This week in Congress

There is a bill in Congress called The Effective Immigration Enforcement Partnerships Act of 2008 (S. 2717) whose purpose is (to quote Congress.org) "to provide local governments and law enforcement the resources, training, and authority to enforce U.S. immigration law at the local level. According to his website, aspects of the bill include:
-Clarifying their authority to enforce federal immigration laws during their normal course of duty
-Expanding the 287(g) program to every state. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes state and local police to perform enforcement duties related to illegal immigration
-Offering a basic training course for all state and local law enforcement officers
-Compensating state and local entities for immigration enforcement related expenses

There are a couple of reasons I think this is a bad idea. First is that it will divert local law enforcement's focus and resources away from their main responsibility of dealing with local crime. But secondly, and in my opinion more importantly, it will cause illegal immigrants already living in the United States a complete distrust of local law enforcement. This means that those immigrants will not report crime in their neighborhoods or step forward to be witnesses for fear of being deported.

But in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, I will let you decide for yourselves and encourage you to let Congress know what you think no matter what side you are on. The links are below:

If you think that YES, local law enforcement should play a role in enforcing immigration law, click here:
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/utr/1/GFZHIEUKUE/CPSFIEUYWW/1802712426

If you think the NO, local law enforcement should not play a role in enforcing immigration law, click here:
http://capwiz.com/congressorg/utr/1/GFZHIEUKUE/AJYGIEUYWX/1802712426