Speech #980151420

Mr. President. I have been working for several years to increase the level of enforcement of our immigration laws. For the last 2 years I have suggested that one of the most effective means of enhancing enforcement of our immigration laws while insuring that immigration laws are enforced uniformly and without undue hardship to any alien is to increase the amount of cooperation between Federal and State or local law enforcement officials. I am pleased to report to the Senate that the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. a body not often in agreement with me on immigration enforcement. has decided once again that such cooperation is constitutional. consistent with our immigration laws. and necessary for the successful enforcement of those immigration laws. My amendment to encourage such cooperation between State and local law enforcement officials and Federal immigration authorities was adopted during the early consideration of the SimpsonMazzoli immigration reform bill. Although the amendment did not survive the amendment process. I am pleased to see that interest is again beginning to grow in this type of cooperative federalism. My amendment proposing renewed interagency cooperation for immigration control is not really new. There has always been some degree of cooperation between all agencies engaged in law enforcement. In fact. immigration officers and law enforcement officials at the State. county. and municipal level have often cooperated effectively in enforcing immigration law. even though this cooperation has always been on an ad hoc basis. varying from State to State. district to district. and from official to official. In 1978. however. thenAttorney General Griffin Bell issued a directive to Federal immigration officials which indicated that only the Immigration and Naturalization Service had the power to enforce the immigration laws. The Bell directive was used for several years to stop cooperation between Federal and State law enforcement officials. Not until last year did the Department of Justice. under the able leadership of Attorney General William French Smith. reverse this restriction on intergovernmental cooperation.