The prominence of immigration enforcement issues during the 2016 presidential election as well as publicity surrounding crimes committed by some unauthorized aliens have reignited debates over immigration enforcement in the interior of the country. One homicide case, the July 2, 2015, slaying of a woman on a San Francisco pier by a reported unauthorized alien with a criminal and deportation history, is particularly noteworthy because the law enforcement agency in question reportedly had not honored an ICE request to detain the criminal alien who, upon his release, subsequently committed the crime. Some jurisdictions, through resolutions, executive orders, or local ordinances, have expressly defined or limited their roles and the activities of their employees regarding immigration enforcement. Critics of sanctuary jurisdictions contend that they impede law enforcement's primary mission in ways that could lead to calamitous outcomes (such as the homicide described above) or could encourage illegal immigration. Supporters of sanctuary jurisdictions maintain that they are needed because of resource and legal constraints, the need to avoid the disruption of critical municipal services by diverting local law enforcement personnel to handle immigration enforcement, and community policing concerns. While immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, interior enforcement programs that involve cooperation between ICE and state and local law enforcement agencies can allow a relatively small number of ICE agents to leverage much larger numbers of state and local law enforcement agents. CAP is guided by the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP ), which represents a set of enforcement priorities that describe which foreign nationals should be removed and in what priority order. PEP also comprises a data sharing infrastructure or "interoperability" between DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) that screens for immigration violations when individuals are booked into jails. Section 287(g) Program

Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) permits the Secretary of Homeland Security to delegate certain immigration enforcement functions to state and local law enforcement agencies. Criminal Alien Numbers and Crimes

As mentioned, ICE has made the removal of certain criminal aliens its top priority. Federal data are compiled by the U.S. Table 2 indicates that at the end of CY2014, the most recent year for which these data are available, 23,532 noncitizens accounted for 11.2% of the 209,561 individuals incarcerated in federal prisons. In state prisons, 44,305 noncitizens accounted for 3.5% of the 1,268,740 individuals incarcerated at the end of CY2014. In total, noncitizens represented 4.6% of the year-end incarcerated population in CY2014. Table 3 , which presents the federal prison population by offense category for the end of FY2013, shows that drug offenders accounted for 50% of all federal offenders in federal prison, with incarcerated noncitizens having a comparable if slightly lower proportion in this category (46%) compared with incarcerated citizens (52%). Although immigration offenders represented almost 12% of all incarcerated federal offenders at the end of FY2013, they represented 43% of all federal noncitizen offenders. Together, drug and immigration offenses represented almost 90% of all noncitizen federal offenses at the end of FY2013. Impact on Communities

As mentioned, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, greater emphasis has been placed on enforcing the nation's immigration laws. Funding for State and Local Cooperation

Congress could appropriate additional funding to state and local law enforcement agencies for their cooperation with enforcing immigration law. Congressional Action in the 114th Congress

The 114 th Congress introduced several legislative proposals related to sanctuary jurisdictions. Some would have prohibited jurisdictions from receiving certain federal grants if they limited in specified ways their cooperation with ICE regarding immigration enforcement. The House passed H.R. 3009 on July 23, 2015. That bill would have penalized states and localities that restrict information gathering or communication with federal immigration enforcement agencies regarding an individual's citizenship or immigration status by withholding funding for three Department of Justice grant programs: the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the Community-Oriented Policing Services Program (COPS), and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program.
The prominence of immigration enforcement issues during the 2016 presidential election as well as publicity surrounding crimes committed by some unauthorized aliens have reignited debates over immigration enforcement in the interior of the country. One homicide case, the July 2, 2015, slaying of a woman in San Francisco by a reported unauthorized alien with a criminal and deportation history, is noteworthy, because the law enforcement agency in question reportedly did not honor an immigration detainer issued by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the individual who committed the crime. ICE has made the removal of certain criminal aliens its top priority. Funding for all criminal alien programs has increased substantially since their inception in FY2004. In FY2016, funding amounted to $341 million, compared to $6 million in FY2004.
In 2014, noncitizens represented 7.0% of the U.S. population. At the end of 2014, noncitizens accounted for 11.2% of the 209,561 individuals incarcerated in federal prisons, 3.5% of the 1,268,740 individuals incarcerated in state prisons, and 4.6% of the entire incarcerated population. These figures are understated because they do not include figures for California which did not report its non-citizen incarcerated population.
Drug and immigration offenses represented almost 90% of all federal offenses committed by noncitizens in FY2013. Incarceration data from FY2013 indicate that drug offenders accounted for 50% of all offenders in federal prison, with incarcerated noncitizens having a comparable if slightly lower proportion in this offense category (46%) compared with incarcerated citizens (52%). Although immigration offenders represented almost 12% of all incarcerated federal offenders, they represented 43% of all federal noncitizen offenders. Published data on the state and local prisoners by offense type and citizenship status are not available.
Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, but efforts have been made continually to use the potential "force multipliers" offered by local law enforcement. Legislation enacted in 1996 allows the federal government to enter into "287(g)" agreements with state and local law enforcement jurisdictions that permit it to delegate certain immigration enforcement functions to state and local law enforcement agents. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, this program and others involving federal and state and local cooperation expanded.
ICE also operates the Criminal Alien Program (CAP), which is guided by the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP), a set of immigration enforcement priorities that describe which foreign nationals should be removed and in what priority order. PEP also employs "interoperability," a data sharing infrastructure between DHS and the Department of Justice (DOJ) that screens individuals for immigration-related violations when they are booked by law enforcement jurisdictions. PEP replaced the former Secure Communities, which many jurisdictions with large foreign-born populations had opposed.
In recent years, some jurisdictions have expressly defined or limited their roles and the activities of their employees regarding immigration enforcement. These have been referred to as "sanctuary" jurisdictions. Critics of sanctuary jurisdictions contend that they impede law enforcement's primary mission in ways that could lead to calamitous outcomes (such as the homicide in San Francisco) or could encourage illegal immigration. Supporters maintain that they are needed because of resource and legal constraints, the need to avoid the disruption of critical municipal services by diverting local law enforcement personnel to handle immigration enforcement, and community policing concerns.
Congress may choose to consider several issues, including whether the potentially positive impacts on public safety of state and local involvement in immigration enforcement outweigh the potentially negative impacts on both law enforcement resource utilization and community relations within such jurisdictions; and whether increasing law enforcement funding or tying the provision of certain federal grants to greater cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agencies—or a mix of both approaches—would yield the greater cooperation proponents seek.
The 114th Congress introduced several legislative proposals related to sanctuary jurisdictions. Some would have prohibited jurisdictions from receiving certain federal grants if they limited in specified ways their cooperation with ICE regarding immigration enforcement. The House passed H.R. 3009 on July 23, 2015. That bill would have penalized states and localities that restrict information gathering or communication with federal immigration enforcement agencies regarding an individual's citizenship or immigration status by withholding funding for three DOJ grant programs: the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the Community-Oriented Policing Services Program (COPS), and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program.