James Nolan is a former Wilmington Police Department officer, a professor at West Virginia University and a board member for American Civil Liberties Union Delaware.
I was disappointed to learn that the Delaware Association of Chiefs of Police continues to oppose meaningful immigration reform (“Delaware police chiefs defend opposition to immigration bills”). Its reasoning for opposing these bills was even more baffling.
House Bill 368 would ban state and local police from holding an individual based solely on an immigration-related detainer. Instead, the person would need to have a criminal charge for police to hold him/her for up to 48 hours. This falls in line with what the DACP said in its statement: that they do not enforce immigration laws, as that is the purview of the federal government.
As a former police officer and an expert on policing practices, I know how critical it is for state and local police to maintain separation from civil immigration enforcement. The cornerstone of effective police practice is trusting relations within local communities. If immigrants believe that local police are assisting federal agents with immigration enforcement, it is far less likely that they will cultivate bonds within communities, report crimes or cooperate if they have evidence or witness a crime.
This is also why lawmakers are prioritizing passage of House Bill 150, which would limit immigration enforcement activities at courthouses, so victims of crime feel safe to confront their abusers.
What makes the DACP’s statement nonsensical is that, on one hand, it recognizes the importance of maintaining cooperation and trust between and within immigrant communities. Yet, on the other hand, this is the very reason it claims to oppose these laws, saying they would somehow undermine relationships by sending a message that the police are somehow untrustworthy.
Simply put: It does not engender trust for police to simply say “trust us” and be unwilling to accept any form of accountability. Instead, claiming that they do not want these additional laws to apply to them leaves many in the community wondering why they would not want to follow these commonsense laws.
The public places a tremendous amount of power in the hands of local police. In exchange for that power must come a requisite amount of responsibility and accountability to the people. The DACP is correct that it should stay out of immigration enforcement, but to meaningfully foster trust from the community, local officers should be willing to put those principles into state law and hold themselves accountable to it.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
