I recently read the Enumclaw Police Department’s statement regarding their policy on assisting federal immigration enforcement (see front page).

I call the members of the EPD my friends, having spent nearly 30 years working alongside them in a neighboring jurisdiction.

I am unsure what prompted this statement. The Plateau is hardly a hotbed of illegal activity. I suspect local political pressure forced the department to take a stand that is now “clearer than mud.”

Many people, claiming to protect neighbors from “scary ICE men,” are unclear on the law. Is violating immigration law a criminal or civil matter? The answer is: it depends. There are clear criminal statutes, including Improper Entry (8 U.S.C. 1325), Illegal Reentry (8 U.S.C. 1326), and Alien Smuggling (8 U.S.C. 1324). These range from misdemeanors to serious felonies while visa overstays and claims of asylum are civil matters.

ICE agents are sworn federal officers trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia. When local police refuse to assist ICE, agents are forced out of controlled environments and into the community to make arrests.

This creates unnecessary conflict in neighborhoods. If police were allowed to coordinate with ICE, Renee Good and Alex Pretti might be alive today. Fugitives would be taken into custody within the safe confines of a jail rather than on the street, where “bad things” happen.

Furthermore, we must remember the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution). When local policies like the “Keep Washington Working Act” conflict with federal law, federal law controls. We do not get to pick and choose which laws to enforce. “We are a nation of laws, not of men.”

Finally, I was disturbed by accounts from Minneapolis where local police were reportedly told to “stand down,” leaving a lone, bloodied ICE agent to defend a hotel lobby against dozens of violent agitators. It breaks my heart. When I wore the uniform, you couldn’t keep us from responding to help a brother or sister in blue. That is exactly what ICE agents are: our brothers and sisters in law enforcement.

I would hate to see the men and women of the Enumclaw Police Department forced to make a choice between a political policy and their fellow officers. With this statement, if ICE activity begins here, that is exactly the choice they will face.

Tim Personius

Wilkeson