Breaking the Law to Enforce the Law
Much has been made lately over Special Order 40, which purports to prohibit L.A.P.D. officers from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to inquire into the immigration status of any individual. I say “purports” because the order is blatantly illegal. Unfortunately, relatively little has been made of that fact, which I didn’t know about myself until I recently heard Rod Bernson talk about it on KFI last week. Section 834b requires all law enforcement to cooperate fully with ICE, and to report anyone they suspect of being here illegally. Just in case that wasn’t clear enough, subsection (c) of that statute goes on to expressly prohibit “[a]ny legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required” by the statute.
It’s too bad California doesn’t have an attorney general to enforce the law. Since we don’t, maybe it’s time for cops subject to this illegal, unenforceable non-order to literally “take the law into their own hands” by actually complying with it for a change? Think of it as civil obedience. What’s Mr. Rikki Klieman going to do, fire them?
August 30th, 2005 at 7:23 am
Do you get the impression the Governemnt doesn’t want to solve the immigration problem?
August 30th, 2005 at 11:51 am
Au contraire! The government, the media, and both parties do want to solve the immigration problem. In fact, they’re all pushing immigration “reform”.
You, the citizen, have a choice between two fine proposals: for the “liberals”, there’s the McCain-Kennedy massive amnesty scheme.
But, for you “conservatives”, there’s the Cornyn-Kyl massive amnesty scheme.
One of those - or a combination, perhaps with language directly from the White House - is probably going to be rammed through in Sept. or Oct. (see CAFTA for an example of how that will work).
If you want to prevent this, get on the phone now and tell your reps that you’re on to their little game.
August 30th, 2005 at 11:59 am
I might be wrong about this, but I thought that SO40 only prevented the cops from arresting someone simply because of their immigration status. That is, they know that someone was convicted and then deported and told not to come back. But, then the cops see him standing at Pico-Union.
The CA code seems to be referring only to what happens after they’re arrested for something else.
August 30th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
Special Order 40 prohibits cops from “initiating police action where the objective is to discover the alien status of the person,” which is generally interpreted to prohibit the cops even from inquiring as to someone’s status in the country until after they’ve been formally charged with something else, i.e., a felony or multiple misdemeanors.
August 30th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
OK, so am I correct regarding the CA code or not? Doesn’t the CA code say they have to commit some other crime, be arrested for it, and only then are the cops required to fully cooperate with the DHS?
I would like SO40 to be illegal, but I’m not yet convinced that it is.
August 30th, 2005 at 3:07 pm
Sort of. Penal Code Section 834b(a) requires law enforcement to “fully cooperate with [ICE] regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.”
On the one hand, Section 834b does not obligate law enforcement to go out and arrest people based on suspected immigration violations. On the other, it does require them to cooperate fully with ICE as to anyone they do arrest. Per Special Order 40, that requirement is violated every time a suspected illegal is arrested but not charged.
August 30th, 2005 at 11:54 pm
Obviously the law concerning illegal immigrants is like the freeway speed limit: its o.k. to violate the law up to a point. In the case of immigration, a few million illegals per year is o.k. just as going three or four miles over the posted speed limit is o.k. What we have here is a SCOFFLAW problem where the Federal officials, employers and State officials are unwilling to enforce the laws on the books as written. Until the federal government decides to vigorously enforce the immigration laws, “illegal” immigration will be the norm.