DOJ Memo On Local Immigration Enforcement Released
"A government memo released by the American Civil Liberties Union Mexico
says the Justice Department believes state and local police have the right to enforce federal immigration laws. The A-C-L-U says the government opinion makes the 'sweeping and unprecedented' legal argument that state and local law enforcement officers can arrest anyone who violates a federal law," writes the AP. "The 2002 opinion reversed a 1996 letter of advice from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which said that state and local police could enforce only criminal immigration violations such as sneaking across a border." The full text of the memo is available in PDF format. [FAIR comment: Far from being "unprecedented" the DOJ memo was well grounded in existing statutory law and court precedent. See FAIR's issue paper on this topic.]
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