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For Immediate Release
Alarming Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement Trigger Congressional Hearing
IPC Lauds House of Representatives' Inquiry into 287(g) Program
April 1, 2009
Washington, DC - Tomorrow, two House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittees will be holding a joint hearing on the 287(g) program at 10 a.m. in the Rayburn House Building, Room 2141. The following is a statement by Angela Kelley, Director of the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) in Washington, DC.
"The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) applauds Chairman Conyers, Chairwoman Lofgren, and Chairman Nadler for bringing desperately needed attention to the problematic and controversial 287(g) program.
The 287(g) program - in which local law enforcement establishes a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that allows them to enforce immigration laws locally - has grown over the last several years. Yet, as recent reports by Justice Strategies and the University of North Carolina and the ACLU point out, a growing array of alleged civil rights infractions and incidences of racial profiling have come with the program's expansion.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) took a look at the program and found that ICE provides little guidance and oversight of the program, and inconsistently articulates the objectives of the 287(g) program and the authority it grants to local law enforcement. While the 287(g) program is intended to target violent criminals and threats to the community, police have allegedly engaged in racial profiling and used their authority to arrest immigrants with no criminal records - clogging local jails and taking resources away from finding dangerous criminals. Meanwhile, trust between the police and communities is eroding, and in several cases, U.S. citizens have been detained - and even deported.
Americans need police to protect communities not check papers. Rather than loading local police with federal responsibilities, Washington needs to enact immigration reform that secures our borders, legalizes undocumented workers, and re-establishes a coordinated intergovernmental immigration strategy so that local law enforcement can focus its attention on real criminals rather than economic migrants. State governments have spent the past few years jerry-rigging the immigration system locally - the time has come for leaders in Washington to address the problems with our immigration system fairly and comprehensively."
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