By Liz Nass
Gongwer News Service
Immigration rights activists are encouraging jurisdictions to maintain the status quo in the face of executive orders from President Donald Trump pressuring local law enforcement to comply with federal standards on immigration enforcement.
In a press conference Wednesday, a coalition of immigrant rights advocates and law enforcement in Washtenaw County said the Trump administration is trying to coerce local police to “tear apart families.”
The ACLU of Michigan and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center sent legal guidance to law enforcement that explained the federal government could not force their participation in enforcement efforts.
Trump’s administration has said it is seeking to remove those living in the country illegally and focus on individuals who have committed crimes. In July, the Associated Press reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement data showed of 57,861 people detained by ICE, 27,177 had no known criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Another 14,318 had criminal charges pending but had not been convicted.
Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said there is no legal requirement to use local resources for immigration enforcement, and that most Michiganders want their local police departments “to focus on serious crime, not on rounding up and deporting their neighbors.”
The legal guidance also explained the harm in being part of these agreements between the federal government, opening the officers to legal liability when doing their job.
Aukerman said when trying to enforce immigration laws, officers risk violating state and federal laws when prolonging a traffic stop to call immigration enforcement, which can be illegal.
The risk also comes down to profiling.
“The risk is especially high when actions are based on speculation about an individual’s legal status, and even trained officers may inadvertently rely on race, religion or national origin when attempting to investigate immigration related matters leading to constitutional and civil rights violations,” Aukerman said.
She said most of the time, police should not ask the public about their immigration status unless it is relevant to a criminal investigation, which is usually not the case in day-to-day interactions like traffic stops.
The guidance also included the effect of these practices on public safety.
Christine Sauvé, policy, engagement and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said these 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are persistent across the country, with more than 1,200 agreements. Michigan currently has seven.
The seven include Jackson County, Calhoun County, the city of Taylor, Crawford County, Roscommon County and the Genessee Metro Police Authority, according to Sauvé.
Four of these agreements, Sauvé said, are part of “the most concerning model,” which gives local officers the powers of immigration agents, which she said increases opportunity for
profiling and other civil rights violations.
“Over the last decade, three-quarters of ICE arrests in the interior of the U.S. have been due to handoffs with local law enforcement,” Sauvé said. “It’s really states and localities that power the mass detention and mass deportation efforts. That’s why it’s so important to encourage our local law enforcement leaders to respect the rights of our immigrant neighbors.”
Matt Bade, police chief for Genesee Metro Police Authority, said he joined the agreement because “he thought it was a good fit for the agency.”
However, Bade said, the agreement would not change anything in the day-to-day operations of the officers, calling it a “passive jurisdictional authority.” Bade said five of his officers will be trained by ICE officials on the authority to hold someone who has engaged in criminal activity and have an imitation violation or other federal charges.
“It’s really no different than if we had somebody committing a crime and they had a warrant from a different jurisdiction,” Bade said.
The training just gives these officers the authority to make an arrest of someone who has a federal warrant.
Bade said there has been no movement on the agreement and doesn’t expect operations to start until next year after the officers are trained.
He said there is wide discretion to what extent a department wants to engage in immigration enforcement. He said while some decide to lean into actively being part of enforcement, they can with these agreements. However, with his agency, they don’t have that problem, according to Bade, and just want to have “a layer of protection from liability for (his) officers.”
He said their department has no interest in “looking for immigration violators.”
In response to criticism about to public safety, he said they are detaining individuals with warrants out for their arrest, and in turn, “promoting public safety.”
Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general, said many non-citizen victims, not just in his county but across the state, are not showing up for court because they are worried about the consequences from local law enforcement, leading to many cases being dropped.
He said people are also afraid of calling 9-1-1 or talking to the police because they simply fear the government in its current climate, creating an “untenable situation for public safety.”
Other directives from the coalition include the training of police officers to accept multiple forms of ID and issue clear policies on accepting foreign driver’s licenses and should use appearance tickets for minor offenses.
