Officers with the Middlebury police department aren’t going to be asking the immigration status of people they meet on the job unless that person is suspected of committing a crime.
The new policy was proposed by Police Chief Thomas Hanley and passed unanimously last week by the town Select Board.
Hanley says the policy is designed to encourage immigrants, whether they’re legal or not, to call police if they witness a crime, an accident or a fire.
The Middlebury policy also says the police will accept as valid identification a Mexican consular ID card.
But advocates of enforcing immigration laws say that accepting the consular ID is dangerous because they’re not secure enough documents.