When it comes to immigration legislation, many Texas law enforcement officers are hoping what happens in Arizona, stays in Arizona. Along with many residents, senior local law enforcement officials feel that the job of enforcing immigration laws undermines their core mission: keeping their communities safe.
City and county law enforcement from throughout the southwest border region held a panel discussion on local immigration enforcement earlier this month in El Paso. For two hours, participants answered questions from the public regarding proposed legislation similar to Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070. The controversial legislation would require local enforcement to confirm the immigration status of those suspected of being illegal immigrants during interactions with the public and imposes a penalty for failure to do so. In effect, Arizona will mandate law enforcement personnel to engage in racial profiling.
By the end of the panel discussion, these law enforcement officials had made one thing clear: enforcing federal immigration law is not the job of local law enforcement. El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles remarked that those fueling the national debate didn’t understand the local communities that would be affected. As Sheriff Wiles stated, “I get really disgusted when I hear the national debate on immigration … (Politicians) make these outrageous plans without understanding our community.” Las Cruces, N.M., Police Chief Richard Williams echoed Wiles’ position. Williams stated in the long term there must be immigration reform because immigration issues complicate the job of making communities safe. In addition to the concerns voiced by law enforcement officials on the border, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo recently wrote that the bill would only push law abiding immigrants further into the fringes of society and impose additional burdens on local law enforcement.
Beyond the concerns of law enforcement over the legislation’s potential negative impact on safety, such legislation would also serve to distract lawmakers from pressing issues at a time when Texas is facing a $17 billion shortfall. In a statement criticizing plans to introduce an Arizona-like anti-immigrant bill in Texas, ACLU of Texas Executive Director Terri Burke stated:
“(I)t is preposterous that an elected official would even consider throwing an unconstitutional racial profiling law into the legislative mix. … Arizona’s law is unconstitutional. It doesn’t make Arizonans safer. It is leading to national protests and perhaps an economic boycott of the state. Over time, enforcement will erode community confidence in police and reduce community cooperation in fighting crime. Texas doesn’t need any of these bad results from a bad law.”
In light of local law enforcement’s stated opposition to similar legislation in Texas and the waste of valuable legislative time and money needed for its enactment, the Texas Legislature should recognize that this is not in the best interest of Texans. Such legislation does nothing to address our country’s real and pressing immigration concerns and would likely lead to the erosion of local law enforcement’s community relations, and in doing so would make our communities less safe.
