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Subscribe to RSSDays after California’s governor vetoed a bill that would have let local authorities ignore federal requests to hold undocumented immigrants for possible deportation, the Los Angeles police chief has decided he won’t comply with the requests in low-level cases.
Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday that he had to craft a program that would serve his community.
"It strikes me as somebody who runs a police department that is 45 percent Hispanic and polices a city that is at least that, that we need to build trust in these communities and we need to build cooperation or we won't be prepared," the Los Angeles Times quoted Beck as saying.
Out of 105,000 annual arrests, the Los Angeles police get about 3,400 requests, known as detainers or holds, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, The Los Angeles Daily News reported. The holds are part of the Secure Communities program, in which the FBI shares fingerprints of those arrested with federal immigration authorities, who determine if the persons are legally in the U.S. or if they can be deported due to a criminal conviction.
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Immigration advocates say the holds cast a wide dragnet that has ensnared even those who had committed minor crimes or no offenses at all. But ICE has said the program was instrumental in helping enforce immigration laws and in getting violent offenders off the streets.
Nick Ut / AP file
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck: "Community trust is extremely important. It's my intent that we gain that trust back."
“The LAPD is proposing to no longer grant an ICE detainer request without first reviewing the seriousness of the offense for which the person is being held as well as their prior arrest history and gang involvement,” according to an LAPD statement.
The department was developing a list of criminal offenses, such as public nuisance and low-grade misdemeanors, that in its view don’t meet the program's intended purpose.
Under the LAPD’s new proposal, those arrested for low-grade misdemeanors won’t be held for ICE unless the person had a prior felony arrest or was a documented gang member. The person also won't be held without additional information from ICE. The police will still honor detention requests on felony and high-grade misdemeanor arrests.
About 400 ICE requests annually could be ignored under the new policy, Beck said, adding that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich had informed him that police could legally refuse to honor ICE detainer requests, according to local media reports.
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Beck said he believes in some cases, the detentions have unnecessarily split up families, Reuters reported.
"Community trust is extremely important," he said. "It's my intent that we gain that trust back."
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Late Sunday, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the Trust Act, controversial legislation similar to what Beck has opted to do. Beck said his new rules, which he hopes to implement by Jan. 1, were in the works before the governor’s veto, the Daily News reported.
In his veto message, Brown said he could not sign the bill because under it, “local officers would be prohibited from complying with an immigration detainer unless the person arrested was charged with, or has been previously convicted of, a serious or violent felony.
“Unfortunately, the list of offenses codified in the bill is fatally flawed because it omits many serious crimes,” he said, adding that he would work with lawmakers to improve the legislation.
Several counties and cities have enacted ordinances that limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, The New York Times has reported.
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ICE says it prioritizes the deportation of those who present the most significant threats to public safety, and that it has deported more than 147,400 convicted criminal undocumented immigrants, including more than 54,200 individuals convicted of violent offenses such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children, under the program.
“Over the past three and half years, ICE has been dedicated to implementing smart, effective reforms to the immigration system that allow it to focus its resources on criminals, recent border crossers and repeat immigration law violators,” ICE Deputy Press Secretary Gillian Christensen said Friday in a statement to NBC News. “The federal government alone sets these priorities and places detainers on individuals arrested on criminal charges to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens and other priority individuals are not released from prisons and jails into our communities.”
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Leave a Comment:
We should declare marshall law in California
The community of Americans do not trust Chief Beck!
Prison for profit, that's what all the detentions are about.
I wonder if Holder will sue him for going against Federal Law?
If you hold your hand on your ass waiting for that law suite it will grow there.
If you hold your breath waiting for that lawsuite you will die.
If you just wait you will be speaking spanish as a first language.
What do you expect from a sanctuary state?
Sanctuary from? California used to be part of Mexico. As as far as I can recall, butchering Indians to capture territory does not make you the owner, it makes you in charge until someone takes your place. Well...Habla Espanol?
bemet hits the nail right on the head, finally someone admits that this is what it is all about the attempt to reclaim the South Western States.
The Federal Government of the United States of America had better wake up to this fact and act in the best interests of the United States of America not the illegal aliens trying to pull this off.
Oh, so this is just a take over. Fine have it. Let's cut off all federal funding and hand it over to Mexico. Californians, you are now Mexicans. Start paying taxes to Mexico and what else? Oh yeah, Keep all those liberal stinking federal judges there also.
Latinos pushing back. Didn't see that coming did you white people?
Benet
I think we Americans should shoot the $hit out of all of the defiant ones
O.K. racist. Just remember life has a way of meandering and going back and forth. The invasion has just about worn all Americans out except for the criminal supporters. A day of reckoning will come.
Benet, I think the proper term is Beaners.
As a Marine, I would say that anyone who has not served in the Military or government service should stay out of this conversation and let those of us you have proved our loyalty and patriotism decide what should happen in this country. The rest of you are just bystanders.
The police chief has a tough job in that he's dealing with reality and trying to make a conservative wet dream fit into it somehow, and it just won't happen. The hold conservatives have on reality has become way too tenous.
robberkes what you say is nonsense, whether you like it or not there are immigration laws which any SOVEREIGN NATION must have in order to remain a SOVEREIGN NATION.
Without immigration laws we cease to be SOVEREIGN NATION and just become an employment office for any foreigner who decides they want to come here illegally.
ABSOLUTE disgrace. So basically then can LEGAL citizens basically choose to ignore the laws that the LAWMEN are supposed to enforce or is that going too far here???
