Immigration and law enforcement
The law enforcement for the immigration should occur at all the levels of the law enforcement from the local, state and the federal level. The local law enforcement and the state are always in the front line of the defense against the human trafficking, gang activities, drug related offenses and smuggling and they should cooperate with the federal law enforcement agencies to ensure immigration rules are followed. Once the state and the local law enforcements do not keep contact with the federal law enforcers, then there will be a massive illegal entry into the country since there is breakage of communication (Michaud, 2010). Public safety is the main concern and therefore all the involved parties should cooperate in making sure that the borders are safe from aliens. The federal law enforcement cannot work on its own but can work with the state and the local law enforcement to make sure that illegal immigration does not take place.
The local laws enforcements have faced numerous challenges such as the lack of a proper system to deal with the issue of immigration. In some cities such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and District of Columbia have in the recent times prevented the local law enforcement from enforcing the immigration rules. This is a move that is meant to prevent the idea of the laws being termed as targeting a particular race (Stanislowski, 2010). Most of these cities are occupied by the black Americans and therefore if it is a requirement by law to check every individual, then a case of racism and discrimination will occur in these cities. Some cities have already reported the harassment by the local authorities as they are perceived to be immigrants just because they look different in terms of their color.
At the state level, challenges which are encountered at this level most are inclined to court actions and the litigations by the department for justice. Immigrants civil and liberty groups and the federal government have blocked several efforts by the state laws to countercheck every person traveling or walking on the streets requiring them to produce their citizenship documents (Ting, 2008). Such measures by the state laws are there to enhance the probability of capturing the immigrants who are in the States illegally. This move has been labeled as being racist and therefore court lawsuits have been filed numerous times to prevent the move. South Carolina is one of the states that are affected by such laws where certain civil rights groups have moved to the court to block the laws from being enacted in this state.
Requiring every suspected person to produce their immigration documents is a good move that will reduce the activities of the immigrants who have been occasionally been taking advantage of the situation to terrorize the cities. If all the states can implement the immigration rules, then the United States could be in a good position in fighting terror groups (Michaud, 2010). States such as the Oklahoma have implemented the use of a system known as the E-Verify that checks the eligibility of a person, identification details of the person, voting reasons and areas, and also the imposition of restrictions on the public benefits. These moves have been successful in ensuring the city is safe from aliens. If laws are not implemented to verify the immigration details of a person then it is most likely to cause harm to the society.
References
Michaud, N. D. (2010). From 287(g) to SB 1070: The decline of the federal immigration partnership and the rise of state-level immigration enforcement. Arizona Law Review, 52(4), 1083–1133. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=56549621&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Stanislowski, C. (2010). Arizona's new law: A call for reform. New Presence: The Prague Journal of Central European Affairs, 12(2), 35–36.
Ting, J. C. (2008). The case for immigration law enforcement in the United States and in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Widener Law Journal, 17(2), 383–390. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=32508722&site=ehost-live&scope=site
