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Almost any Los Angeles police officer will say that some of the most cutthroat criminals here are illegal immigrants. And yet, the police complain that they cannot use immigration status to apprehend a convicted criminal who was ordered deported.
Known as a sanctuary policy, the police rules here prohibit officers from inquiring about someone’s immigration status with the federal authorities unless that person is being charged with a crime.
The policy, adopted in 1979, was intended to protect immigrants from harassment and to encourage them to use public services without fear of deportation. Immigrants can enroll their children in schools, get health care and—perhaps most significant for the police—come forward when they witness a crime.
But the policy also provides a safe harbor for criminals.
“You are so concerned with the lambs, you don’t see the wolves,” said Capt. Charlie Beck, commanding officer of the Rampart District, a seven-square-mile area in central Los Angeles that the police say is home to 30,000 gang members. At least 1,000 of them, Captain Beck estimates, were deported after committing violent crimes, but returned.
Nationally, 80,000 to 100,000 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes walk freely on the streets, federal officials said. But the problem appears most acute in Los Angeles County, where 30,000 illegal immigrant criminals live among the nearly 2 million illegal immigrants. Several other cities, including Chicago, Houston and New York, have sanctuary policies, though not always as broad as the one in Los Angeles. Officials here say they are working on language that rethinks Special Order 40, which prohibits officers from initiating discussion “to discover the alien status of a person.” They would like to allow officers to ask their supervisors to check the immigration status of suspects believed to be felons illegally living in the United States.
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In New York, the policy on immigration has evolved over the years. In 2003, the city expanded its list of information that could not be reported to the federal authorities to include sexual orientation, income tax records and welfare assistance along with immigration status. The policy generally applies to law enforcement officers, except in cases involving criminal activity and terrorism.
As a practical matter, the policy is routinely violated, said Margaret McHugh, director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy organization and umbrella group for more than 100 agencies serving newcomers. Ms. McHugh cited cases in which a traffic stop or minor police investigation had led directly to deportation for noncriminals whose civil immigration violations had been added to the National Criminal Information Center database by order of Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002.
“The city is trying to have it both ways,” Ms. McHugh said.
Officials in some cities, particularly those worried about the spread of gangs, say they are working more closely with immigration officers.
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Still, Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, said there was little will in Washington to step up federal efforts to find criminals who are here illegally.
“There is no sieve to separate the benign from those who want to blow you away,” Mr. Tancredo said. Opponents of tougher rules include the Mexican government and employers wanting cheap labor.
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“The frustrating thing is if we caught them all today, where would we put them?” said Virginia Kice, an immigration department spokeswoman. There are 1,400 immigration detention beds in the Los Angeles district.
Detective Johnny Smith, a gang expert with the Los Angeles police, wondered how the American dream fared with illegal criminals freely roaming the streets. “The Statue of Liberty says, give me your tired, your weak, your poor,” Mr. Smith said. “It doesn’t say, give me your murderers, rapists and drug dealers.”
(Posted on April 8, 2005)