US police chiefs denounce Trump immigration crackdown in open letter

March 02, 2017 00:03

An alliance of 61 police chiefs have criticised the enforcement of Donald Trumps immigration policies and are pleading for a change of tact.

In an open letter, the senior figures explain that if local police perform the federal governments job by enforcing deportations, it will create "harm" in their communities.

Trump has pledged to bring in local police forces to help with deporting millions of undocumented immigrants.

Immigration enforcement is, first and foremost, a federal responsibility, reads the letter.

We believe that state and local law enforcement must work together with federal authorities to protect our communities and that we can best serve our communities by leaving the enforcement of immigration laws to the federal government.

The chiefs stress that if the federal government force local police to help with national policy, and sometimes problematic tasks, it undermines the delicate federal balance and will harm locally-based [and] community-orientated policing.

It finishes: We hope that this committee (US Senate committee on homeland security) will avoid taking actions that could harm community trust and make it harder for state and local law enforcement agencies to do our jobs.

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