WASHINGTON, Nov 14: Civil rights groups and law enforcement agencies on Thursday denounced a new piece of legislation that will allow local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

The hearing of the controversial Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal (CLEAR) Act began in the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration on Thursday.

The CLEAR Act legislates the legal authority of police to enforce federal civil immigration laws. Currently state and local police may only enforce criminal immigration laws, except in very specific circumstances. The act also requires local police to either enforce immigration laws or lose certain federal funds.

The bill further ‘encourages’ police participation by awarding them assets seized from undocumented immigrants, permitting them to seek funds from the federal government for failure to pick up undocumented immigrants, and purporting to grant them limited immunity from lawsuits.

In a joint statement, issued by the National Immigration Forum police departments, law enforcement and national security experts, local governments, domestic violence experts and immigrant advocates urged the administration to review the new policy.

For varying reasons, each of these constituencies feels that enforcing civil immigration laws is a matter best left to the federal government and that state and local police should remain primarily in the business of fighting crime.

“Making state and local police enforce federal immigration law strikes a direct blow at the efforts of police to win the trust and confidence of the communities they serve,” said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum.

“By turning police into immigration agents, it discourages immigrants from having contact with local law enforcement, which, in turn, puts community policing strategies at risk.”