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Syracuse Corporation Counsel Joseph Fahey and Police Chief Frank Fowler speak to Syracuse.com about the impact of President Trump's immigration policy.

(Douglass Dowty)

Syracuse, NY -- Syracuse police have never made a habit of asking residents whether they are in the country legally, Police Chief Frank Fowler told Syracuse.com.

And nothing that President Donald Trump has done in his first two weeks in office will change that, he added.

There's been confusion over what exactly Mayor Stephanie Miner's declaration of Syracuse as a "sanctuary city" actually means for immigrants.

For the time being, nothing.

That's because Trump has not ordered any changes in local immigration practice. The designation could mean more in the future if orders or laws are passed that Miner's administration feels are anti-immigrantion.

But that's down the road.

"It hasn't changed one single thing," Fowler told Syracuse.com Thursday. "Local law enforcement, as a rule, we are not in the habit of enforcing immigration laws."

Local police prioritize enforcement of state criminal laws, local ordinances and traffic laws, the chief said.

"Our work is derived from human behavior," the chief said. "People either see something or do something...we have no way of knowing if someone is illegal or not."

Syracuse police routinely cooperate with federal law enforcement -- including immigration agents -- on criminal cases.

And nothing Trump has done so far will lead Syracuse police to withhold cooperation from their federal counterparts, said Joseph Fahey, the city's top lawyer.

But federal law makes it impossible for the president to force local law enforcement to arrest undocumented residents, Fahey said.

Local police have no authority to arrest someone simply for being in the country illegally, Fahey added. Technically, that's a federal civil violation that doesn't fall under the laws local police uphold.

Asking residents if they were legal or not would be a meaningless exercise because city police can't take them into custody even if they were illegal, Fahey said.

Arresting illegal immigrants is up to federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Deportations for simply being here illegally are extremely rare.

Some communities nationwide have entered official agreements with ICE to tackle illegal immigration, but Syracuse is not one of them.

And ICE isn't really aggressive in catching otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants, according to its own published priorities.

In fact, 99 percent of deported aliens in 2016 fit into categories that include danger to national security or public safety, recent re-entrants or fugitives from previous deportation orders.

Only 5,000 people were deported in 2015 for simply being in the country illegally for an extended period of time, according to ICE stats. About 95,000 others were caught soon after they crossed the border. And both numbers are small compared to the 240,000 total people deported.

In his seven years as police chief, federal agents have never asked Syracuse police to arrest someone solely for illegal immigration, Fowler said.

Fahey noted that Trump's temporary ban on immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries doesn't have any effect on policing within the country.

"It's repeating existing immigration law," Fahey said of the order's effect on local communities.

So who's at risk?

If the city is right that Trump cannot order police to arrest illegal immigrants, then who should be concerned?

In short, anyone arrested for any type of crime or violation. That could be anything from being drunk and disorderly to murder.

Once someone is lawfully taken into custody for breaking another law, ICE can request that person be detained to investigate his or her immigration status.

"Once they're inside the jail, that matter can come up," Fowler said. "What happens after we deliver (a suspect) to the jail, that matter is between the sheriff and the ICE services."

Right now, immigration detainers are also few and far between.

Onondaga County Sheriff Gene Conway said last week that federal agents have not asked the local jail to detain any undocumented immigrants during the sheriff's two years in office.

And only 110 such detainer requests have been issued since 2007, according to a Syracuse University study.

But that could easily change. If Trump wanted to be more aggressive, he could order ICE to investigate the legality of more inmates accused of crimes.

That also plays into ICE's priorities, which focus on deporting those who break the law -- from plotting terrorism to committing violent crimes.

Fahey, a retired judge, noted that serious criminals are already asked their immigration status in court and are at risk of being deported.

But otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants do not appear in danger of being stopped and asked about their citizenship, absent some other reason.

That's what got former Phoenix, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in trouble. The sheriff was held in contempt by a federal judge in 2016 for refusing to stop profiling Hispanic residents as part of an illegal immigration crackdown.

Parsing the law

So if being in the country illegally isn't a crime, what is it?

It's a federal civil violation. There's no mention of it in state or local law.

But it's still the law of the land, right? Yes, but immigration law specifically states that local municipalities are not required to enforce it, Fahey said.

That's why the definition of a "crime" versus a "civil violation" is so important.

It would take more than an executive order by the president to force local law enforcement to round up illegal immigrants: it would take an act of Congress to change the law.

Is rounding up illegal immigrants bad for police?

No one knows exactly how far Trump's promise to crack down on illegal immigrants will go.

But Fahey argued that creating fear among illegal immigrants could hurt citizens and non-citizens alike.

That's because immigrants are often key witnesses to major crimes, he said. It's already extremely hard to get witnesses to come forward and cooperate with law enforcement.

It would be nearly impossible if a witness was afraid that cooperating would lead to his or her deportation, he argued.

It's not clear if any immigration crackdown would provide an exemption for witnesses in criminal cases.

But the fear of being deported could hinder investigations of crimes against U.S. citizens, he concluded.

"It's going to impede the ability of police to keep citizens of the community safe," Fahey said.