Please cosponsor the CLEAR Act of 2005 (H.R. 3137). This legislation provides for needed help to federal law enforcement personnel in their battle against illegal aliens, especially those who commit serious crimes.

This bipartisan legislation addresses the criminal alien crisis in this country by requiring federal immigration authorities to respond to requests for assistance from state and local police and by providing the funds and training those police need to exercise their own authority to enforce immigration laws.

Every day state and local police officers come into contact with illegal aliens. Sometimes they apprehend them and turn them over to federal officials. Too often, though, they are instructed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release the aliens because ICE lacks the manpower to pick them up, or detention facilities to hold them.

Our 650,000 state and local law officers should be encouraged to help in the enforcement of our immigration laws, just as they help enforce drug and other laws. Adding them to the equation would undoubtedly increase the risk of apprehension for each illegal alien, including those who have committed a crime or are likely to commit one, and make it much less likely that they would be inappropriately released from custody. This would surely represent a major increase in public safety.

Opponents of giving local police the tools to pickup illegal aliens falsely claim that foreign-born residents would cease to report crimes. In fact, the legislation specifically gives police the authority to give immunity to anybody reporting and otherwise helping with community police work.

The real reason that most people oppose having local police participate in immigration enforcement is that they want want illegal aliens to be able to work and live in violation of the law without any fear of prosecution.

Hopefully,

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA