Research conducted for police officials from the largest city, county and state law enforcement agencies around the country shows that local police chiefs have increasingly become drawn into the controversy over how to enforce federal immigration laws.
[field name=”report”]The new report (right) by the Police Executive Research Forum was the result of case studies in six locations: Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz.; Prince William County, Va.; New Haven, Conn.; Minneapolis; and Montgomery County, Md.
Previous research by PERF found many local police chiefs feel frustrated with the way immigration policies and laws are affecting local law enforcement.
In fact, the police officials gathered to review the recent report and issued recommendations to the Obama administration and Congress, chief among them that immigration reform needs to happen now and a strong consensus that because immigration laws are federal laws.
“New legislation should include provisions regarding guest workers, provision of permanent legal status, and employer and family-based visa systems,” the recommendations said.
Because past efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform have failed, local police in some jurisdictions “have stepped into the breach,” PERF said.
“For many police chiefs, the immigration issue has been a defining moment,” said PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler. “They have had to navigate wisely between two very vocal factions. For the chiefs profiled in our report, the guiding principle has been that the police must maintain the confidence of all community members, that nobody should be afraid to contact the police. These chiefs have taken a difficult issue and turned it into an opportunity to reassure the community of their strong commitment to effective and impartial policing. In the process, the police have become the public face of good government, common sense, and rationality.”
While the chiefs’ recommendation is a worthy one, it is unlikely to be listened it.
The House passed an immigration reform bill in 2005. The Senate passed its version in 2006. But the two chambers couldn’t reconcile the differences and the effort died, despite the support of President George W. Bush.
After he became president, Barack Obama signaled that he was ready to renew the push for immigration reform, but political pressure and his greater interest in pushing through health care reform put immigration on the backburner. And that’s where it’s likely to stay until after the 2012 election.
In 2006, the U.S House of Representatives passed the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, and in 2006 the U.S. Senate passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. Neither bill became law because their differences could not be reconciled in conference committee.[4] The legislative negotiations and national activism behind immigration reform from 2001-2007 is the subject of 12-part documentary film series How Democracy Works Now.
In 2009 the immigration reform became a hot topic, since the Barack Obama administration recently signaled interest in beginning a discussion on comprehensive immigration reform before year’s end
