Mr. President. the amendment I am introducing today to S. 2222. the Immigration Reform and Control Act. provides for local law enforcement agency assistance in the area of immigration. I offered a similar amendment to S. 2222 which was adopted in the Immigration Subcommittee. It authorized the Attorney General of the United States to enter into agreements with local law enforcement agencies so that such agencies could assist the U.S. Immigration Service in the extremely difficult task of regaining control over immigration. Though the proposal was removed from the bill in the full committee markup. clear support was demonstrated by the 710 vote (this vote was on an initial draft which did not include some specific language requiring training. time limits. notice and comment. and certification of need. It has since been revised to include these things). In proposing interagency cooperation for immigration control this amendment proposes nothing new. There has always been some degree of cooperation between all agencies engaged in law enforcement. In fact. immigration officers and law enforcement officers at the State. county. and municipal level have often cooperated effectively in enforcing immigration law. even though this has been on an ad hoc basis. varying from State to State. district to district. and from official to official. A recent Arizona Federal district court case held that local officials do have the authority to enforce the Federal immigration laws. see Gonzales v. City of Peoria. Arizona CIV 786181.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigration