Assumption of Risk: Legal Liabilities for Local Governments that Choose to Enforce Federal Immigration Laws

Five leading immigrant and civil rights organizations issued a joint policy document detailing the illegalities inherent in each of the U.S. government’s repeated attempts to enlist local law enforcement authorities to arrest and detain people on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It was written by attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center, American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Immigration Law Center, and Southern Poverty Law Center. It describes the legal liabilities local governments face when they honor ICE requests, known as “detainers,” to hold individuals past the completion of their criminal custody until immigration agents take them into administrative custody.