Immigrant policy makes it difficult for the police to do their job

New York Times:

Carlos Barrera, an illegal immigrant, went on a rampage in Hollywood five months ago, the police said. In the span of two hours, they said, he mugged three people, burglarized two apartments and pushed his way into an apartment, where he tried to rape a woman in front of her 5-year-old daughter.

Mr. Barrera, a Mexican, had been deported four years ago after serving time for robbery, drugs and burglary. He had made his way back into the United States, and although he had been stopped twice for traffic violations, the police were prohibited from reporting him to the immigration authorities.

Almost any Los Angeles police officer will say that some of the most cutthroat criminals here are illegal immigrants. And yet, the police complain that they cannot use immigration status to apprehend a convicted criminal who was ordered deported.

Known as a sanctuary policy, the police rules here prohibit officers from inquiring about someone's immigration status with the federal authorities unless that person is being charged with a crime.

The policy, adopted in 1979, was intended to protect immigrants from harassment and to encourage them to use public services without fear of deportation. Immigrants can enroll their children in schools, get health care and - perhaps most significant for the police - come forward when they witness a crime.

But the policy also provides a safe harbor for criminals.

"You are so concerned with the lambs, you don't see the wolves," said Capt. Charlie Beck, commanding officer of the Rampart District, a seven-square-mile area in central Los Angeles that the police say is home to 30,000 gang members. At least 1,000 of them, Captain Beck estimates, were deported after committing violent crimes, but returned.

Nationally, 80,000 to 100,000 illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes walk freely on the streets, federal officials said. But the problem appears most acute in Los Angeles County, where 30,000 illegal immigrant criminals live among the nearly 2 million illegal immigrants. Several other cities, including Chicago, Houston and New York, have sanctuary policies, though not always as broad as the one in Los Angeles. Officials here say they are working on language that rethinks Special Order 40, which prohibits officers from initiating discussion "to discover the alien status of a person." They would like to allow officers to ask their supervisors to check the immigration status of suspects believed to be felons illegally living in the United States.

Along with easing the sanctuary rules, some officers here favor the creation of a national database of criminal illegal immigrants that would allow the checking of names during random stops. "It's easier to track your driving record than an alien's criminal history," said Officer Frank Flores, a gang expert with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The best way to deal with the illegal immigrant crime problem is for the authorities at the federal, state and local level to agree on the need to deport all illegal immigrants living in the United States. So-called "sanctuary" policies just play into the hands of the criminals and makes the job of policing that much harder.