Local Enforcement of the Immigration Laws

The New York Times has an article on local enforcement of the immigration laws. Here is an excerpt:

While lawmakers in Washington debate whether to forgive illegal immigrants their trespasses, a small but increasing number of local and state law enforcement officials are taking it upon themselves to pursue deportation cases against people who are here illegally. In more than a dozen jurisdictions, officials have invoked a little-used 1996 federal law to seek special federal training in immigration enforcement for their officers.

To see the entire article, click here.

Kris Kobach (Missouri-KC) has a recent article in the Albany Law Review (vol. 69, at 179) arguing in favor of the inherent authority of local police to make immigration arrests. Among others, Huyen Pham (Missouri-Columbia) and Mike Wishnie (NYU) have written to the contrary.

KJ