What's New?...another libidiot IA hugger bleeding heart college professor with love for the invaders. Ward Churchill would be proud:

Police protect civil liberties for all
By RACHEL IDA BUFF

Posted: Oct. 11, 2007
The Milwaukee Police Department's recent decision not to have officers enforce federal immigration policy is the right one: It protects both immigrants and citizens from racial profiling. It is also the right decision in terms of the safety of our city and the civil liberties of Americans from all ethnic backgrounds.

Buy a link hereAsking the department not to enforce immigration law is consistent with a longstanding American tradition separating federal and local authority. Having experienced the imposition of British military force in Revolutionary-era American cities, the framers of the Constitution were careful to balance control of such force between federal, state and local bodies in the new nation.

Congress was explicitly given the right to regulate immigration. In the 20th century, this resulted in the creation of the U.S. Border Patrol and, more recently, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security.

In 1879, the Posse Comitatus Statute forbade the deputizing of federal troops to assist in domestic law enforcement. Along with the constitutional separation of federal and local power, these laws sought to provide American cities, states and towns some measure of political autonomy and to guard against too much power being concentrated in federal enforcement agencies.

A current trend seeks to deputize local police to assist in federal law enforcement. The Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act was proposed in Congress in 2003. It would have forced state and local governments to add the enormous task of immigration enforcement to overburdened and underpaid forces. A diverse coalition of police associations, labor unions, immigrant rights groups and religious organizations worked to defeat the act in Congress, succeeding in 2005.

There is still great pressure to have local police serve as immigration authorities. This pressure comes from increased concern about homeland security and immigration. Many people are willing to ask our overburdened public servants to take on the work of the Department of Homeland Security: enforcing immigration law.

But asking local police to do this work would be expensive and unnecessary. More important, in a time marked by increased crime, asking our police to do immigration enforcement work would imperil safety on the streets.

The Milwaukee Police Department is charged with keeping order and enforcing the criminal code in our city and preventing crime, whether committed by a recent immigrant or a citizen whose family has been here for centuries. Adding immigration enforcement would overextend the resources of the department.

People with reason to fear racial profiling would be reluctant to report crime in their communities. This fear would undermine the careful work of many police officers in cultivating good relationships with diverse communities in the city.

There is no way to tell by looking at someone whether he or she is an immigrant. Asking police to enforce federal immigration law would force them to stop more citizens and ask for immigration documents.

We need our police to take care of the problems in our city. Charging them with the additional, onerous task of immigration enforcement would burden the police force, resulting in unnecessary stops and searches and less time for the law enforcement so vital to Milwaukee.

Rachel Ida Buff teaches history and comparative ethnic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=673773