A London city councillor is urging caution over plans to designate London a sanctuary city.

A public meeting to discuss the possibility was well-attended at the Goodwill Career Centre on Horton Street Thursday night.

Among those in attendance was Councillor Harold Usher, who told AM980 on Friday that he believes London has always acted like a sanctuary city.

“We only have to look at things like the Underground Railroad, the Syrian refugee crisis. I know that people are very compassionate,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We only have to look at things like the Underground Railroad, the Syrian refugee crisis. I know that people are very compassionate," he said.

“Unfortunately, we’re using some words there that some people don’t like. One of those words is ‘undocumented individuals’ and I think we’re going to have to find a way of clearing that up. And we may also have to find a way of letting people understand what we mean by ‘sanctuary city.'”

Usher says he himself has questions about the term “undocumented individuals.”

“If we’re talking about people who’re going to swim across the river and arrive here without going through the process, then I’m not for that. But if we’re talking about people who are going to arrive at the border and the officials are going to say, ‘OK, you’re going to have to stick around if you want refugee status or whatever status it is…’ You know, there are different scenarios.”

The idea to make London a sanctuary city was first put forward by Councillor Tanya Park last month in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal have all voted to become sanctuary cities while the mayor of Fredericton, New Brunswick said his city was considering it as well.

City staff will take recommendations from Thursday’s discussion and report back to the strategic priorities and policy committee at a later date.