Local, Federal Authorities at Odds over Detention Requests – TIME

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Last Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a press conference to announce that he didn’t want his city’s law-enforcement authorities to follow federal requests to hold some undocumented immigrants, treat picked up on other charges, for deportation. The national media’s ears perked up. Emanuel, a former Chief of Staff to President Obama, was at loggerheads with his old boss — good copy in the making. But on the same day, back in Washington, D.C., much bigger news was developing on the future of federal and local cooperation on immigration policy. John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told a House subcommittee that his efforts to persuade officials to honor any of ICE’s detention requests in the jurisdiction of Cook County, which includes Chicago, had hit a wall. “I won’t sugarcoat it,” he said. “I don’t think that approach is going to work in full.”

Se Communities: The Trust Act fix

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For nearly three years, the Obama administration has advertised the Se Communities program as a targeted enforcement tool that identifies “dangerous criminal aliens” for deportation. Over and over, federal officials have insisted that the program’s focus would be chiefly limited to those immigrants whose criminal convictions show that they pose a danger to public safety. But that’s not the case. In practice, Se Communities is a dragnet that fails to distinguish between felons convicted of serious crimes and nonviolent arrestees facing civil immigration violations. In California alone, more than half of the 75,000 people deported under the program since it began in 2009 had no criminal history or had only misdemeanor convictions.

Director de ICE defiende el polémico programa federal Comunidades Seguras

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El director de la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE), John Morton, defendió el martes al polémico programa federal Comunidades Seguras, pero se comprometió a continuar su ajuste para responder a las preocupaciones de agencias policiales. Morton, quien compareció ante el Comité de Seguridad Nacional de la Cámara de Representantes, reconoció que las declaraciones iniciales del ICE causaron “confusión” sobre la operación del programa y sobre quién debía participar.

California’s Trust Act shows need for immigration reform – LA Times

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For nearly three years, the Obama administration has advertised the Se Communities program as a targeted enforcement tool that identifies “dangerous criminal aliens” for deportation. Over and over, federal officials have insisted that the program’s focus would be chiefly limited to those immigrants whose criminal convictions show that they pose a danger to public safety. But that’s not the case. In practice, Se Communities is a dragnet that fails to distinguish between felons convicted of serious crimes and nonviolent arrestees facing civil immigration violations. In California alone, more than half of the 75,000 people deported under the program since it began in 2009 had no criminal history or had only misdemeanor convictions. Under the program, local law enforcement agencies are required to send the fingerprints of everyone booked into local jails to the FBI, which checks them against criminal databases….

Chicago, the Next Anti-Arizona – NYTimes

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago is the latest official to diverge from the Obama administration’s widening use of local police in deporting illegal immigrants. He is seeking an ordinance that would bar Chicago cops from turning immigrants over to federal authorities if they do not have serious criminal convictions or outstanding warrants. The Obama administration has been rolling out a nationwide program, stuff Se Communities, cheap to catch illegal immigrants through the wide screening of people who are arrested and get fingerprinted in local jails. This has led to many thousands of deportations—and fierce criticism that the feds are catching way too many non-criminals and minor offenders, while delegating too much power to local cops. The administration says it has been working harder to deport only the bad guys, by using greater “discretion” in whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains and prosecutes. Mr. Emanuel’s response to the feds: You do your job and we’ll do ours…

dc-trust

D.C. Passes Bill To Restrict Se Communities Immigration Enforcement Program

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dc-trustWASHINGTON — As groups around the country rally this week against the Se Communities immigration enforcement program, the District of Columbia approved its own measure on Tuesday to fight back.

In a unanimous vote, the D.C. Council approved a bill that will limit the ability of the federal government to enforce immigration laws by restricting the circumstances in which individuals can be held in the custody of local law enforcement at the request of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The nation’s capital joined a handful of cities across the country that are taking a stand against the spate of immigration enforcement measures seen in states like Arizona, where local police are now required to ask people who they suspect of being in the country illegally for their documents, during actions as routine as traffic stops.

Have Some Trust: California to Pass Anti-Arizona Immigration Bill

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California is taking a stand on immigration – and it doesn’t exactly jive with a recent ruling by the Supreme Court on the issue.  Last week, online the California State Senate passed the TRUST Act, a move that is in direct contrast to the high court decision upholding a controversial provision of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law requiring police to check the status of people they stop for another reason, if they suspect the person is undocumented.  This new bill, also being called the “Anti-Arizona” bill, would lower the number of deportations in the wake of the commission of minor crimes. The TRUST Act will now go to the California state assembly and will most likely pass. The law would mean that, contrary to what goes on now, evidence of against an immigrant could only be passed on to federal officials after a violent or serious felony.

Obama Policy on Illegal Immigrants Is Challenged by Chicago – NYTimes.com

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Just weeks after the Supreme Court largely reaffirmed the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement powers in its legal battle with Arizona, federal officials are facing a new, politically tricky clash with local authorities over immigration, this time in Chicago. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he would propose an ordinance that would bar police officers from turning over illegal immigrants to federal agents if the immigrants do not have serious criminal convictions or outstanding criminal warrants. In contrast to the Obama administration’s long-running confrontation with officials in Arizona, who are mostly Republicans, the latest challenge to the president’s immigration policies comes from Mr. Emanuel, his former chief of staff, and from other Democratic allies in President Obama’s hometown. “If you have no criminal record, being part of a community is not a problem for you,” Mr. Emanuel said, speaking at a high school library in Little Village…

Arpaio’s Legacy Hangs in the Balance

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When historians look back on Joe Arpaio’s legacy as Maricopa County sheriff, one thing they are likely to weigh heavily is the outcome of a 4 1/2-year-old racial-profiling lawsuit that will finally be heard in a federal courthouse in Phoenix this month.

The case alleges that the Sheriff’s Office engaged in institutional discrimination against Latinos when it embarked on what has become the defining mission of Arpaio’s 19-year tenure: immigration enforcement. Over the past six years, Arpaio has made it his hallmark, but his efforts have been met by accusations — by citizens, activists and the U.S. Justice Department — that his agency has engaged in racial profiling and discrimination.

The class-action suit marks the first opportunity for those claims to be put to a legal test. A U.S. district judge’s ruling in the matter will determine for the record whether it is possible for a local law-enforcement agency to serve as immigration cop without racially profiling.

California Senate passes ‘anti-Arizona’ bill to limit federal detainers on illegal immigrants

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The California Senate has passed a so-called “anti-Arizona” bill to prevent racial profiling by police and allow local law agencies to ignore federal requests to detain nonviolent illegal immigrants for deportation, a state lawmaker said. The proposal, called the California Trust Act, would be the first state law imposing “detainer reform,” though local governments in Illinois, Wisconsin and elsewhere have enacted similar measures, according to California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s office. No other states have legislation similar to what is now being considered in California, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The California bill would set standards that allow police not to respond to requests from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to detain an illegal immigrant — except in cases where the immigrant is a serious or violent convicted felon, Ammiano said in a fact sheet about his proposed bill. Ammiano is a Democrat from San Francisco.