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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:02 pm
Time: 8:02 pm
Results for policing and immigration law
1 results foundAuthor: Police Executive Research Forum Title: Voices From Across the Country: Local Law Enforcement Officials Discuss The Challenges of Immigration Enforcement Summary: In recent years, local police and sheriffs’ departments increasingly have found themselves drawn into a debate about how to enforce federal immigration laws. In many jurisdictions, local law enforcement agencies are being pressured to take significantly larger roles in what has traditionally been considered a federal government responsibility, for the simple reason that the nation’s immigration laws are federal laws. The pressure on local police and sheriffs’ departments to become more involved in immigration enforcement is not a simple matter for them. Active involvement in immigration enforcement can divert local law enforcement agencies from their primary mission of investigating and preventing crime, and can make it difficult for local police to maintain close relationships with their communities. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) has been researching this issue since 2007, when it convened an executive session with police chiefs and sheriffs to identify the major challenges facing local law enforcement agencies. PERF has conducted other initiatives exploring the role of local law enforcement and public expectations about what that role should be, and the challenges confronting chiefs and agencies as they strike a balance among often-conflicting demands. To some extent, today’s immigration issues are the same controversies that were discussed five years ago at PERF’s first immigration conference: the extent to which illegal immigrants commit crimes in local communities, and the extent to which they are targeted for victimization; whether local immigration enforcement actions make immigrants less likely to report crimes; whether police should check the immigration status of minor offenders; and so on. However, many new issues have arisen since 2007, particularly in the area of the federal government’s initiatives to foster greater involvement of local law enforcement agencies in immigration enforcement. For example, the 287(g) program, which was implemented in 2002, allows local agencies to receive training from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency so that local police officers can perform immigration enforcement functions. In 2009, ICE reformed the program in order to provide greater accountability and oversight, and to increase the focus on immigrants who have violated criminal laws. The program currently is operational in 69 law enforcement agencies in 24 states, according to ICE. In an effort to impose greater consistency and accountability in cooperative efforts with state and local law enforcement, ICE in 2008 launched Secure Communities. This program allows ICE to obtain directly from the Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprints and other information about persons arrested at the local level, to determine whether they may be in the United States illegally and subject to immigration enforcement actions. Secure Communities has proved very controversial. While local and state law enforcement officials have expressed general support for the original intent of the program, many others have raised concerns that Secure Communities was promoted as an effort to deport illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes, but in practice has also resulted in deportations of traffic violators and other minor offenders, and thus has created mistrust of local law enforcement. PERF took a role in exploring these issues in June 2011, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) convened a Task Force on Secure Communities to examine the uncertainties and confusion that came to characterize the program. PERF President and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey served on this 14-member task force, along with three other PERF members, Las Vegas Sheriff Douglas Gillespie, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, and Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor; and PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler served as Chairman. The Task Force issued a report containing recommendations to clarify the purpose of Secure Communities and to modify some of its policies and procedures in response to concerns by state and local governments. The intensity of the immigration issue has not diminished over time, as evidenced by recent developments in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and other states and localities. Frustrated by Congress’s failure to pass comprehensive national immigration reform legislation, these states and municipalities have passed controversial laws that impose additional immigration-related responsibilities on state and local law enforcement agencies. The Obama Administration has challenged several of these laws in federal courts, arguing that the federal government has the Constitutional authority to regulate immigration, not the states. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the Constitutionality of Arizona’s law, in a case that could have implications for other states that have passed similar laws. So, while states and localities continue to pass laws that impose additional immigration-related responsibilities on state and local law enforcement agencies, and while DHS continues to rely on programs to foster cooperation between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies, the fact remains that immigration continues to be an unsettled issue that affects law enforcement agencies across the country. Details: Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2012. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2012 at: http://policeforum.org/library/immigration/VoicesfromAcrosstheCountryonImmigrationEnforcement.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://policeforum.org/library/immigration/VoicesfromAcrosstheCountryonImmigrationEnforcement.pdf Shelf Number: 125172 Keywords: Illegal AliensIllegal Immigration (U.S.)ImmigrantsLaw Enforcement and ImmigrationPolicing and Immigration Law |