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https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20130&cosponId=11026
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 15, 2013 03:28 PM
From: Senator Daylin Leach
To: All Senate members
Subject: Immigration Policy
 
In the near future I will be re-introducing legislation to codify and clarify the appropriate roll of Pennsylvania's law enforcement resources in enforcing federal immigration policy.

As you know, currently, immigration enforcement is the sole province of the Federal Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS"). State and Local police are not charged with enforcing federal immigration legislation. This is done deliberately. To be most effective, local police agencies must work with, and receive information from people living in all parts of their jurisdictions. If people were worried that the police were trying to monitor their immigration status, they would be less likely to cooperate with those police officers. That is why there is a separate entity charged with dealing with immigration issues.

As you may remember, the state of Arizona imposed upon its local law-enforcement agencies the obligation to enforce federal immigration laws. Further, it has provided that such local agencies can be sued if they are not aggressive enough (whatever that may come to mean) in enforcing such laws.

The Arizona law also provides that while race, ethnicity or perceived ethnicity may not be the "sole" criteria in determining whether there is "reasonable suspicion" (a much lower standard than "probable cause") to believe a given person may be in this country illegally, these things may be a factor among others, making race and ethnicity a relevant consideration for law enforcement to consider when deciding who they will and will not investigate further. This will obviously lead to racial profiling and the disparate treatment of people based on whether or not they "look like they might be an illegal immigrant".

In order to prevent the sort of policy we see in Arizona from coming to our state, I will be introducing legislation that does two things.

1. It codifies that no Pennsylvania state or local law enforcement agency has any power or obligation to enforce or investigate an individual's compliance with federal immigration law, or his or her status thereunder. This bill will not prevent local authorities from sharing with the INS any relevant immigration information they obtain collateral to an arrest or investigation they do with regards to non-immigration matters.

2. It codifies that in the event state and/or local law enforcement entities do obtain a legal role in investigating immigration matters, either through federal law or otherwise, that neither race nor ethnicity, nor perceived ethnicity, shall be a relevant factor in the investigation of immigration matters.



Introduced as SB1165