City of Philadelphia - File #: 020394

• File #: 020394
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 5/30/2002
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 5/30/2002
• Title: Calling on Mayor Street and Police Commissioner Johnson to oppose a new federal policy which would provide state and local law enforcement agencies with the legal authority to arrest and detain persons for violations of federal immigration laws and calling on Mayor Street to issue an Executive Order prohibiting all City departments and agencies, including the Philadelphia Police Department, from requesting information about or otherwise investigating or assisting in the investigation of the citizenship or residency status of any person unless such inquiry or investigation is required by statute, ordinance, federal regulation or court decision.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Ortiz, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember DiCicco, Councilmember Goode, Council President Verna, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Nutter, Councilmember Cohen, Councilmember Miller

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
5/30/2002	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED	Pass	11:5
5/30/2002	0	CITY COUNCIL	READ
5/30/2002	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced	Pass

Title
Calling on Mayor Street and Police Commissioner Johnson to oppose a new federal policy which would provide state and local law enforcement agencies with the legal authority to arrest and detain persons for violations of federal immigration laws and calling on Mayor Street to issue an Executive Order prohibiting all City departments and agencies, including the Philadelphia Police Department, from requesting information about or otherwise investigating or assisting in the investigation of the citizenship or residency status of any person unless such inquiry or investigation is required by statute, ordinance, federal regulation or court decision.
Body
WHEREAS, In April 2002, the media reported that the Department of Justice was considering issuing a formal legal opinion which would, for the first time, provide state and local law enforcement agencies with the legal authority to arrest and detain persons for civil violations of federal immigration laws. Such a policy would mark a complete reversal from the long-standing federal policy in which immigration laws and criminal laws are enforced separately; and

WHEREAS, As recently as 1996, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that "state and local police lack recognized legal authority to stop and detain an alien solely on suspicion of civil deportability, as opposed to criminal violation of the immigration laws or other laws." An earlier Justice Department legal opinion from 1989 reached similar conclusions; and

WHEREAS, This new policy is incompatible with the community-based policing model currently utilized by the Philadelphia Police Department, whereby the police and community work together to solve problems after establishing a culture of trust. In immigrant communities, building those trust relationships that are the foundations of successful policing is especially difficult. Owing to the negative experiences many immigrants had with the local police in their home countries an...