Prairie Rose: Loss of Trust in Local Police; Unpaid Federal Force Multipliers

To the Editor:

Immigration efforts top lists for debate nationally and locally. Locally there are efforts to cease expansion of the Federal 287 G provision, calling for a separation of powers ordinance to clearly define roles of local law enforcement in regards to enforcement of immigration laws.
So what is the 287 G provision, why does it matter? Investigative researchers Judy Greene and Aarti Shahani compiled a 100 page Justice Strategies (JS) report, in February 2009, entitled: Local Democracy on ICE: Why State and Local Governments Have No Business in Federal Immigration Law Enforcement. JS report research details 287 G, a small provision in federal immigration law that in essence, empowers Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deputize local police to target immigrants for arrest without suspicion of crime. ICE has explained the 287 G provision as a public safety measure targeting “criminal illegal aliens,” but the largest impact has been on law-abiding immigrant communities through raids on employers suspected of hiring illegal immigrants, raids on homes of suspected illegal immigrants and routine traffic violations.
Research shows 61 percent of jurisdictions entered into 287 G agreements with Homeland Security have crime rates lower than the national average. Census data shows 87 percent of those jurisdictions are undergoing increasing Latino or persons of color populations, higher than the national average.
Being in the United States without proper documentation is a civil immigration violation, not a crime. Researchers compare the 287 G provision to the IRS. What if the IRS empowered local police to check tax records for persons stopped on traffic violations? If our jails filled up with people who possibly made a mistake on their tax filings, citizens would be outraged! Yet, under the 287 G provision, people are jailed when their civil immigration status is questioned. 287 G is the marriage of two separate systems of law enforcement power. Hence the movement to establish separations of powers ordinance. Once in place, the program greys areas between civil and criminal law, which ties up local courts and law enforcement resources.
Actions in Arizona however, are justifying trends across the United States to draw local law enforcement agencies away from duties to protect and serve our communities. The 287 G provision stretches local resources, that makes it hard to delineate whether the priority of police officers are to enforce immigration law or to keep our streets clean of all other crime.
Police Chiefs in Arizona have opposed the bill, saying that the bill offers no additional funding to train officers in how to judge “reasonable suspicion” or otherwise to enforce federal laws, as well as noting that if a person is held, they would be held at the cost of local agencies, leading to further impact police departments already lacking resources to do their basic job.
The Arizona law, as well as any expansion of the 287 G provision could nullify, or not equally apply Constitution protections against arrest without probable cause, indefinite detention, trial without counsel, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, as well as the statute of limitations, because of your suspected immigration status.
The federalization of our police is a major issue. Not only will it continue deterioration of community of color trust with law enforcement, but we retract duties of local law enforcement, especially county sheriffs, to interpose themselves between the federal government and people of their jurisdictions. It is poor tactic to use local law enforcement as force multipliers for the federal government.
We know there is an aggressive campaign to crackdown on immigrants, but civil immigration and criminal law are fundamentally incompatible. What’s going on in Arizona will wreak havoc in courts and overburden local criminal justice systems.
Our communities have defined our work ethic, celebrated our diversity, and created viable infrastructure because of immigrants who have been in no sense a danger to public safety. Plus there is no local agency in the tri-state area willing to serve as deputies of Homeland Security. To do so would further instill fear in the communities of color across our states and nation.
It is trust that enables the police to be an integral part of the community. Deterioration of that trust will result in diminished effectiveness.
Community members have come forward and have stated there is a severe deficiency in trust with local law enforcement and that is a real issue.  It is brave to come forward to dialogue with the police force. Community members need to continue to open the door for an opportunity to build trust.
It is up to us to work hard to bridge the gap between law enforcement, the immigrant community and community as a whole. Let the federal government worry about immigration policy, and let us continue to build towards an inclusive, progressive community.

-Prairie Rose
Fargo

The writer is Chair of the Fargo Human Relations Commission.