Carney Fights to Help Local Authorities Curb Illegal Immigration

Press Release

Congressman Chris Carney (PA-10) today introduced legislation to help state and local authorities in the fight against illegal immigration. The measure, co-sponsored by Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), would enable state and local police departments and prisons to be reimbursed for funds related to training officers in immigration enforcement, providing critical resources in the fight to curb illegal aliens. By law, without that training, local authorities are unable to identify and deport illegal aliens.

"Our local law enforcement officers are on the front lines of our battle against illegal immigration and they need every tool possible in that fight," said Congressman Carney. "This is a common sense measure that would improve our efforts to crack down on illegal aliens. We must do much more if we are to combat this problem."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a program in place to train state and local authorities, including prison guards, but the costs associated with that training are often prohibitively expensive for local departments. The costs of lodging, travel and securing temporary law enforcement replacements during training, for example, are now borne by the local authorities, hurting their ability to send officers to the four-week training program in South Carolina. Congressman Carney's bill would authorize, under a one-year trial basis, reimbursements for those costs and other related expenses.

"This is an important step in our efforts to train our local authorities so that we can tackle the enormous problem of illegal immigration," Carney said.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency has trained more than 1,000 officers operating under the program, titled 287(g). Since January 2006, these officers are credited with identifying more than 120,000 individuals suspected of being in the country illegally.

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