Mayor Gray signed an executive order banning D.C. public safety agencies from inquiring about immigration status.

During a press conference packed with cheering immigration advocates, Mayor Vince Gray signed an executive order that would prohibit D.C. public safety officials from inquiring about immigration status during arrests and other operations.

The order cited the District’s diversity, the complexity of federal immigration laws and the need for immigrants to feel comfortable cooperating with police during investigations as reasons underpinning the order, which will apply to the Metropolitan Police Department, Department of Corrections and other city agencies.

“We’re not going to be an instrument of enforcing federal law when it comes to immigration,” said Gray, who was cheered on as he signed the order.

Despite the celebratory mood, the order didn’t do much more than re-state a longstanding District policy dating back to then-mayor Marion Barry’s first such directive in 1984. Additionally, senior Gray officials stressed, it did not mean the District was opting out of Secure Communities, a controversial federal program that aims to use local police departments to find and detain undocumented immigrants.

In mid-2010, the D.C. Council introduced legislation prohibiting the city from joining the program; later that year, the Arlington County Board voted to opt out. Regardless, there has been ongoing concern and confusion as to whether cities and states can even choose not to participate. By 2013, when the program is expected to be fully functional, there will be few ways for cities and states that disagree with the program to not participate in it.

Under Gray’s executive order, residents arrested for minor crimes would not be asked about their immigration status, nor would their fingerprints be sent to the FBI. For more serious crimes, the electronic fingerprints would still be sent to the FBI, which regularly shares them with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If a suspect came back as undocumented, ICE officials would have 48 hours to notify the District.

Additionally, D.C. Police Chief Lanier said that police officers would not enforce civil immigration orders against individuals detained for minor offenses. By way of example, if a D.C. resident were stopped for running a red light and the officer noticed that they were wanted for deportation, they would not be taken into custody for those purposes.