American Civil Liberties Union

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) commends the House Committee on Homeland Security for conducting a hearing on March 4, 2009, concerning the role of state and local law enforcement in immigration law as part of the 287(g) program (hereinafter the “287(g) hearing”). We submit this statement to draw the Committee’s attention to the causal link between the use of the 287(g) program by state and local law enforcement agencies and racial and ethnic profiling. In response to Committee members’ questions on whether 287(g) results in racial profiling, William Riley, Acting Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) Office of State and Local Coordination Program testified at the hearing that ICE has not received any complaints of racial or ethnic profiling in connection with the 287(g) program. Available data, pending litigation, and news reports strongly indicate, however, that racial profiling under the 287(g) program is a serious nationwide problem that ICE has completely failed to monitor or acknowledge, much less address.