Legal Commentary

ACLU: Stop the Criminialization of the Undocumented

By Jeralyn

The ACLU has released an issues brief arguing against the criminalizing of the undocumented. It's both unlawful and harmful to public policy.

The use by states and localities of criminal laws to go after undocumented immigrants simply for being undocumented is generally unlawful, because the federal government has sole power to regulate immigration.

[More...]

...More important, the federal government's decision to prosecute more immigration violations criminally has diverted resources from prosecution of serious violent and property crimes. As federal prosecutions for immigration law crimes such as illegal entry have increased dramatically, with prosecutors choosing to pursue 97 percent of all such crimes referred to them, federal prosecutors have had less time for prosecutions for gun trafficking, public corruption, organized crime, and white-collar crime.

The full brief is here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 06, 2010 (boomark / email).