The immigration bill senators introduced Wednesday bans racial profiling by federal law enforcement officers in most routine encounters, such as traffic stops.<\/p>\n
Under current federal law and court precedents, racial discrimination is illegal \u2014 but there is no specific ban on racial profiling by federal officers.<\/p>\n
But buried inside the 844-page Senate immigration bill is a section specifically prohibiting the use of race or ethnicity as a factor in \u201croutine or spontaneous law enforcement decisions, such as ordinary traffic stops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, that language already represents a compromise. An earlier draft of the bill, reviewed by The Washington Times, had applied specifically to all immigration law enforcement agents at the Homeland Security Department and had banned profiling on country of national origin as well as race and ethnicity.<\/p>\n
The head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, the labor union that represents immigration agents and officers, said that would have ended federal immigration law enforcement altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that you do in immigration enforcement is based on nationality and country of origin. It\u2019s the very heart of immigration enforcement,\u201d Christopher Crane, the ICE Council president, told The Washington Times.<\/p>\n
The country of origin provision was apparently stripped at the last minute \u2014 one of a number of final tweaks designed to blunt criticism of the massive overhaul.<\/p>\n
The points system used to determine future immigrants has also been modified from earlier drafts: several contentious sections have been eliminated, the requirements for demonstrating English proficiency have been strengthened and the points awarded for education attainment have been adjusted.<\/p>\n