UCLA Undergraduate Law Journal
the INA §287, allow local LEAs to directly participate in the enforcement of federal immigration law by training and authorizing local law enforcement officers to execute federal immigration law46. Local LEAs have no legal obligation to assist ICE in the execution of federal immigration law by forming these agreements. Doing so is entirely a matter of their own discretion, and it is fully legal for state and local jurisdictions to opt out of 287(g) agreements by instituting policy which bars local LEAs from entering into them. Furthermore, given the 287(g) program’s history of racial profiling abuses, jurisdictions that ban these agreements provide a crucial protection against invidious discrimination from law enforcement officials. Under §287(g) of the INA, local jurisdictions can enter “a contract with ICE to deputize and train select local law enforcement agents to enforce federal immigration laws.”47 287(g) agreements funnel limited local resources towards federal – rather than local – priorities, and they blur the line between local law enforcement agents and immigration agents. This can cause incredible damage to a community’s relationship with local law enforcement.48 Thus, to avoid the misallocation of local funds and to maintain a trusting relationship between communities and local law enforcement, state and local jurisdictions might choose not to form 287(g) 46 INA: ACT 287 - POWERS OF IMMIGRATION OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES, UCSIS (last visited Jan. 2, 2018), https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-00-9505.html. See also Immigrant Legal Resource Center. "Explainer: County Policies Relating to Immigration Enforcement" in Searching for Sanctuary: An Analysis of America's Counties and Their Voluntary Assistance with Deportations. Report. December 2016. Accessed December 30, 2017. https://www.ilrc.org/sites/default/files/resources/sanctuary_report_final_1min.pdf. 47 Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Searching for Sanctuary: An Analysis of America's Counties and Their Voluntary Assistance with Deportations, Report. (Dec. 2016), https://www.ilrc.org/sites/default/files/resources/sanctuary_report_final_1-min.pdf. 48 Immigrant Legal Resource Center, supra note 45.(“…the same local officials responsible for protecting public safety are also those identifying and funneling immigrant community members into the deportation system. A 287(g) agreement means that it is not safe for immigrants to interact with law enforcement…. 287(g) contracts are totally voluntary and do not come with any reimbursement for the staff, time, or other resources the [jurisdiction] spends doing ICE’s work.”)
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