The legislative and executive branches, now under single-party control, should work to adopt a comprehensive immigration plan. This is especially important in light of recent political turmoil on so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Last month President Donald Trump issued an executive order that aims to withhold federal dollars from “sanctuary cities,” which are cities that refuse to deport illegal immigrants.
Salt Lake City does not call itself a sanctuary city but municipal leaders decided the city won’t go out of its way to seek information about a person’s immigration status or hold undocumented immigrants in jail on behalf of federal agents. However, Salt Lake City’s police chief recently told the Deseret News he was pleased by statements he and other law enforcement leaders heard from Trump on Wednesday on the contentious subject of how local police should deal with crimes associated with illegal immigration.
Though perhaps controversial to some, Salt Lake City’s stance is similar to that of dozens of cities and counties with large immigrant populations and is based more on practicality than ideology.
Having local police officers act on behalf of immigration agents gives rise to myriad undesirable situations. People who are afraid that police may challenge their immigration status are not inclined to cooperate in the investigation of local crimes. Consequently, in municipalities where undocumented immigrants fear local police, some infractions, including felonies, simply go unreported. Law enforcement agencies here and in many other cities have placed a higher value on effective community policing over going out of their way to catch illegal immigrants.
Others point out that finding and incarcerating people on the basis of their immigration status burdens overcrowded jails and directs local resources away from direct crime fighting. Perhaps most relevant is the reality that the real jurisdictional authority for enforcing federal law is federal agents. Courts have consistently ruled it is permissible for local authorities to decline detaining people if it’s based exclusively on a suspected immigration violation. The real solution is a clear and comprehensive federal immigration policy.
We have long called for a comprehensive immigration plan that would bring clarity to these and many other issues, including how to deal with the millions of undocumented immigrants already situated in nearly every city in America. No such plan, however, has surfaced in any meaningful way on Capitol Hill.
Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown told the Deseret News he is encouraged by the president’s remarks. Brown’s department is not trying to jettison the law, but it has done well emphasizing grass-roots community policing. Without question, there are problems with consistent enforcement of immigration laws in the U.S., but they are not problems local law enforcement agencies can or should try to solve. This is an issue that needs involvement from federal lawmakers.