Mr. Chairman. this is also an amendment that. like all other amendments. requires some explanation. and it is an amendment that. in my opinion. would be one that should be passed by this House. What the amendment does is prohibit local or State police from stopping. detaining. or other interrogating persons solely for the purpose of determining their immigration status. All that. of course. except as specifically authorized by the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Now we realize that the immigration laws represent a complex body of law which requires uniform enforcement. I personally think. and I get that opinion from readings from the experts. that local police are not equipped to engage in such enforcement because the arrest standards for State law violations vary from StatetoState. This would mean than that if local police were going to be authorized to do the job of the Department of Immigration. there should be in place a very large training program. which is not possible under the present legislation. I think that the local law enforcement officers are already overburdened with other enforcement responsibilities. and if they take on this added responsibility the likely result is more abuses and civil rights violations. Now we know that the local police at the present time can under existing law do certain things. Local police may arrest for misdemeanor violations of illegal entry only if they are near the border and actually see that such an entry takes place. There are some restrictions. What this overall law does is to make it sure that local police are not authorized to do the work of the immigration authorities unless it is specifically authorized by the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
Keywords matched
Naturalization Immigration immigration