Interior Enforcement
Utah Police Say “Local Agencies Can’t Solve the Immigration Problem”
Salt Lake City's local NBC channel reports that many residents are up in arms about a new state immigration law (SB 81) that would allow police to question individuals' legal status, among other stringent requirements on everyone from employers to landlords. The Salt Lake Police Department's Chief Burbank has been opposed to the immigration bill from the beginning and, according to some sources, has said he will not participate in its enforcement. There have been growing national concerns about the involvement of local police in the enforcement of immigration law. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for civil rights infractions associated with his police department's partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Burbank is justifiably cautious in his opposition to enforcing a law that he believes requires law enforcement to racially profile individuals to determine whether they are undocumented or not. Read More
Rev. Al Sharpton Demands Sheriff Arpaio’s Resignation
In an act of solidarity with the immigrant community, National Action Network’s Reverend Al Sharpton and ACORN's Chief Organizer and CEO, Bertha Lewis called for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s resignation and an end to racial profiling on a national media call today. Never one to miss the national spotlight, Sheriff Arpaio is currently the focus of a Department of Justice investigation for abuses of the 287(g) program, “alleged patterns of discriminatory police practices, and discrimination based on a person’s national origin.” Rev. Al Sharpton charged Sheriff Arpaio with egregious civil and human rights violations: I am calling for an end to the civil and human rights violations being committed in Maricopa County, the termination of the 287(g) program through which local agencies can enforce Federal immigration laws, and the immediate resignation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The egregious nature of Arpaio’s abuses, marking him as the Bull Connor of the 21st Century, demands nothing less. Read More
House Hearing Shows 287(g) “Sets Police Profession Back to 1950’s”
In response to evidence piling up suggesting that the 287(g) program is experiencing an array of problems, the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law and the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties held a hearing today to learn more about the program's alarming effects. Members of the Subcommittees heard testimony from Julio Cesar Mora, a 19 year old native-born US citizen who told of how he and his father (who has had his green card since 1976) were stopped in their car on the way to work, patted down, handcuffed and taken to a place where many workers were being held by officers in black uniform and ski masks. After several hours Julio and his father were released after proving their legal immigration status. Mora said: Read More
Maricopa County Halts Sheriff Arpaio’s Immigration Funds
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona has voted to postpone the acceptance of $1.6 million from the state to help pay for County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s controversial immigration enforcement tactics. Observers said the decision could signal that the board is concerned by federal inquires into… Read More
LIVE: Joint Hearing on Local Immigration Enforcement
In response to a growing array of alleged civil rights infractions and incidences of racial profiling associated with the the 287(g) program, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law and the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties are holding a hearing investigating… Read More
Moving Beyond the Failed Immigration-Enforcement Legacy of the Bush Era
A new report from America's Voice highlights both the immense challenge and enormous opportunity confronting the Obama administration as it devises a new approach to immigration enforcement that moves beyond the failures of the Bush era. As the report describes, Bush attempted to burnish his immigration-enforcement bona fides by "getting tough" on undocumented workers rather than the employers who exploit them. While families and communities were torn apart through worksite raids, most of the employers who willfully violated both labor and immigration laws for the sake of higher profits walked away with the corporate equivalent of parking tickets. Moreover, while federal agents and specially deputized state and local police officers chased down run-of-the-mill undocumented immigrants, scarce law-enforcement resources were diverted away from the pursuit and prosecution of violent criminals. Read More
A Comprehensive Solution to Order on the Border
As the national spotlight turns toward U.S. border activity, local border town police face a difficult challenge in balancing their role as both police officers and immigration officers within a broken immigration system. In a recent Washington Post editorial, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris asserts that focusing his attention on real criminals rather than economic migrants has not only lowered the city’s crime rate, it has also enabled police to maintain a closer relationship with the communities they serve. For Harris, who likened border enforcement to bailing an ocean with a thimble, "the answer is not in Phoenix. The answer is in Washington." Don’t give me 50 more officers to deal with the symptoms. Rather, give me comprehensive immigration reform that controls the borders, provides for whatever seasonal immigration the nation wants, and one way or another settles the status of the 12 million who are here illegally — 55 percent of whom have been here at least eight years. For those whose profession it is, law enforcement sometimes seems like bailing an ocean with a thimble. Read More
Secure Communities and 287g: A Tale of Two Counties
Due to its growing immigrant population and local responses to demographic changes, Northern Virginia has become a hot spot in the national immigration debate. A growing participation in the Secure Communities Program suggests that Virginia isn't going to cool down until immigration enforcement is back in the federal government's hands. While Prince William County is known nationwide for its attempts to crack down on undocumented immigration -- Fairfax County, on the other hand, has always been associated with a welcoming attitude toward its immigrant population. Read More
A Taste of Real American Justice for Sheriff Arpaio
Even immigration hardliners have to shake their heads at Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose anti-immigrant publicity stunts have angered countless across the nation. The Arizona Sheriff's latest immigrant exploit, which reads like something out of a super villain's Do It Yourself manual, involved rounding up immigrant detainees, shackling them and forcing them to march to a segregated tent city surrounded by an electric fence-something even Lex Luthor might think twice about. Read More
Congress Should Leave Community Policing to the Police
Over the last several years, Members of Congress who oppose comprehensive immigration reform have cast themselves as the law-and-order crowd, and mostly gotten away with it. But they went too far when they set their sights on attacking state and local police. By trying to punish local law enforcement agencies that refuse to put the deportation of undocumented workers before the arrest and prosecution of dangerous criminals, they're exposing what really motivates their policy proposals: concern over dishwashers and day laborers, not the safety of American communities. Read More
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