Debates have long emerged over which immigration authority is mandated to deal with illegal intruders in the United States. However, it is believed that the federal government takes the key role to do so (Jennifer, 2015). The state and the local authorities act as support to the federal government to control illegal immigrants. The support by local and state authorities in dealing with illegal immigration in the United States signifies a wider perspective that illegal immigration in this country has continued to be major issue.
Although the state and local government injects their total commitment to regulate illegal immigrants, it has been faced with various challenges. First, there are so many immigrants being manned by few immigration agencies (Kobach, 2004). The other problem is unclear laws on whether the state and local authorities bear the same power to arrest illegal immigrants as the federal government (Kobach, 2004). Some of the laws enacted by the Supreme Court could not concur with the others regarding the regulation of noncitizens (Jennifer, 2015). The state and local authorities were not legally considered over the federal agency to deal with illegal immigrants. For them to be involved in the same work was considered to be patriotism and not legal affair.
It is clear that the federal government is the major body that enacts and implements illegal immigration laws. On the other hand, it seems almost impossible for it to implement its mandate alone. The local and state authorities have proved that their role in the protection of the local citizens from aliens cannot be overlooked (Kobach, 2004). Some of the crucial areas through which the state and the local bodies have played in security matters include; watching and monitoring of potential security threats like terror attacks, the arrest of suspected terrorists, immigrants who have exceeded their period of accommodation and illegal traders (Kobach, 2004). The federal authority personnel cannot be able to be everywhere in the country to deal with aliens. Furthermore, their total number is by far much fewer than the illegal immigrants are.
The effectiveness to control illegal immigrants in the United States owes its success to the imminent collaboration of the three departments of law enforcers. The control of illegal immigration has improved over the past few years. The court ruling involving the state and local authorities in dealing with illegal immigrants, opened a new era of collaborative success (Jennifer, 2015). The federal government has continued to support both the local and state authorities in matters related to dealing with illegal immigration. Initially, it was considered that the attempt by the local and state authorities to deal with illegal immigration was out of personal will and not constitutionally mandated (Kobach, 2004). In their collaboration, several issues related to unlawful immigration have been identified. For instance, in the case of Oklahoma, where a local state officer arrested an undocumented immigrant, it was only because of the officer that they discovered the alien had been back into the country even after being deported to his country (Kobach, 2004). Many instances like this one showcase measures that have been taken by the three authorities to control unlawful immigration. As explained by Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (2015), the federal government also works together with the associated police departments to control immigrants.
References
Jennifer, C. (2015, June Monday). Who is Responsible for U.S Immigration Law. Retrieved October Friday, 2015, from Insights On Law and Society:
Kobach, K. (2004). Low-Immigration, Pro-Immigrant. Center for Immigration Studies, 166.
Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. (2015, June). How the Government, Enforce Canadian Immigration Laws. Retrieved October Friday, 2015, from Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants: Settlement.org