CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR ASKS INS TO HALT DEPORTATION OF GANG MEMBER

Tom Hayden, a State Senator in California and student radical in the 1960s, has asked INS Commissioner Doris Meissner to release Alex Sanchez from detention and to not initiate deportation proceedings against him.  Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, was once a member of a Salvadoran street gang in Los Angeles.  Since leaving them, he has been a leader of Homies Unidos, a group of former gang members dedicated to bringing peace to the warring gangs in the city.

The gang situation, while a good deal calmer now, was once so bad the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) developed a special unit to deal with it, the Rampart CRASH unit.  This division is currently the focus of a large-scale corruption investigation that has already led to the release of many prisoners who were framed by officers in the unit, and more releases are expected.  According to Hayden, the unit perceives the gang peace process as a threat to “their all-out war on gangs.”

The LAPD, which took Sanchez into custody, says it did so because of a request from the INS.  Hayden charges Sanchez was apprehended because of his role in the gang peace process.  Much of the evidence lends credibility to this charge.  One of the officers who was involved in his apprehension, Jesus Amezcua, has actively targeted Homies Unidos, spurred on, according to many, not only by their role in the peace process, but also because they want to uncover corruption within the LAPD.  Moreover, according to the minister who leads the church that has hosted Homies Unidos meetings for more than a year, Amezcua repeatedly approached the church with requests that he be allowed to spy on the meetings.

Hayden is requesting Sanchez be given an S visa, a special kind of visa given to informants and others working in cooperation with government investigations, so that he can provide information for the investigation into the Rampart CRASH unit.  Already the investigation has resulted in the release of over 20 people who were convicted on the basis of perjured police testimony, and according to the Chief of the LAPD there are at least 50 others who should be released.  These figures, of course, do not include the many people who have already been deported on the basis of what may have been a wrongful conviction.