This Could Be Your Finest Hour!

Questions Every Police Leader Should Answer About Federal Immigration Enforcement

When federal agents operate inside a city, the responsibility for public safety — and for protecting constitutional rights — still rests with local police. These questions help communities clarify what they should expect from their police. It builds community trust and support.

1. Will you refuse to participate in any federal immigration enforcement operation that lacks judicial warrants or clear legal authority?
2. Will you thoroughly report when you witness excessive force, unlawful detention, or other violations of law by federal agents?
3. Will you publicly affirm that you will protect all residents in your jurisdiction, including undocumented residents, from unlawful violence or rights violations?
4. Will you issue a written policy outlining how your officers must respond when federal agents operate in your jurisdiction or when community members report illegal federal conduct?

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If local police step up now — if they publicly answer these basic community questions and make it unmistakably clear that they will protect everyone who lives in their jurisdiction — then this moment could well become policing’s finest hour.

The truth is stark: unidentified, unaccountable federal agents are moving through our cities, seizing people in ways that look far more like kidnapping than lawful enforcement. They sow fear among families who have lived and worked peacefully among us for years. And many immigrants seeking citizenship in America find themselves in a broken, sluggish system while they do so. If local police don’t stand between their communities and unchecked unaccountable federal power, no one will.

But if local police do, they will help restore something this country is in danger of losing: the promise that those who hold the badge serve the people — all the people — and no one stands above the law.