 POLICE IN LOS ANGELES FACE QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THEY DEAL WITH UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
A panel formed by the Los Angeles Police Department has recommended that the Department revise its operating procedures to ensure that officers are not stopping people solely to inquire about their immigration status. In 1979, the City of Los Angeles passed a resolution that prohibits such inquires, but in 20 years it has never been fully incorporated into police operating standards.
The panel did not say that police routinely violate the resolution, but said that because there are no guidelines, potential for violations exist. The panel was formed in the wake of the scandal that rocked the LAPD’s Rampart Division, which, among other things, was accused of singling people out on the basis of their immigration status. The panel also recommended that the LAPD should develop guidelines for when and under what circumstances it should contact the INS.
Even as the LAPD is being told to watch how it treats undocumented immigrants, police departments in nearby Orange County are being criticized by the Border Patrol for being too active in arresting undocumented immigrants. According to Border Patrol records, in the past two years, Orange County police have detained more than 4,000 people on suspicion that they were undocumented, and have taken many of them straight to an INS checkpoint for deportation. Such practices are frowned upon by the federal government and by advocate, who say that the police are engaged in racial profiling.
The Border Patrol believes that local law enforcement officials, who lack training in complex immigration law, should not be taking such actions. It also notes that INS officials are stationed at many jails in the area, meaning that there is no need for the police to be taking suspects to the Border Patrol.
Eight of the 22 police forces in Orange County said that they engaged in the practice, but deny that any racial profiling is involved. They say that there are many reasons for why they do it, including getting people off the streets and avoiding the costs associated with convicting a person of a minor offense only to then turn them over the to Border Patrol.
Along with concerns about racial profiling, there is also the fact that in some cases the police have taken legal US residents to the Border Patrol for deportation. Also, such actions by the police will inevitably make people, whether undocumented or not, hesitant to seek out the assistance of the police when they are victimized by crime.
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