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December 11, 2006
Somerville Mayor Opposes Using City Police To Enforce Immigration Law
Curtatone Cites Lack of Police Time, Resources for Added Duties; Notes Need to Maintain Close Working Relationship With Immigrant Community
SOMERVILLE – Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone today voiced his opposition to the idea of requiring the Somerville Police Department to enforce federal immigration laws as a standard component of their daily duties. The issue was raised by a recent announcement from Governor Romney that he had brokered a deal to allow the Massachusetts State Police to begin enforcing federal immigration regulations, and by comments last week from newly appointed Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis III that he would oppose the imposition of similar duties on Boston’s police officers.
“It’s one thing to ask our police to cooperate with a specific federal investigation of illegal immigration,” said Mayor Curtatone. “It’s another thing entirely to ask our police officers to do the daily enforcement work of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Local police forces have limited resources and very different priorities, and this type of added enforcement duty will cost us more money without improving public safety and security. In fact, if our immigrant population started to feel that that they couldn’t trust and work with local law enforcement on issues such as gangs, drugs and domestic violence, any attempt to require city police departments to enforce federal immigration law would almost certainly backfire.”
Curtatone said he was heartened by comments last week from Governor-Elect Deval Patrick that he would be reviewing the Romney plan. “The incoming Patrick Administration understands that cities and towns can’t afford more unfunded mandates from state or federal government – and Deval’s background as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney General has given him firsthand experience of the importance to local police of building credibility and trust with immigrant populations,” Curtatone said.
In Somerville, where one third of the population was born in a country other than the United States, and half the city’s public high school students come from homes in which English is a second language, the police force tries to work closely with the immigrant community to promote cooperation and understanding as tools to fight crime. “If someone in our city knows about a crime or needs police assistance, they should feel they can come to us without having to worry about proving their residency status,” said Somerville’s Acting Police Chief Robert Bradley. “Our job is community policing, and we don’t have the manpower or the financial resources to do the work of the federal government in enforcing immigration law. But even if we did, what would happen to our ability to deal with dangerous gangs like MS-13 if, for example, our large Spanish-speaking community started thinking of us as the immigration police?”
Curtatone noted that he was grateful to both Patrick and to Boston Police Commissioner Davis for speaking out on the issue. “This isn’t a question of trying to set national immigration policy,” Curtatone said. “This is a question of trying to balance multiple public safety and security issues in a cost-effective and appropriate way. Governor Romney may want to make this a national issue as part of his presidential campaign, but Massachusetts mayors have got to stay focused on keeping our streets safe and balancing our budgets – and this won’t help.”
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