Immigration raids are occurring with increasing frequency around the nation. These operations exacerbate an already flawed immigration and detention system by swiftly arresting immigrants, and then placing them in detention facilities that are often located in remote areas far from family and legal service providers. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents routinely pressures the detainees to waive their rights by signing "stipulated orders of removal," documents in which an immigrant relinquishes the right to see a judge before being deported.  Sometimes, immigrant detainees are not merely held in jails that are inconvenient to family and attorneys, but are transferred across the nation to facilities hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Frustrated at Congress' inability to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year, many towns and cities throughout the United States have agreed to allow their own police departments to assist federal ICE agents in immigration raids. This approach to solving our country's broken immigration system is misguided.  Shifting federal enforcement responsibilities to local police departments threatens to endanger immigrants' rights and hinder community policing efforts.

Resources on local enforcement initiatives (updated November 2007):

"National Enforcement Response Plan" for communities by CLINIC 

"Forcing our Blues into Gray Areas" by Appleseed 

National Immigration Forum Backgrounder: Immigration Law Enforcement by State and Local Police (Updated September 2007)

Resources on state and local confidentiality policies (National Immigration Law Center)

Information from the ACLU about the Hazelton decision and related local ordinances

Resources from National Council of La Raza

"Immigrants and Crime: Are They Connected?" by the Immigration Policy Center (October 2007)

ICE Fact Sheet on 287(g) Agreements (August 2007)

National Conference of State Legislatures report on state immigration legislation (August 2007)

Resource Guide from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (July 2007)

NIJC Op-Ed on the Consequences of 287 (g) Local Enforcement Measures (June 2007)

American Immigration Law Foundation report: "The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation" (Spring 2007)

NIJC Statement to U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security (March 2007)

Department of Justice audit on state and local confidentiality policies (January 2007)

Quotes from police, local governments and others (National Immigration Forum, September 2006)

Policy from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (June 2006)

Policy from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (December 2004)