PHOENIX (Reuters)

Reporting by Tim Gaynor, Editing by Paul Simao

A U.S. government program empowering local police officers to enforce immigration laws undermines their efforts to maintain public safety, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Around 11.9 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants live and work in the United States, and Americans are sharply divided over what to do with them.

The report by the nonpartisan Police Foundation criticized aspects of the 287 (g) program run by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which deputizes officers from local police agencies to enforce immigration laws.

The study, drawing on input from focus groups and police and community representatives, argued that the program created mistrust between local police and immigrant communities.

“The cornerstone of the police operation is public safety, and that is eroded significantly when people are afraid of the police,” Hubert Williams, the president of the Police Foundation, said by telephone.

“Immigration enforcement (by local agencies) … has simply caused people to run and hide. They won’t talk to the police,” he added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE54J7OX20090521?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews (see the rest of the article here)

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Facefwd Comments

Gee I wonder why the illegal immigrants distrust the police? Could it be because of the word illegal? If they were not here and if we did not have to deal with their crime, the border states jails populations would be reduced by over 30% and our police force could go back to enforcing laws and investigating our home grown crimes. The Police Foundation could go back to mapping crime areas and get out of politics. Not to mention that the state budgets that have been in the news so much of late would be much closer to being balanced.

If Obama or any other politician wants my vote move the illegals out of our country and do away with Anchor Baby laws.

Want to know what the rest of America thinks?

A Rasmussen Report Poll conducted November 5, 2008 of 1,000 likely voters asked: “Is the government doing enough to secure the border?”

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79% responded “no,”” it is not doing enough.

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10% responded “yes.”

It also asked, “Which is more important: securing the border or legalizing undocumented workers?”

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65% responded that gaining control of the border is more important.

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26% responded that legalization is more important.

Rasmussen Report Poll conducted from October 24-25th of 800 likely voters found that:

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51% opposed the DREAM Act (a form of amnesty for former and present illegal alien students) concept

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68% believe the passage of the bill would encourage more illegal immigration in the future.

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71% believe that illegal immigrants should not qualify for in-state tuition rates at colleges and universities.

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77 % oppose making drivers’ licenses available to illegal immigrants.
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It is past time that our government start listening to it’s citizens. We don’t want Illegals in our country period. That does not mean we are unreasonable. We understand there is a need or a guest worker program, they key being “guest worker”. We do not want their children to be considered Citizens of the US when the parents are here illegally or on a guest visa. We do not want to provide Free health care, education or government assistance. We are not mean, hateful or uncaring….. we simply cannot afford it any longer. If you don’t believe me ask someone living in CA.

Tags: Anchor Baby, Border War, illegal aliens, Immigration, Mexican Border, Police, US Polls

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Not Born in the USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.