Major Cities Police Chiefs Association on State and Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws

The chiefs of police of America's major cities recently issued a statement outlining 5 concerns about state and local law enforcement of immigration laws not being addressed in current policy discussions and recommended nine points that the President and Congress address in formulating immigration policy.

The five concerns about current policy under consideration are:

1. It undermines the trust and cooperation with immigrant
communities which are essential elements of community oriented
policing.
2. Local agencies do not possess adequate resources to enforce these laws in addition to the added responsibility of homeland security.
3. Immigration laws are very complex and the training required to understand them would significantly detract from the core mission of the local police to create safe communities.
4. Local police do not posses clear authority to enforce the civil aspects of these laws. If given the authority the federal government does not have the capacity to handle the volume of immigration violations that currently exist.
5. The lack of clear authority increases the risk of civil liability for local police and government.

The 9 recommendations are:

1. Securing the borders must be a top priority.
2. Enforcement of the laws prohibiting the hiring of illegal immigrants.
3. Consulting and involving local police agencies when developing any immigration initiative is imperative if the initiative is to involve local agencies.
4. Federal law must not mandate local enforcement of federal law - all law enforcement initiatives must be completely voluntary.
5. There should be no reduction or shifting of current federal funding for state and local programs to pay for new immigration enforcement activities.
6. Any initiative involving local police agencies should be incentive
based.
7. The authority and limitation of liability for local law enforcement
officers and police agencies must be clear.
8. Civil immigration detainers must be removed from the NCIC system.
9. MCC members are united in their commitment to continue arresting anyone who violates the criminal laws of their jurisdictions regardless of the immigration status of the perpetrator.

The chiefs conclude:

Most local police agencies have adopted policies of not inquiring about immigration status of individuals that are reporting crimes or in other encounters unless the person is suspected of committing a crime. Those policies have developed over the past 25 years because of law enforcement’s commitment to provide protection to everyone within their jurisdiction and more recently because of state and federal laws prohibiting racial profiling. In addition, the federal government does not have the capacity to deal with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US today. As Congress and the President wrestle with these difficult issues it is important that national policy reflect a clear understanding of the enormous challenges that local police face in dealing with illegal immigration.