August 22, 2007    
Office of The Attorney General
- Anne Milgram, Attorney General

 
AG Issues Directive On State And Local Law Enforcement Agencies And Federal Immigration Laws
Milgram Says Federal Immigration Authorities Should be Notified if Undocumented Immigrants Arrested 
 
    
   
 
  
Trenton, NJ – Attorney General Anne Milgram today issued a directive to state law enforcement agencies regarding their relationship with federal immigration authorities. Milgram said local police must inquire about immigration status after an officer has arrested an individual on serious criminal charges, and shall notify Immigration Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), the prosecuting agency, and the court if there is a reason to believe that the arrestee may be an undocumented immigrant.

The directive lists specific indictable offenses and driving while intoxicated as crimes for which a police officer should ask about an individual’s citizenship, nationality, and immigration status after an arrest.

The directive also declares that no law enforcement officer shall inquire about or investigate the immigration status of any victim, witness or person requesting assistance from the police. “The overriding mission of law enforcement officers in this state is to enforce the state’s criminal laws and to protect the community that they serve,” Milgram stated. “This requires the cooperation of, and positive relationships with, all members of the community. Public safety suffers if individuals believe that they cannot come forward to report a crime or cooperate with law enforcement.”

The directive, which notes that the enforcement of immigration law remains a federal responsibility, was also developed to set guidelines for municipalities that apply to U.S immigration authorities for what is commonly known as Section 287(g) authority. Unlike the rest of the Attorney General Directive, this portion of the Directive applies solely to local, county, or state agencies that enter into written Memoranda of Agreement with ICE.

Section 287(g) permits the federal government to enter into agreements with local, county, and state law enforcement agencies to deputize county and state correctional officers to process incarcerated, undocumented immigrants for federal immigration violations or to deputize local, county, or state police officers on the street to enforce federal immigration laws.

The Directive permits the full exercise of federal immigration authority at county jails and state prisons in relation to undocumented immigrants who are incarcerated.

As to Section 287(g) local, county, and state law enforcement officers on the street in New Jersey, Milgram indicated that these officers must be just that – local, county, and state officers. This is the overriding mission of our law enforcement, Milgram noted, in indicating that Section 287(g) officers could only invoke their federal immigration authority after placing an undocumented immigrant under arrest for an indictable offense or driving while intoxicated charge.

The directive also makes clear that no state, county, or local law enforcement officer performing the functions of an immigration officer may engage in racial profiling.

Any inquiries by a Section 287(g) officer into immigrant status must be documented and reported to superiors, and those police departments shall submit a monthly report to the Division of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law and Public Safety detailing investigations into immigrant status.

In addition, any police department with a formal agreement with ICE that detains individuals solely on the basis of violating federal immigration law must have agreements with detention facilities to house the detainees.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases07/pr20070822a.html

AG Directive (325k pdf) plug-in