Trump’s immigration crackdown puts the spotlight on Ducey, local police

Regional News

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Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants puts the spotlight on border governors like Doug Ducey, who must decide whether to fully cooperate with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and allow their state’s law enforcers to act as immigration agents.

Whatever his decision, Ducey must also contend with county and city law enforcement agencies, many of which have been wary of the idea of going after undocumented immigrants.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly yesterday issued two sweeping memos to implement Trump’s plan to identify and deport more undocumented immigrants.

The memos (see here and here) rolled back the Obama administration’s policy of focusing enforcement action on the criminal element of the undocumented population. Instead, DHS said it would no longer exempt classes or categories of undocumented residents from enforcement actions. To help achieve this goal, as well as beef up border security, the department wants to hire 10,000 more immigration officers and 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

But the success of Trump’s plan partly hinges on the cooperation of state and local law enforcement agencies, which encounter undocumented residents during routine work.

Ducey refused to weigh in on the federal immigration memos, saying the news just broke.