OAKLAND — Immigrants riding BART, regardless of their legal status, will now be able to breathe a little easier.

The agency’s governing board on Thursday approved a “Safe Transit” policy that closely mirrors the spirit of sanctuary city policies in the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, where police officers are directed not to expend resources enforcing federal immigration laws.

BART’s policy would also forbid employees, including its police officers, from questioning riders or other employees about their immigration status. The same is true for prospective vendors or new hires. And, it forbids BART employees from using someone’s immigration status to deny or threaten to deny benefits for employees or riders, or sharing information regarding a detainee’s custody status.

All of the provisions in the policy could be nullified if the state or federal government were to pass a law requiring such cooperation, or if BART was ordered to do so by a judge. Currently, it’s largely voluntary.

The board voted 8-1 to approve the policy, which was introduced earlier this year by directors Nicholas Josefowitz and Lateefah Simon. At the meeting, Simon emphasized the policy is primarily about improving safety on BART by focusing police officers’ attention on fighting crime, and employees’ efforts on operating the system, rather than enforcing federal immigration laws.

“It’s important as we move forward, and I don’t care who is president, to make sure the culture of this agency is that everyone who pays their ticket and gets on the train understands our responsibility is to get them there safely,” Simon said.

BART Director Debora Allen was the lone dissenter. She criticized what she described as inconsistencies in the policy and questioned whether it did anything to change what the agency already does. Currently, BART police are not allowed to stop patrons solely to determine their immigration status, but the officers’ manual does direct them to “assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.” In practice however, officers rarely, if ever, interact with federal immigration agents, Deputy Police Chief Jeff Jennings said at a February meeting.

“The resolution doesn’t really accomplish that much,” Allen said.

Nearly three dozen people spoke at the meeting, all but two of them supporting the proposal. Many said they are fearful riding BART as an undocumented immigrant, especially since what they described as racist and xenophobic language coming from President Donald Trump and other public officials.

In the wake of Trump’s inauguration and some of his public statements and executive orders surrounding immigration, many people are afraid, said Saira Hussain, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus.

“Since the election, my organization has been out in the community trying to quell the fear and panic and equip communities with information about their rights,” she said. “Families are afraid to send their kids to school or even leave their homes. The fear is palpable in our immigrant communities.”