July 6, 2005

Statement Clarifying MPD Policy with Respect to Collaboration with Federal Immigration Authorities

MPD Collaboration with Federal Immigration Authorities

Criminal Enforcement Operations

While MPD's policy against inquiring about immigration status is clear and strong, our Department is obligated to provide limited support to federal immigration authorities when they conduct criminal law enforcement operations in the District of Columbia. This does not occur very often, as federal immigration authorities are mostly involved in the enforcement of civil immigration laws. But federal immigration authorities are sometimes involved in enforcing criminal laws that are related to immigration, such as those seeking to control the production and sale of falsified immigration documents and identification cards. When this occurs, and MPD assistance is requested, MPD normally provides the police support requested or needed by the federal agency. This support includes investigational support, traffic control, crowd control, and transportation support.

MPD recognizes that, when federal immigration officials are involved, even operations intended to serve as criminal law enforcement operations may involve a civil immigration enforcement component. In other words, once immigration officials are involved in arrests or a search or similar actions, they may make inquiries into immigration status and detain individuals purely on civil immigration violations. Thus, when MPD and immigration officials work collaboratively on criminal law enforcement operations that result in searches, arrests or other similar actions, taken within the jurisdiction of Washington, DC, MPD will take all necessary precautions to ensure that MPD does not become involved in the enforcement of civil immigration laws. Before any such action takes place, MPD will require that the exact nature of the action be specified and will set clear parameters for the role that MPD will take in the action. Specifically, MPD will ensure that it does not become directly involved in arrests, searches or other similar actions except where absolutely necessary to the success of the criminal law enforcement objective. MPD will limit its support to traffic control, crowd control, and transportation support when the enforcement action is strictly on civil immigration laws.

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