Law Enforcement Policies?

I have a close relative who works for the CHP (California Highway Patrol). He says that the CHP has a policy to avoid ALL situations of immigration status. They are not to ask if a person is legal or illegal, and, even if they somehow find out they're here illegally, they are to do nothing about it.

This reminds me of those "sanctuaries" cities, and I wondered what other state or city police forces have similar policies. Anybody know?

It's all a matter of jurisdiction and the directives given in said location at the time.The biggest issue with localities is if an officer at the time believes further checks are needed.If you're undocumented and pulled over with no license and the State in question is apart of SCAAP.......assume the worst !

Yeah...if you've been here since after 2004-ish, or have been caught before, or are a criminal (who knows?), you really don't want to get caught under S-COMM. And it's best not to get caught anywhere that has 287(g) in place.

Woah. Too many acronyms. What's SCAAP, S-COMM, and 287(g)? I need to do more research!

S-COMM = Secure Communities, which I'll assume for now you've heard of
287(g) = a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to train local police officers to act as immigration officials

Is Michigan in S-COMM?

Yep, Michigan is.

Here's the list of activated jurisdictions: http://www.ice.gov/doclib/secure-com...-activated.pdf

So when you get caught driving without a license, they are going to scan your finger print?

If you get arrested for it, yeah. You may get lucky; you may not. Whatever you do, don't tell them you're not a citizen. And don't lie about it either. They can do the rest, but chances are, they'll be too lazy.

So how is this? From what I've understood of the definition, "criminal alien" is a person who is here illegally AND has committed a felony or two misdemeanors. Right? Is driving without a license a misdemeanor (I guess it would depend on the laws where you live), and how does that allow them to share your information through the S-COMM program if you're not a "criminal alien"?