Making Daily Headlines · Page 6
Local Officers Join ICE Partnerships Faster Than the Accountability Debate Can Catch Up
· New York time
The number of state and local officers working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has doubled over the past eight months, according to a report from FWD.us, an immigration reform advocacy group. Its finding points to a rapid expansion of cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local agencies. The report's source matters: FWD.us participates in the immigration policy debate while documenting the growth it says it found. The figure nevertheless identifies a significant change in the scale of the partnerships and invites questions about what responsibilities local officers are taking on. Local policing and federal immigration enforcement answer to different jurisdictions. When agencies work together, residents may want to know how that cooperation operates and how local resources are used. Supporters can see a way for agencies to coordinate; critics can worry about what happens when the boundary between federal and local work becomes less clear. The speed of growth makes that discussion more urgent. A partnership count can double on a chart with a pleasing upward line, but the chart cannot explain every agreement or settle the public argument over enforcement. Growth may be the easiest result to display, while the harder civic question is what each new partnership means on the ground. The membership drive is easy to count. The consequences require a longer meeting.
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