A group Democrats, led by Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland), put forward a bill late in the current legislative session aimed at helping illegal immigrants remain in the country and stopping local law enforcement from assisting federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. If passed, it would hand-cuff Maine police from cooperating with federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which have stepped up their activities in Maine and nationally in recent months.
The bill, LD 1971, is titled An Act to Protect Workers in This State by Clarifying the Relationship of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies with Federal Immigration Authorities, though it does far more than merely clarifying a relationship. It drew support from nine Democratic co-sponsors, including former House Speaker and current Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland).
Rep. Dhalac’s bill establishes a list of prohibited activities for local law enforcement regarding immigration law and compliance with federal immigration authorities.
Under the bill, law enforcement agencies may not “use agency or department money or personnel to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, stop, arrest, or search a person for immigration enforcement purposes.”
The prohibition extends to: inquiring about a person’s immigration status; detaining someone based on a hold request; providing information on a person’s release date unless it is public; providing a person’s address; participating in an arrest based on a hold request; assisting immigration authorities in certain activities; or performing the function of an immigration authority, the bill text reads.
It also prevents law enforcement agencies from placing agents under the supervision of a federal agency or employing an officer deputized as an immigration enforcement officer.
Local law enforcement would in naddition be prevented from transferring anyone into immigration authority custody without a court order or criminal warrant, and would not be able to allow federal authorities to use local office space for a general inquiry into an inmate.
If Dhalac and her co-sponsors succeed in passing their bill, which seems to strike at the American practice of federalism, any person being detained solely for an immigration offense must be released as soon as possible and may not be detained longer than 48 hours.
The bill also provides protection from civil liabilities for any law enforcement agencies that release a prisoner subject to a hold request in compliance with the proposed laws, except in cases of willful and wanton misconduct.
There are some exceptions laid out in the bill, such as allowing local agencies to work with federal authorities to arrest illegal immigrants if they are not being arrested primarily for an immigration violation, and allowing them to comply with hold orders if the detainee has also committed other crimes or is subject to a final deportation order.
State employees, other than law enforcement officials, judges, and legal counsel, would be prohibited from inquiring into a person’s immigration status unless it is legally required or necessary to provide a state service.
The draft legislation would establish a new list of duties and prohibitions for agencies with detainees that appear to infringe on federal jurisdictions. For instance, it requires agencies to receive written consent from detainees before allowing an interview with immigration authorities, instruct them to provide a copy of a hold request to the detainee, and inform them whether they intend to comply.
Agencies will not be allowed to restrict access to any privileges afforded to other detainees based on immigration status, and cannot consider that status when determining custodial classification.
The Democrat-led legislation would throw numerous roadblocks in the way of law enforcement seeking to comply with federal law by detaining those in the country illegally.
LD 1971 was referred for consideration in the Judiciary Committee, though no work sessions or public hearings have yet been scheduled.
It is similar, though much longer and wider-ranging, to LD 1259 from Rep. Ambureen Rana (D-Bangor), which would prohibit local law enforcement from entering into contracts with federal immigration authorities.
That bill was initially considered in the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, but the majority of that committee ultimately voted in a divided report to send it to the Judiciary Committee. The committee minority voted that the bill ought not to pass.
