Massachusetts top court deals detainers another blow

In another loss for federal immigration officials, the highest court in Massachusetts decided yesterday that it is illegal under state law to hold someone on an immigration detainer. Lunn v. Commonwealth, No. SJC-12276, slip op. (Mass. July 24, 2017). This case involved a man who was held in a courthouse holding cell after the judge overseeing a criminal prosecution against him dismissed the case. [Disclosure: I was one of many immigration law scholars to sign a brief authored by my colleague Christopher Lasch submitted on behalf of Mr. Lunn.] The state’s Supreme Judicial Court easily [...]

With SB 4, Texas faces legal and public safety climb

By Joshua Mitson Since President Trump’s inauguration a wave of “anti-sanctuary city” bills have been proposed by state legislatures across the country. Last Thursday, one of the most extreme variations of these bills was approved by the Texas state legislature and on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law. Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) is, in many ways, a standard anti-sanctuary policy – it compels local law enforcement agencies to honor ICE detainers, it forbids campus peace officers from obstructing local police from inquiring into immigration status of arrestees and compels [...]

Public Safety and the Fourth Amendment Work Together

By Christopher N. Lasch and César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández On Monday, the Colorado Senate is expected to consider a bill to prohibit cities and counties from limiting their role in enforcing federal immigration law. Senate Bill 17-281, the Colorado Citizen Protection Against Sanctuary Policies Act, relies on two fallacies perpetuated by the Trump administration in its campaign against so-called “sanctuary” cities. First, President Trump claims sanctuary jurisdictions endanger the public. S.B. 281 likewise claims that sanctuary policies are “contrary to the safety” of Coloradans. This [...]

Colorado Republicans target sanctuary cities—again—in pursuit of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda

By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández and Christopher N. Lasch After suffering a party-line defeat in a state House committee last month, Republican state legislators in Colorado are once more attempting to coerce cities, counties, school districts, and law enforcement agencies to entangle themselves in immigration enforcement. The “Colorado Citizen Protection Against Sanctuary Policies Act” (Senate Bill 281), like the Republicans’ earlier failed bill, is a wrong-headed effort to solve a largely nonexistent problem. Perpetuating the myth of immigrant criminality Following the Trump [...]

ICE’s new immigration detainer policy remains legally flawed

Today, ICE issued a new policy regarding use of immigration detainers. Sometimes called immigration holds, detainers are requests by ICE that a local law enforcement agency continue holding someone in the LEAs custody. The purpose of continued confinement is to give ICE time to pick up the individual. The policy announced today instructs immigration officers, including local police deputized as immigration officers pursuant to a 287(g) agreement, to issue detainers against anyone who they have probable cause to believe is removable from the United States. Though couched in carefully crafted [...]

DHS issues border policing plans

In response to President Trump’s January 25 executive order on border policing, the Department of Homeland Security issued a memo with details about how it plans to carry out the president’s directives. The memo promises to further militarize the Mexican border, expand the nation’s already unprecedented immigration detention capacity, and skirt the immigration court system. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly signed the memo, titled “Implementing the President’s Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements Policies,” on February 20, 2017. The memo consists of instructions [...]

Constitutional collision in Colorado anti-immigrant bill

By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández and Christopher N. Lasch The virulent tone of immigration rhetoric that propelled Donald Trump to the presidency has come to Colorado. A Republican state legislator proposes to bar cities or local governmental units from limiting their cooperation with ICE. And then he goes where even President Trump hasn’t dared: criminalizing the very act of voting in favor of limiting cooperation with ICE. The proposal, House Bill 17-1134, titled the “Colorado Politician Accountability Act,” is a constitutional train wreck. If our students submitted this for a course, [...]

Must local police work for ICE?

Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to attack communities that resist his hateful rhetoric about migrants. In particular, he has repeatedly stated that he will work with Congress to cut off federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.” Like with much else, he hasn’t bothered to tell us what he means by a sanctuary city. That term is thrown around so much that without a working definition, it is hard to make sense of which cities might come under attack by a Trump anti-sanctuary move. As I wrote in Crimmigration Law, though “sanctuary policies” take a variety of forms, “they all [...]