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Sanctuary laws in California, two other states and numerous cities largely prohibit police and jailers from taking part in federal immigration enforcement. They have not yet become a prominent issue in the presidential campaign, but that could change after Joe Biden’s latest proposal.

If Biden is elected president and carries out his plan, a version of California’s sanctuary law will be in effect nationwide.

In an “Agenda for the Latino Community” announced Aug. 4, the former vice president promised to undo President Trump’s enforcement of a law known as Section 287(g). Part of a restrictive immigration bill signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 — and supported by Biden and nearly all of his Democratic colleagues — 287(g) allows local governments to reach agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to aid in enforcing federal law.

Currently, that aid is limited to screening immigrants in local jails, identifying the undocumented and turning them over to ICE for deportation. The federal agency first provides four weeks of training for participating local officers.

Until the program was scaled back by President Barack Obama in 2012, however, it allowed some local governments to take part in on-the-street enforcement — most notably Arizona’s Maricopa County, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio targeted Latino neighborhoods and businesses for immigration raids.

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Whatever the scope of the 287(g) agreements, they “undermine trust and cooperation between local law enforcement and the communities they are charged to protect,” Biden’s campaign said last week. “As president, Biden will end all the agreements entered into by the Trump administration and aggressively limit the use of 287(g) and similar programs that force local law enforcement to take on the role of immigration enforcement.”

ICE says it has 146 such agreements now, more than half of them in two states — 48 in Florida and 26 in Texas. The agency formerly had 287(g) pacts in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, but those were prohibited by California’s sanctuary law, which took effect in October 2018.

“Federal, state and local officers working together provide a tremendous benefit to public safety through increased law enforcement communication and overall community policing effectiveness,” ICE says on its website. “Under the program, state and local partners benefit by reducing the number of criminal offenders that are released back into the community without being screened for immigration violations.”

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After nearly six years of expanded use, Obama scaled back Secure Communities in 2014 and largely limited its enforcement to immigrants convicted of serious crimes. Trump reinstated it fully in 2017.

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https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Biden-pledge-on-police-immigration-contacts-would-15482134.php