Gongwer News Service
Immigration rights activists are encouraging jurisdictions to maintain the status quo in the face of executive orders from President Donald Trump pressuring local law enforcement to comply with federal standards on immigration enforcement.
In a press conference Wednesday, a coalition of immigrant rights advocates and law enforcement in Washtenaw County said the Trump administration is trying to coerce local police to “tear apart families.”
The ACLU of Michigan and Michigan Immigrant Rights Center sent legal guidance to law enforcement that explained the federal government could not force their participation in enforcement efforts.
Trump’s administration has said it is seeking to remove those living in the country illegally and focus on individuals who have committed crimes. In July, the Associated Press reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement data showed of 57,861 people detained by ICE, 27,177 had no known criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Another 14,318 had criminal charges pending but had not been convicted.
Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said there is no legal requirement to use local resources for immigration enforcement, and that most Michiganders want their local police departments “to focus on serious crime, not on rounding up and deporting their neighbors.”
The legal guidance also explained the harm in being part of these agreements between the federal government, opening the officers to legal liability when doing their job.
Aukerman said when trying to enforce immigration laws, officers risk violating state and federal laws when prolonging a traffic stop to call immigration enforcement, which can be illegal.
The risk also comes down to profiling.
“The risk is especially high when actions are based on speculation about an individual’s legal status, and even trained officers may inadvertently rely on race, religion or national origin when attempting to investigate immigration related matters leading to constitutional and civil rights violations,” Aukerman said.
She said most of the time, police should not ask the public about their immigration status unless it is relevant to a criminal investigation, which is usually not the case in day-to-day interactions like traffic stops.
The guidance also included the effect of these practices on public safety.
Christine Sauvé, policy, engagement and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said these 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are persistent across the country, with more than 1,200 agreements. Michigan currently has seven.
The seven include Jackson County, Calhoun County, the city of Taylor, Crawford County, Roscommon County and the Genessee Metro Police Authority, according to Sauvé.
Four of these agreements, Sauvé said, are part of “the most concerning model,” which gives local officers the powers of immigration agents, which she said increases opportunity for
profiling and other civil rights violations.
“Over the last decade, three-quarters of ICE arrests in the interior of the U.S. have been due to handoffs with local law enforcement,” Sauvé said. “It’s really states and localities that power the mass detention and mass deportation efforts. That’s why it’s so important to encourage our local law enforcement leaders to respect the rights of our immigrant neighbors.”
Matt Bade, police chief for Genesee Metro Police Authority, said he joined the agreement because “he thought it was a good fit for the agency.”
However, Bade said, the agreement would not change anything in the day-to-day operations of the officers, calling it a “passive jurisdictional authority.” Bade said five of his officers will be trained by ICE officials on the authority to hold someone who has engaged in criminal activity and have an imitation violation or other federal charges.
“It’s really no different than if we had somebody committing a crime and they had a warrant from a different jurisdiction,” Bade said.
The training just gives these officers the authority to make an arrest of someone who has a federal warrant.
Bade said there has been no movement on the agreement and doesn’t expect operations to start until next year after the officers are trained.
He said there is wide discretion to what extent a department wants to engage in immigration enforcement. He said while some decide to lean into actively being part of enforcement, they can with these agreements. However, with his agency, they don’t have that problem, according to Bade, and just want to have “a layer of protection from liability for (his) officers.”
He said their department has no interest in “looking for immigration violators.”
In response to criticism about to public safety, he said they are detaining individuals with warrants out for their arrest, and in turn, “promoting public safety.”
Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general, said many non-citizen victims, not just in his county but across the state, are not showing up for court because they are worried about the consequences from local law enforcement, leading to many cases being dropped.
He said people are also afraid of calling 9-1-1 or talking to the police because they simply fear the government in its current climate, creating an “untenable situation for public safety.”
Other directives from the coalition include the training of police officers to accept multiple forms of ID and issue clear policies on accepting foreign driver’s licenses and should use appearance tickets for minor offenses.
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