In the United States, academic research on local polices for international migration remains predominantly descriptive, methodologically localist, and focused on anti-immigrant policies. By contrast, this study offers a relational perspective on local immigration policy, arguing that a convergence of efforts by local governments and by immigrant communities at upward social mobility favors the emergence of inclusionary local immigration policies. This effect is facilitated by the predominance of Democratic partisanship and the presence of a bifurcated ethnic composition in localities. This theory is developed through a strategic narrative of the immigration policies of Baltimore City in the context of the U.S. rustbelt. Covering the period from the late 1970s to 2015, the narrative is based on information from official documents, news articles, academic literature, and official statistics.