Police and INS collaboration jeopardizes community relations with local law enforcement. Joint INS and police operations deter reporting by immigrant victims or witnesses of crimes due to a fear of deportation, making all communities more vulnerable. Raids increase labor and tenant exploitation. Immigration raids allow unscrupulous employers and landlords to intimidate immigrants by threatening to call the INS if workers or tenants demand better wages or improved working or living conditions. In these cases, all workers and tenants are affected, regardless of immigration status.
Raids are an inhumane and ineffective approach to global migration.
Raids increase civil and human rights violations against citizens and immigrants alike and have no significant impact on international migration patterns. Local committees have successfully organized workshops, have assisted in investigations of abuses, and have begun to meet with INS and Border Patrol officials. However, efforts of community groups to address the abuses resulting from immigration raids are not enough. Without congressional action to implement the following recommendations, abuses will continue. While the INS has taken some concrete steps to improve employee conduct, Congress has yet to show movement toward solving the problems created by immigration raids or toward addressing the root causes of immigration.