Frustrated at the lack of action on immigration reform by the federal government, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday the Los Angeles Police Department will no longer honor most federal requests to detain arrestees so they can be investigated for deportation.
Citing a recent federal court ruling in Oregon, Garcetti said Los Angeles is joining with other jurisdictions to end the practice of detaining people for being in the country illegally with no judicial review.
With about 50 supporters behind him, Garcetti said the detainment policy is expensive to local government and erodes public trust in the Police Department.
“The federal government has the luxury of waiting to act,” Garcetti said. “Here at the local level, we are carrying out what the federal government should be doing.
“While Washington continues to delay they are passing the buck and the cost to local government. I want us to focus on gang crime, on getting gangs off the street of ending gun violence.”
Previously, the department would send information about arrestees to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which would then make requests for certain individuals to be detained longer so they could be turned over to ICE custody for possible deportation.
Under the new policy, which the LAPD began following last week, ICE detainer requests for individuals arrested on minor crimes will only be honored if there is a court warrant or the case has gone through the judicial system.
“Those accused of serious or violent crimes will not be affected,” he said. “Only those who have not been through a court procedure.”
Police Chief Charlie Beck said the new policy will affect 443 people of the 773 requests for detainment his office has received. So far, the LAPD has made more than 50,000 total arrests this year, Beck said, adding that 300 detainees will remain in custody.
“Three hundred out of 50,000 is less than 1 percent,” Beck said.
“People ask if this will affect crime in Los Angeles,” Beck said. “My answer is no.”
The court case in Oregon involved a woman who argued her Fourth Amendment rights were violated because she was being held for immigration authorities without probable cause.
Since the ruling, a number of jurisdictions have been reviewing their policies on detainment.
Virginia Kice, western regional communications director for ICE, said the agency remains committed to working with local law enforcement.
“When law enforcement agencies turn criminals over to ICE rather than releasing them into the community, it enhances public safety and the safety of law enforcement,” Kice said. “To further this shared goal, ICE anticipates that law enforcement agencies will comply with immigration detainers.”
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group which supports tougher policies against illegal immigration, said he was not surprised by the Los Angeles decision.
“It has implemented policies designed to protect illegal immigrants,” Mehlman said. “This is just par for the course.”
Mehlman said it should not be up to local government to decide which laws to enforce.
“We have real immigration laws, but the fact is, they are not being enforced,” Mehlman said. “There are very clear laws but this administration has chosen to ignore them. It’s a prescription for anarchy.”
Los Angeles long has been involved in issues involving local enforcement of immigration dating back at least to the adoption of Special Order 40 in the 1970s under which LAPD officers were told to not question people solely to find out their immigration status or to otherwise do the job of immigration officers. The order was written out of concerns that witnesses to crimes would be discouraged from talking to police if they are undocumented.
More recently the department has softened its treatment of unlicensed drivers who otherwise have no other violations on their record, now declining to impound the vehicle if a licensed driver is available to drive it home.
Pro-immigrant groups praised the Garcetti announcement.
The National Immigrant Law Center issued a statement saying the action was the result of years of organizing and advocacy by immigrant groups.
“Los Angeles is the latest in a long line of cities and counties that have declared a collective ‘Ya basta!’ (meaning roughly ‘enough is enough’ in English) to ICE detainers,” the group said in a statement, urging federal officials to “follow the lead of immigrant-rich Los Angeles and make immigration detainers — which have caused immeasurable pain to immigrant families and hurt public safety for all of us — a thing of the past.”
Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, also praised the decision, saying it recognizes the need for community support for law enforcement.
“A program that asks local law enforcement to hold people for deportation purposes entangles the police with the civil immigration enforcement role of the federal government, causing distrust and fear of the police in our communities,” Villagra said.
