The devolution of immigration policing authority from the federal to local governments represents a sharp break with a long-established tradition of federal control over all aspects of immigration enforcement. In the past, state and local police forces played only a supportive role in immigration affairs, sometimes sharing information about those they had detained as criminal suspects or assisting in enforcement actions. The federal government could not require local governments to do immigration policing. Police powers were constitutionally reserved for the states and their jurisdictional subunits, an arrangement that provided localities with significant flexibility and autonomy. However,with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), the federal government has created an opening for localities to ask their police officers to be trained by and to join the federal government in enforcing immigration laws within the interior of the United States.Thus, beginning in 2002, informal working relationships between local police and federal immigration agents have developed. For example, some local police departments are now seeking formal training from federal immigration authorities. Federal agents are also embedded in some police departments to assist in enforcement of drug and human smuggling laws. A number of state prisons and local jails send the names of criminal suspects to federal authorities to be checked for immigration violations. And an increasing number of police departments are electing to do their own immigration status checks. Such an increased involvement of state and local police departments in immigrant affairs has given rise to what some observers are calling "immigration federalism."
57 What is the passage mainly about?
(A)The importance of cooperation between federal and local governments in immigration affairs.
(B)The enhanced role of local governments in immigration policing.
(C)The impact of new immigration policies on foreign a ffairs.
(D)The decline of the U.S. federal government.