Tear Down the House: Why We Need Comprehensive Immigration Reform

 Before I start talking about how law enforcement figures into immigration reform, I’d like to give you some basic background on what comprehensive immigration reform really is, from my perspective. Comprehensive immigration reform is large-scale systemic reform encompassing all aspects of social, political and legal life here in the United States. It involves a complete overhaul of the immigration system, from entry to citizenship.

Imagine you have an old house that needs to be renovated, but instead of working on one room at a time over a many years, you tear the entire house down to the foundation and rebuild. The end product is a beautiful new home in which all rooms work and function well together, rather than a beat-up house with a great kitchen or living room. As those of you who have lived through a home remodeling already know, the tasks are daunting, but the payoff is immeasurable.

The same thing applies to comprehensive immigration reform. We’ve tried fixing immigration with Band-Aids, but it doesn’t work. At this point, we need a wholesale renovation that creates a new system that works for everyone. Retooling immigration enforcement—which in recent years has been heavily criticized in places like Suffolk County—is an essential part of the reform process. Here’s what you need to know:

Currently, the enforcement apparatus of immigration law is in a troublesome state of affairs. Recent changes in policy and enforcement priorities have created a system of haphazard enforcement and piecemeal policies. In some areas of the country, local municipalities have usurped power and adopted their own set of enforcement laws dealing with immigrants while some have announced that they will ignore federal law altogether.

Just look at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s antics in Arizona. He’s consistently profiled Hispanics in immigration raids and ignored federal mandates in regards to immigration enforcement. In other areas of the country, neighboring municipalities in the same county have polar opposite policies regarding local police enforcement of federal immigration law. All of this leads to widespread confusion, mistrust, and uncertainty that affects citizens, immigrants, and law enforcement officers alike.

There is also a misplaced belief that immigrant round-ups and hard-line immigration enforcement make communities safer. But in a March 5, 2009 blog that I posted on this site, I discussed how “tough on immigration” enforcement policies and postures can actually lead to decreased safety for the larger communities in which new immigrants settle. In that piece, I argued that if criminalized, new immigrant communities will logically become distrustful of law enforcement and will no longer call the police to report crimes. This can have a disastrous effect on victimization in those communities and can lead to crime sprees as predators target these communities. The end result of this enforcement strategy is decreased security and public safety for all communities.

Comprehensive immigration reform can stem this tide by creating an enforcement scheme that is both effective and respectful of local law enforcement’s need to serve all members of the community. First and foremost, the enforcement of immigration laws must be placed squarely in the hands of the federal government. This will not only bolster public safety and homeland security, but it will also let local law enforcement partner with the communities they serve—documented or undocumented. In order for this kind of setup to succeed, the federal government will have to make a serious commitment to enforcement rather than just replicating the perfunctory enforcement policies of the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization System.