LAPD will not help deport immigrants under Trump, chief says, by Kirsty Jane, 11/15/16
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Monday
that he has no plans to change the LAPD’s stance on immigration enforcement,
despite President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to toughen federal immigration
laws and deport millions of people upon taking office. From L A Times
For
decades, the LAPD has distanced itself from federal immigration policies. The
LAPD prohibits officers from initiating contact with someone solely to
determine whether he or she is in the country legally, mandated by a special
order signed by then-chief Daryl Gates in 1979. During Beck’s tenure as chief,
the department stopped turning over people arrested for low-level crimes to
federal agents for deportation and moved away from honoring federal requests to
detain inmates who might be deportable past their jail terms.
On
Monday, Beck said he planned to maintain the long-standing separation. “I don’t
intend on doing anything different,” he said. “We are not going to engage in
law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status. We
are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation
efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.”
Fear
among immigrants and their families has rippled across the country in the days
following Trump’s election to the presidency. Trump made illegal immigration a
central issue of his campaign, vowing to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico
border, deport people who are in the country illegally and unwind immigration
relief created under President Obama.
In Los
Angeles, officials have tried to alleviate some of those concerns by signaling
their support for the city’s immigrant residents. At a meeting Friday at the
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said
the city would question Trump’s decisions on immigration.
More than
1 million of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country without legal
status live in Los Angeles County, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
“If the
first day, as president, we see something that is hostile to our people,
hostile to our city, bad for our economy, bad for our security, we will speak
up, speak out, act up and act out,” Garcetti said.
The mayor
also said that the LAPD would continue to enforce Special Order 40, the
Gates-signed directive that bars officers from contacting someone solely to
determine their immigration status.
“Our law
enforcement officers and LAPD don’t go around asking people for their papers,
nor should they,” he said. “That’s not the role of local law enforcement.”
Capt.
Jeff Scroggin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,
said it is too soon to say how sheriff’s officials would react to any changes
required by the Trump administration. Those changes could be tied to federal
funding, he noted.
In the
meantime, he said, sheriff’s deputies who patrol the county will continue their
longstanding practice of treating all residents the same, regardless of
background.
“We just
want people to come forward so we have a better community. It doesn’t matter
whether they’re an immigrant or going through the process of citizenship,”
Scroggin said. “Whatever it is, we want to hear from them. We don’t want them
to not cooperate. It’s important to keep the community safe. We never ask about
immigration status.”
Read Full Story At L A Times
Comments
After the
criminal illegals are deported, Trump would tell the good illegals to get to
the back of the line to apply for legal immigrant status. Sponsorship by an employer and their ability
to support themselves could be considered. Also, their employer might have to
prove that a US citizen couldn’t do their job.
Trump wants to continue the brain drain and is sympathetic to farmers
who will need a repaired H2a Visa System for seasonal agricultural workers, but
the new immigration policy will more nearly look like it did in 1950 before
immigrants were on welfare..
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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