local immigration policing

Report: crImmigration enforcement funding and prison rates rise

A report by the Congressional Research Service tells of increased funding for the federal government’s programs targeting immigrants convicted of crimes, including immigration-related crimes, and an accompanying increase in the number of immigrants arrested and imprisoned. Marc R. Rosenblum & William A. Kandel, Congressional Research Service, Interior Immigration Enforcement: Programs Targeting Criminal Aliens (Oct. 21, 2011). The CRS is a non-partisan unit of the Library of Congress. Between fiscal year 2004 and FY 2001, the report explained, funding for programs targeting so-called [...]

SCOTUS to hear SB 1070 case

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in Arizona v. United States, No. 11-182, the state's attempt to revive its immigration law S.B. 1070. Justice Kagan has recused herself, presumably because of her role as Solicitor General prior to joining the Court. The question presented in the cert petition asks "whether the federal immigration laws preclude Arizona’s efforts at cooperative law enforcement and impliedly preempt these four provisions of S.B. 1070 on their face." Given the 12 amicus briefs that were filed at the cert stage and the substantial media attention that this case [...]

Scholars Sidebar: AZ self-smuggling crime altered fed power over immigration long before SB 1070

In a new article, immigration law scholar Ingrid V. Eagly argues that Arizona changed the face of immigration policing before the state legislature enacted the infamous SB 1070. Ingrid V. Eagly, Local Immigration Prosecution: A Study of Arizona Before SB 1070, 58 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 1749 (2011). Eagly, a professor at U.C.L.A. School of Law, focuses on a state anti-smuggling statute, Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-2319, enacted in 2005 and its zealous use by local prosecutors against immigrants to argue that “Arizona has already altered federal power over immigration through its control over crime.” [...]

Report: Racial profiling & immigration enforcement in Tennessee

A coalition of Tennessee immigrants’ rights activists issued a report alleging discriminatory targeting of immigrants in Bedford County, a rural county south of Nashville. Sarah White & Salmun Kazerounian, The Forgotten Constitution: Racial Profiling and Immigration Enforcement in Bedford County, Tennessee (Sept. 2011). The report’s authors assert that “To be an immigrant or refugee in Bedford County is to be treated with suspicion or outright hostility by one’s own government, whose offices still exhibit vestiges of the overt racial apartheid of years past.” White & Kazerounian at [...]

GAO: States pay most cost of imprisoning immigrants in state jails

The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently reported that most of the cost of imprisoning “criminal aliens” in state prisons systems was paid by state governments. GAO, Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs (March 2011 GAO-11-187). [A summary in html is also available.] States, cities, and counties are partially reimbursed for the costs of incarcerating noncitizens who meet specified criteria through the Justice Department’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). Importantly, “SCAAP is not intended to reimburse state and local [...]