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Ice on Immigration: Migrants & Local Law Enforcement

By L. Patricia Ice, Featured Columnist

Question:  Are local police officers authorized to arrest migrants for immigration violations?

Answer:  Probably so.  Most law enforcement agencies believe that it is their duty to enforce all laws, federal, state and/or local.  City police departments have a long history of working with federal law enforcement agencies to address crimes committed in the United States whether committed by citizens or non-citizens.

In June 2006, the Major Cities Chiefs (MCC) Immigration Committee adopted a nine point position statement regarding enforcement of immigration laws by local police agencies.  The Major Cities Chiefs is an organization of 57 Chief Executive Officers of police departments located within a metropolitan area of more than 1.5 million population, and with a police department employing more than 1,000 police officers.  The MCC Immigration Committee members include the following law enforcement agencies: Houston Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Detroit Police Department, New York City Police Department, Seattle Police Department, Miami-Dade Police Department and El Paso Police Department.  The Immigration Committee recommended that the federal government should act to secure the national borders to prevent illegal entry into the United States.  Additionally, the Committee believes that the federal government should enforce existing immigration laws prohibiting employers from hiring undocumented migrants.  Furthermore, the Committee would like to see the development of a national initiative to involve local police agencies in decision making on whether to enforce immigration laws.  

One of the most important recommendations by the Committee, in my opinion, was that any federal initiative to involve local police agencies in the enforcement of immigration laws should be completely voluntary and the decision whether to enter this area of enforcement should be left to the local governments and not mandated or forced upon them by the federal government by threat of sanctions or the withholding of existing police assistance funding.  

To read the entire MCC Immigration Committee Recommendations go online to http://www.houstontx.gov/police/pdfs/mcc_position.pdf. (Requires free Adobe Reader)

In recent discussions with the Jackson Police Department, I learned that it does not have any established policy on law enforcement of immigration laws.  I am not familiar with the policies of other Mississippi police departments.  Despite the probably lack of formal policies, however, many Mississippi police officers are arresting undocumented migrants in Mississippi solely for immigration violations.