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Local Police Stepping Up Involvement in Immigration Mattters

The AP reports that local police in many states increasingly are becoming involved in enforcement of immigration laws, an area traditionally left to the feds.

Frustrated by illegal immigrant criminals who slip their grasp, a growing number of state and county police agencies nationwide are moving to join a federal program that enlists local officers to enforce immigration laws. The federal government has already granted that authority in Florida and Alabama, and the program is under consideration in Connecticut, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

It's also in the works in Southern California - one of the nation's most ethnically diverse regions - where it would reverse a long-standing local police policy of avoiding questions about immigration status during criminal investigations.

This is bad policy.

Immigrant rights groups insist the move will discourage people from reporting domestic violence or other crimes for fear of deportation, and that it would lead to racial profiling and other abuses. "We're 100 percent against it," said Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County. "It will have a chilling effect on our community."

There's a lot more reasons this is a lousy idea, as I set out here back in 2003 when some Republican congresspersons introduced the CLEAR Act (H.R. 2671.)

It will result in

  • increased racial profiling
  • reduced reporting of crime for fear of being asked questions that could lead to deportation
  • reduced protection for victims of domestic violence.

The ACLU has more.

These combined measures will ensure that more immigrants will avoid contact with local law enforcement, putting entire communities at risk. For instance, immigrant victims of crime will hesitate to report the crimes to the police if they fear adverse immigration consequences from their contact with the officials. Even now, criminals often target immigrants for victimization because they know immigrants are reluctant to report the crimes. Meanwhile, the perpetrators go undetected and continue their criminal activities. Moreover, under these proposed CLEAR Act provisions, immigrants who could offer useful information to security investigators will be even less inclined to come forward, for fear of personal immigration consequences. In other words, the CLEAR Act ignores the benefits of community policing in favor of a "police state" for immigrants, a shift that will jeopardize the safety of us all.

The CLEAR Act also changes the priorities of law enforcement agencies throughout the government. It undermines public safety at the local level by shifting the focus of law enforcement officials away from fighting crime and towards enforcing federal immigration law. At the national level, the Act forces the federal immigration system to treat all immigration law violators as if they had committed criminal offenses. With millions of immigrants in the United States but likely only a handful of terrorists, it doesn't make sense for law enforcement efforts to be diverted and diffused in this way.

...Undoubtedly, one of the great challenges we face as a nation in the post September 11 era is achieving a balance between security and liberty. The CLEAR Act does not help us achieve that balance. It is the latest in a series of measures directed against immigrants by anti-immigration forces who are exploiting the tragedy of September 11 to advance their own agenda. Their actions dishonor the memory of the many immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens, who perished in those attacks.

The Clear Act has not passed Congress. Proponents tried to attach it to other bills, but that failed. Keep an eye out for any return. Here's an action page to learn more.

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  • Longstanding police policy in S. Cal because it is in fact longstanding PUBLIC policy as well. We don't have an 'illegal immigration problem' in S. Cal. We have migrant labor, and immigrant labor, and the sooner the INS grants papers to those persons supporting our economy, the better. I would happily trade 100 'illegals' for 1 Riverside racist. I have never met a Mexican I didn't like, but I've met a LOT of racists, and didn't like any of them.

    Isn't it nice that peoples' state tax dollars will be paying state officers to do something, namely abuse immigrants in the name of the law, that those same peoples' federal tax dollars are already paying for someone to do for them? Double-taxation with a kick to the groin? What a great idea this is...

    This is just another convenient excuse to "federalize" local police departments across the US. I thought the "illegal" migrant and immigrant laborors (sp) were going to be granted papers by the Bush administration??

    Meanwhile, here in Oregon we've had a state law on the books since the 80s which prohibits state and local law enforcement personnel from targetting people whose only crime is violating Federal immigration laws. The refusal of the Federal government to grant proper access to Portland officials so that they can ensure that Portland police officers assigned to the local Joint Terrorism Task Force are not violating that law (as well as another one, which prohibits targetting people for their religious or political beliefs) is precisely why we're about to become the first city in the country to withdraw from a JTTF.

    All of what has been happening over the last 30 years with immigrantion is a joke, and domestic violence is normal place in all cases. but both sides of that question is all about money and nothing else but that.

    Illegal is illegal. Ship them all back and then the feds need to get off their asses and work out a guest worker program.

    And still TL is utterly baffled by the "illegal" part of "illegal immigrant" Why do you suppose local cops are doing this? It might be related to the fact that the INS isn't doing it - partly because people like you whine and seethe whenever they start actually doing it (last year's raids come to mind).

    The reason many local jurisdictions give for not participating in the enforcement of Federal immigration law is that it tends to have a chilling effect upon those communities when it comes to those local police needing to get information relating to the kinds of crimes they are most concerned with on the local level. Drafting local cops into being immigration cops have a negative effect upon the local cops doing their local job.

    "I have never met a Mexican I didn't like, but I've met a LOT of racists, and didn't like any of them." Paul, the newspeak term is "True American", not "racist". Don't make me send you to the Ministry of Frist.

    PIL - I am LOL. Here you are blaming Bush for something that Clinton got started.

    Massive illegal immigration is something that both sides of the spectrum are ok with. Call for restrictions and the left calls you a racist, while the right hides. The left thinks that a sea of illegals will result in reliable votes for the Democratic party, while the right thinks that it will provide an ongoing sea of cheap labor (allegedly helping big business). The upshot is that neither end of the spectrum objects, and anyone who does gets tarred as a racist by all and sundry.

    Re: Local Police Stepping Up Involvement in Immigr (none / 0) (#13)
    by kdog on Mon Apr 25, 2005 at 09:39:41 AM EST
    This is just another convenient excuse to "federalize" local police departments across the US.
    Very true, and very frightening.

    I doubt whether "Paul in LA" is really from the City of Los Angeles. Perhaps he should take a stroll around, say, Pico-Union at midnight. The cops know who the dangerous gang members are, and they know if they've been deported. But, they can't touch them until they commit another crime. TL thinks that someone who's been deported because they committed a violent crime should be allowed to come back and we shouldn't do anything until they commit another crime. See The Immigrant Gang Plague, "Immigration Laws Might Have Stopped Sept. 11 Plot", and "'Sanctuary' practice in Houston draws fire". As for the ACLU, they've been discredited in immigration matters.

    Posted by Jim: "I am LOL. Here you are blaming Bush for something that Clinton got started." No, actually Jim, I'm blaming Bush for something Bush is doing. Something that completely invalidates the famous and patented R-Racist Immigrant Scare modality. Pico-Union? Some of my best friends live over there. Far more worrisome are the Korean street gangs, which didn't come across the Mexican border anyhow, but you'll get around to the REAL threats eventually, right? Like all that money Bush has spent protecting the two of the largest container ports.in the world? Near-zero. It's an idiot, doing nothing, for no one, except a few rich *ssholes. But thanks for playing, wacko.