L.A. police chief has to "craft a program"? I thought he had to uphold and enforce the laws. Apparently not. Then again, it is California. What do they care about the laws?
This is the state where we continually hear how he illegals are so much an important part of their economy.
So, why is it so many cities in California are going bankrupt?
What is the unemployment rate in California?
How many people are on welfare in California?
Something does not add up here!
What is the agenda of the California state legislature?
Do they want California to become the first spanish speaking state in the United States of America?
It is time that the Federal government cut off all Federal money to any state that does not uphold the immigration laws of the United States of America. However, this can only be done by terminating the employment of barrack obama.
This is just more of the same. The golden state is no more. The middle class is exiting in droves. Southern California will be the new Mexican state of Loonytunia in a generation. See Detroit, Cleveland and Oakland. That's the future of America. As goes California so goes the nation. If Ostumbler is reelected America will be well on its way to becoming another 3rd world chit hole.
Harold the Rock, do you have PROOF of what you said? Obama ALSO GAVE THOUSANDS of ILLEGALS FREE Citizenship!!!!!! They were lined up for miles to get their's, in chicago.....so therefore I don't see how he could have deported them by GIVING TO them.....
I am so SICK of Bush getting blamed for WHAT OBAMA HAS BEEN left with!!!! He has had enough time to repair the damage or some of it and HAS NOT done one damn thing except GIVE THEM FREE STUFF!!!!! So Bush wasn't the best either, but by God he looked out for OUR country and SERVICEMEN and WOMEN still does to this day.....HE didn't go EAST and kiss A$$ either!!!!! Bush DIDN"T send guns and weapons south either!!!! Fast & Furious...it wasn't Holder all alone.....
As for this California Sheriff, SEND him SOUTH of the border with the ILLEGALS on their return....
The population of LA is "at least 45% hispanic." WOW! That's pretty bad. Americans down there must feel like they have been invaded by another country.
BIG AL I have the highest respect for you for doing what you did and LEGALLY!!!! WELCOME....I'm sure it wasn't easy but as you said worth it....
Tell the LAPD Chief that if he won't play then he doesn't get any federal money. Screw LA...its run by a bunch of illegals anyway.
Fire that S.O.B. and be done with it, he clearly doesn't understand chain of command. By God when your boss tells you that's the way it is, that's the way it is.
Does this mean the LAPD won't be checking for outstanding warrants on people for minor offenses too? Or is it only the illeg---I mean, UNDOCUMENTED immigrants that get a free pass?
Seems to me if he didn't give a pass for people with minor offenses it could be viewed as racism. Guess a Court will have to decide it when someone with a minor offense gets held in LA Country jail.
Beck is supposed to be a law enforcement officer, not a lawmaker. It is not up to him or that POS Mexican mayor to decide which laws to enforce and which not to enforce. The treasonous mayor and most of the city council are all unfit for service in what is supposed to be a nation of laws, and electing those pieces of feces is why we wind up with worthless political sluts like Beck.
Some people say that we need the illegals to do the hard work that Americans can't do. A better idea is for Americans to get back to work and do the hard work that they once used to do when they built this country. Why is it that Americans can "no longer do the hard work?" People are whining about "where are the jobs?" Well you've got about 11 million jobs here being done by people from other countries who are here illegally. If we want jobs we need to send these illegals packing and take our jobs back. You really can't blame the illegals. As long as there are people here who will hire them then they will keep on coming into the US. As long as we keep putting them to work they will be here but in return we lose a lot of jobs and we also lose our culture as well. I was born and raised here in America and I'm white and I really do not feel at home in a mexican culture---that is why I live here in the US and not in mexico. People such as myself in LA must feel like they are living in mexico. I live here in Vancouver WA. and I can see that here too we will soon be at that 45% figure---and beyond. They can be here illegally and WA state will issue them drivers licenses so of course they are flooding into the state. When it reaches a point where there are more of them than there are of you then your culture that you once had is gone. Give your jobs away, give your culture away and then what do you have?
Are you really that shocked? It is Los Angeles for crying out loud.This bum police chief is on the mexican cartel payroll.
The chief should be ashamed of himself.
That would require honor.
@Glenn-974637
Well said in your first post! Thank you. Couldn't have said it better myself.
At least the LAPD has the B#$$s to stand up to the government. The government won't allow states to enforce immigration laws but INS and ICE wants local police department to HOUSE 'THEIR' detainees.....Dah !!! I'd say....Take some of the Billions going to "unfriendly" nations and BUILD YOUR OWN HOLDING FACILITIES.
The chief needs to be terminated, since he is violating his oath of office which states he will uphold the laws of the state of California and the United States. His refusal to follow the law means he breeches his oath and thusly should be waiting tables somewhere.
Obama's campaign is depending on all the illegals that is tall enough to vote. So this chief is aiding in rigging an election.
If the chief doesnt follow the laws, then the citizens disregard all laws in LA and do as they please. Great example this chief is giving to the citizens he supposed to be serving. He is neglecting the protection and peace of mind for regular law abiding citizens who are subjected to these illegals.
ICE says it prioritizes the deportation of those who present the most significant threats to public safety, and that it has deported more than 147,400 convicted criminal undocumented immigrants, including more than 54,200 individuals convicted of violent offenses such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children, under the program.
Can somebody tell me who is in jail ?
And second who is the mayor of Los Angeles ?