I note that the particular amendment I want to bring up is named for Charlie Norwood. a Congressman from Georgia. who died recently. He was a tremendous patriot who shared my concern. We worked together in drafting his amendment that was introduced in the House which was designed to clarify that local law enforcement officers have an opportunity to participate in enforcement of Federal immigration laws simply as they go .about their normal course of duties. If they arrest someone for speeding or some offense of that kind. then they could check their records. and if they are here illegally. they could detain them for Federal officials. Actually. in many instances. that is still doable today. but in a couple of areas it is vague. The lawyers for the departments have objected to their police officers participating because they think there might be a problem. This is a critically important amendment. If it is not adopted. it indicates to me that the persons pushing this legislation do not want it to work because there are 600.000 to 800.000 State and local law enforcement officers and only about 1.200 ICE agents and only a fraction of them not on the border. 2.000. something of that nature of ICE agents. They cannot cover this country. They have to rely on State and local officers. who. by the way. caught individuals during their crime sprees or plans to attack us on 9/11.
Keywords matched
ICE agents immigration