Los Angeles Times (Opinion)
By Editorial Board
July 24, 2015
The
recent killing of Kathryn Steinle as she walked arm in arm with her
father along San Francisco's
Embarcadero was horrific, even if the details remain murky. That
Steinle's alleged killer had seven previous felony convictions and had
been deported five times only makes the incident more complicated and
politically charged.
Amid
the outrage over Steinle's death and the debate over who was
responsible for releasing her alleged killer from the San Francisco
Sheriff's Department's custody in
April instead of turning him over to immigration authorities, the U.S.
House on Thursday passed a measure sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter
(R-Alpine) that is, at best, poorly conceived public policy. The
overreaching HR 3009 would withhold federal law enforcement
grants from local governments that have laws precluding police from
querying civilians about their immigration status. Similar measures have
been proposed in the Senate.
The
Obama administration opposes the bill for valid reasons: The federal
government should not compel local law enforcement officers to serve as
de facto immigration agents.
Conscripting police into that role not only muddies responsibilities,
but runs the very real risk of dissuading people living in the country
illegally from reporting crimes they have witnessed, or in which they
are the victims, for fear they might be deported.
That compromises local police agencies' fundamental responsibility for
public safety.
Rather
than threatening local governments and withholding grants, Congress
should instead get serious about the root problem: the dysfunctional
immigration system.
-
It
is reasonable, though, for local law enforcement to notify federal
authorities when someone on the government's list of priority removals —
such as a violent criminal
— is being released from jail. Not only reasonable, but necessary.
The
focus of these legislative pushes are so-called sanctuary cities, which
are largely fiction. In Los Angeles, the Police Department's Special
Order 40 directs that
“officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of
discovering the alien status of a person.” That does not prevent
officers from turning over those arrested for other offenses to
immigration authorities. It protects no one from federal immigration
enforcement. It simply makes someone's immigration status irrelevant to
the local investigation at hand, and leaves immigration enforcement
with the federal government, where it belongs.
Rather
than threatening local governments and withholding grants, Congress
should instead get serious about the root problem: the dysfunctional
immigration system. The
federal government needs to work cooperatively with local police
agencies to make sure that dangerous criminals living here illegally are
deported in a timely manner — while Congress and the president also
work to pass fair, comprehensive immigration reform.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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