RECIPE FOR FAILURE: LOCAL COPS AS IMMIGRATION AGENTS

GAO Report Adds To Bevy of Analysis Revealing Deficiencies of 287(g) Program

Washington D.C. - Today the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its congressionally commissioned report on the 287(g) program. The Government's review of this program, which deputizes local law-enforcement officers to act as immigration enforcement agents, confirms what community members and criminal-justice experts have been saying for some time: the program is not being used to target dangerous criminals, and there has not been adequate federal oversight of the local police departments participating in the program.

Findings of GAO Report:

The GAO report found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not clearly articulated the objectives of the 287(g) program or the guidelines that participating police departments must follow, thereby creating confusion and mismanagement. Furthermore, ICE has not demonstrated effective oversight of the 67 partnership agreements and 950 officers who have been trained, potentially resulting in "misuse of authority." Finally, participating police agencies have not consistently documented their activities, making it impossible to measure the success or failure of the program, or to justify the high costs associated with it.

Statement by Angela Kelley, Director of the Immigration Policy Center:

"The GAO report is sounding an alarm we're confident the Homeland Security Secretary will hear. The report echoes the conclusions reached by others who have studied local law enforcement of immigration laws. The costs of these policies are enormous to communities' safety, civil rights, and pocketbooks. As Secretary Napolitano and her staff begin their review of immigration enforcement tactics, we urge them to consider the totality of evidence coming from the community and acknowledge the full scope of the problems presented by 287(g). We are confident that this administration will find a new way forward and advance policies that restore the rule of law and respect civil rights."

Other 287(g) Research and Information:

Two other recently released reports examine the community impact of these ICE-local partnerships and provide detailed analyses of the mistakes, racial profiling, and fear resulting from inept implementation of a program which was designed to target criminals, but has instead been used to target the Latino community as a whole:

• Local Democracy on ICE: Why State and Local Governments Have No Business in Federal Immigration Law Enforcement by Justice Strategies.
  
  
• The Policies and Politics of Local Immigration Enforcement Laws: 287(g) Program in North Carolina, by the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation and the Immigration and Human Rights Policy Clinic at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

IPC's latest publication demonstrates that many law-enforcement officials have opposed taking on the role of immigration agent because doing so destroys their relationship with the communities they are supposed to serve and protect.

• Debunking the Myth of "Sanctuary Cities": Community Policing Policies Protect American Communities.

Additionally, the Chatham County North Carolina Board of Commissioners recently issued a statement, reported by the Chatham Journal, opposing county participation in the 287(g) program because it is ineffective in crime prevention, increases the risk of racial profiling, and is unnecessary because local law enforcement already has the authority to fight crime. The Board concluded that "the federal government's immigration policy has been a failure and is dysfunctional. We believe that it is wrong to pass that failure on to local governments, which are not equipped to handle federal immigration laws."