Background: House Bill 1585 would require law enforcement officials to report undocumented immigrants to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Our position: The ACLU of North Dakota opposes House Bill 1585. Immigration enforcement is a federal issue, not a local or state one.
Local law enforcement agencies that willingly carry out the business of the federal government could lose vital community support and diminish their efforts to improve public safety. Community policing, after all, works best when law enforcement has the trust and cooperation of their constituents. However, this cooperation is easily eroded when communities believe they cannot safely disclose criminal activity to local law enforcement for fear of deportation or imprisonment or that they may be the subject of racial or ethnic profiling.
