by ICE. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania sued the county and city on Galarza's behalf and won a decision from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that immigration detainers issued by ICE are non-binding requests and that local agencies may share liability if they participate in wrongful immigration detentions. He settled his claims against Lehigh County and Allentown for about $150,000. (Galarza was also acquitted on the drug charge, but the episode dogged him for years as a result of an error by court officials.) The appeals court ruling led Lehigh County and many others across the state and country to change how they handled requests from ICE, with many adopting a practice of notifying the federal agency only when a person was being released from custody. Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, said that since her organization and the ACLU collaborated with Temple University's Sheller Center for Social Justice to survey Pennsylvania county jails and local police in 2018, policies have shifted back toward cooperation with ICE in some places while others are phasing out their agreements. Only Clinton and Pike counties still have agreements with ICE to house detainees in their jails, while Clearfield County has a contract with ICE to operate a former federal prison as an immigrant detention center. The county pays the for-profit prison operator GEO Group to run the Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Community organizer Josie Lopez said Allentown's ordinance benefits the city in several ways. Financially, it protects the city from future legal costs and verdicts under the Galarza ruling and it ensures that city funds are directed to achieving the city's objectives of reducing and solving crime, rather than the federal government's objectives. It also codifies the policy against police collaboration with ICE. That helps members of the community whose immigration status is unauthorized or uncertain trust that they can report crime without endangering themselves. 'The vulnerable communities that exist within all of this become more vulnerable when they live in fear and the people that are actually violent prey on that fear,' Lopez said. Welcoming America certification also requires that cities have other policies in place beyond the law enforcement element. Cities must show that their services are accessible in languages used by the immigrant population and that immigrants are able to engage with the community in other respects. The results include families who are more resilient and financially stable and communities that are more prosperous and use fewer municipal resources as a result, Rivera said. 'Having good policies on the books is a good first step, but how you are implementing them, how you're putting them into practice … that's what people can see and touch and feel,' Rivera said.
