Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday.
The announcement aims to clarify a controversial program that deputizes police to turn over suspects or criminals to immigration authorities for possible deportation. Normally police do not enforce federal law.
The law, known as 287(g), took effect in 1996.
Most of the participating police agencies signed up under President George W. Bush, whose administration promoted it as a tool against dangerous criminal immigrants.
Immigrant rights groups said it led to civil rights violations and racial profiling.
Some police departments check immigration status in a wide variety of crimes. Friday's directive lays out federal priorities: violent crimes such as rape or robbery, as well as major drug offenses; followed by property crimes, such as burglary and fraud.
All 66 police departments that already participate in the program must sign a new, uniform memorandum within 90 days.
They also must agree to pursue the criminal charges that prompted an illegal immigrant's detention. In other words, police can't make an arrest just to find out if someone is in the country illegally.
"This new agreement promotes consistency across the board to make sure that all of our partner agencies are abiding by the same standards," said Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler.
The memorandum says that police agencies will be bound by civil rights laws and subject to oversight by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they arrest and detain illegal immigrants for possible deportation. Any agency that cannot prove that it is following those standards could lose its federal authority.
In addition to the changes, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that 11 new police agencies have signed agreements, none of them in California. (The sheriffs in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties already participate in the program.)
Though some law enforcement agencies, including those in California, check the status only of those in custody, others do so when arresting people on the street. Since 2006, deputized officers have identified more than 120,000 suspected illegal immigrants nationwide, officials said.
