APA format, write a 2-page paper pertaining to your analysis of this issue. Please include an abstract and a reference sheet.

 

Local police and sheriffs’ departments increasingly are being drawn into a national debate about how to enforce federal immigration laws. In many jurisdictions, local police are being pressured to take significantly larger roles in what has traditionally been a federal government responsibility. This is not a simple matter for local police. Active involvement in immigration enforcement can complicate local law enforcement agencies’ efforts to fulfill their primary missions of investigating and preventing crime. While no two communities are affected by immigration in the same way, the current system creates a number of challenges for local police, such as understanding an extremely complicated set of federal laws and policies, and working to develop trust and cooperation with undocumented immigrants who are victims of or witnesses to crime. For several years now, PERF has been focusing attention on the question of illegal immigration and its impact on local police departments. Immigration laws are federal statutes, so this is fundamentally a matter for the federal government to decide. But Congress has not been able to pass any comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Arizona’s passage in April 2010 of SB 1070, a new law designed to expand the role of local police in immigration enforcement, and the Obama Administration’s decision to challenge the Constitutionality of this state law in federal court, have focused national attention on the question of federal, state, and local enforcement of immigration laws. In the meantime, many local communities and police agencies are struggling to devise local policies and strategies that reflect their own values and are consistent with the federal government’s efforts, which seem to ebb and flow with changing Administrations. This publication explores the role of six leading police departments in their communities’ immigration debates, and how they navigated the challenges and pressures surrounding the immigration issue. Our six case-study jurisdictions were not chosen at random; these six cities have experienced some of the most contentious local battles on this issue in recent memory. The case studies were conducted between December 2008 and September 2009. The goal of this report

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