Why Can't CopsEnforce Immigration Laws?
LAPD officers will get a moreactive role in apprehending illegal alien gang members if a proposed lawpasses.
In Los Angeles,we will soon learn the results of a petition drive aimed at placing Jamiel'sLaw on ballots for the city's May 2009 municipal election. The proposedlaw, written by upstart mayoral candidate WalterMoore, would give Los Angeles Police Department officers a more activerole in identifying and apprehending illegal alien street gang members.Currently, LAPD officers are for the most part prohibited from taking actionagainst illegal aliens under the terms of Special Order 40,a 1979 revision to the department's regulations. The "Jamiel" of the law'stitle refers to Jamiel Shaw, a 17-year-old Los Angeles resident who was shot and killedlast March. That a young man should meet such a fate is, sadly, not all thatuncommon in some parts of Los Angeles, but what made Jamiel's murder all themore tragic is the manifest failure of his government, both local and federal,to prevent it from happening.
The man accused of murdering Jamiel and now awaiting trial is PedroEspinoza, a 19-year-old illegal alien from Mexico. News reports havechronicled Espinoza's lengthycriminal history as well as his membership in the 18th Street gang, which takentogether might be expected to have attracted the attention of Immigration andCustoms Enforcement Agents. Alas, only a day before he allegedly murderedJamiel Shaw, Espinoza was released from Los Angeles County Jail after serving asentence for brandishing a handgun at a public park. Systems already in placeat the jail should have identified Espinoza as a deportable alien and landedhim in the clutches of ICE agents.
How exactly those systems failed in this case has yet to be satisfactorilyexplained. The effort to enact Jamiel's Law is merely the latest effort torescind or modify Special Order 40, which was intended to allay non-citizens'fear of the police and secure their cooperation in reporting crimes to thepolice. But today Los Angelesis a far different city from what it was in 1979, when few outside of lawenforcement had even heard of the 18th Streetgang. Clearly, all levels of law enforcement have failed to stem thetide of criminals crossing our borders, resulting in an ever-lengthening listof abominations typified by the murder of Jamiel Shaw. (Los Angeles blogger Patterico, on whose site I'm privileged tobe an occasional guest poster, runs a continuing series he calls "Deport the Criminals First." Don'tread it if you aren't prepared to be outraged.)
But any attempts to further involve LAPD officers in immigration enforcementmust sail into strong political headwinds. Los Angeles Mayor AntonioVillaraigosa (who was shameless enough to attend Jamiel Shaw's funeral) is aformer president of the L.A.chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and he still embraces thatorganization's views on immigrants'rights. The mayor's views are shared by majorities on the city council andpolice commission, and of course by LAPD Chief William Bratton, who, ever thechameleon, is only too happy to adopt the prevailing political opinions inwhichever city he happens to be employed.
Matters will no doubt be made worse - far, far worse - with the installationof the Obama administration in January. Anyone who thinks Eric Holder, Obama'snominee for attorney general, will be a vigilant defender of the borders issadly deluded, and there is little chance Holder will facilitate the type of local-federalcooperation envisioned in Jamiel's Law. A steady influx of immigrants, afterall, suits the needs of two very powerful interests in Washington, D.C.Business interests, as represented by the otherwise sober Wall StreetJournal editorial page, seek to keep labor costs low by importing waveafter wave of poor and unskilled workers, with each wave willing to work forless than the one that preceded it. And Democrats are of course gleeful at theprospect of granting amnesty - and eventually the franchise - to those millionsof people, who will look to the government (read Democrats) to lift them fromtheir poverty.
If the illegal alien problem has not yet arrived in your community, youwon't have long to wait. Some will call it progress, and they won't mind a bitif a few people get killed - or raped or robbed or what have you - as a cost ofit.
Jack Dunphy" is the pseudonym of an officer with the LosAngeles Police Department. The opinions expressed arehis own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.
