HARRISBURG, May 3, 2010 – State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montgomery) today announced plans to introduce a bill that would reinforce the appropriate role of Pennsylvania's law enforcement resources in enforcing federal immigration policy. The bill comes in direct response to Arizona’s recently enacted immigration law, S.B. 1070.
Under the act, Arizona can now oblige local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. Local agencies may also be sued if they do not effectively enforce those laws. Arizona’s law will impact immigration policy nationwide, as currently, immigration enforcement is the sole responsibility of the Federal Immigration and Naturalization Service. State and local police are not charged with enforcing federal immigration legislation.
Leach explained why immigration enforcement is best handled by the federal government. “To be most effective, local police agencies must work with and receive information from people living in all parts of their jurisdictions. If people were worried that the police were trying to monitor immigration statuses, they would be less likely to cooperate with those police officers. That is why there is a separate entity charged with dealing with immigration issues,” he said.
Leach also noted that the Arizona immigration law could encourage racial profiling of individuals and create unfair investigations. “While race, ethnicity or perceived ethnicity may not be the sole criteria in determining whether there is ‘reasonable suspicion’ - a much lower standard than ‘probable cause’ - to believe a person may be in this country illegally, these things may be a factor among others, making race and ethnicity a relevant consideration for law enforcement to consider when deciding who they will and will not investigate further,” he said.
“This will obviously lead to racial profiling and the disparate treatment of people based on whether or not they ‘look like they might be an illegal immigrant’.”
Leach explained that he aims to accomplish two things with his bill in order to prevent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from implementing a law similar to that of Arizona. First, the bill would codify that no Pennsylvania state or local law enforcement agency has any power or obligation to enforce or investigate an individual's compliance with federal immigration law. Additionally, the bill would not prevent local authorities from sharing with the INS any relevant immigration information they obtain collateral to an arrest or investigation they do with regards to non-immigration matters. It would also specify that in the event state and/or local law enforcement entities obtain a legal role in investigating immigration matters - either through federal law or otherwise - that neither race nor ethnicity can be used as a relevant factor in the investigation of immigration matters.
Leach’s bill is currently circulating for co-sponsorship.
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