Memo: Local Police Can Enforce Immigration Laws

CBS 2 ^ | Sep 7, 2005 8:15 am US/Eastern | AP

[11th_VA]

(AP) NEW YORK The Department of Justice believes that state and local police have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. That’s according to a government memo released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU said the Justice Department opinion makes the unprecedented legal argument that state and local law enforcement officers can arrest anyone who violates a federal law.

A Justice Department spokesman had no immediate comment.

A coalition of civil and immigrants’ rights groups received the 2002 memo under court order in July after suing to force the Justice Department to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and his staff had used the memo to justify a decision to let local police arrest people after encounters if they were found to have committed civil immigration violations, such as overstaying a visa.

The ACLU said the memo stretched the definition of local police officers roles so far that it could be used to justify giving them the right to enforce the U.S. tax code, environmental rules and other federal laws.

The group called the result “simply absurd,” in a statement released with a copy of the memo.

The 2002 opinion reversed a 1996 letter of advice from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which said that state and local police could enforce only criminal immigration violations such as sneaking across a border.

[Semper Vigilantis]

Put a bounty on 'em.

[TheForceOfOne]

$10 a head?

10 x 10,000,000 = oh my God! lol

Someone's gonna get rich!

[gubamyster]

ping

[inquest]

This is all smoke and mirrors. Sure, local authorities can "enforce" federal immigration law - by calling the INS saying they have an illegal, and then letting the illegal go when the INS says its too busy to do anything with him. What states need (and don't have - see the recent case out of New Hampshire) is the power to take corrective action and set penalties on their own. Congress still refuses to give them this, and there's absolutely no excuse for that whatsoever.

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Support our Minutemen Patriots!

Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Support our Minutemen Patriots!

Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!

[afnamvet]

Would you report the company you work for if you knew it would result in the company going out of business or moving over seas?

If it employed Illegal aliens, in a heartbeat.

[SwinneySwitch]

Is this your state party, pro-illegal?

2004 TEXAS STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM

Restoring American Sovereignty and Leadership

Domestic

Border Protection - The Party believes that Congress should adequately staff and fund the United States Border Patrol to protect our borders and our Border Patrol personnel. The Party urges the President to deploy our military forces if needed to secure our international borders, and that the United States Border Patrol be deployed within the U.S. to locate and secure all illegal aliens who have previously entered our country and expedite their return to their source country.

[rhema]

[Czar]

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer.

The quislings never respond to the hard questions.