Crime and Illegal Immigration: Emerging Local, State, and Federal Partnerships

An estimated 2 percent of the population consists of illegal immigrants. Crimes associated with illegal immigration include the crimes committed by illegal immigrants, the smuggling of illegal immigrants, manufacturing and selling fraudulent documents, bribing public officials, and preying on illegal immigrants. Local and State law enforcement agencies often cooperated with Federal immigration officials even after the Immigration Act of 1891 established complete and definite Federal control over immigration. Passage of the Violent Crime Control and law Enforcement Act of 1994 created unprecedented levels of Federal resources for controlling illegal immigration and crimes committed by and against illegal immigrants. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has launched two major initiatives to streamline identification and deportation procedures. In addition, a joint Federal and State task group assessed Federal, State, and local practices for identifying and processing criminal aliens and made 32 recommendations for improving partnerships. These and other cooperative efforts recognize the separate and sometimes confounding distinctions between crime control and immigration control and that law enforcement’s mission is mainly crime control, not immigration control. Tables, photographs, and notes