The U.S. Justice Department ruled yesterday that Attorney General John Ashcraft can grant state and local police the power to enforce immigration laws and deputize them as agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Most police departments have, in the past, opposed police involvement in combating civil violations of immigration statutes as discouraging immigrants from reporting crimes, and driving a wedge between local law enforcement and immigrant communities. Coming on the tail of the Supreme Court's decision to deny undocumented immigrants the rights and protections afforded by the National Labor Relations Act (see WIT for March 28, 2002), this ruling by the Justice Department is likely to further reduce the willingness and ability of documented and undocumented immigrants alike to seek redress from violations of their remaining labor, wage and safety rights.
See ERIC SCHMITT, The New York Times, April 3, 2002