Despite President-Elect Trump’s confirmed plan to toughen immigration laws and deport millions of illegal ‘criminal’ immigrants, LA Times reports that LAPD chief Charlie Beck said he has no plans to follow Trump’s demands, “we are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts.”
After confirming “they’re going to be gone,”
“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal
and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of
these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we
are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” the president-elect said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” to air Sunday evening. “But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally.”
LA Times’ Kate Mather reports that Trump’s immigration plan may be hitting a snag as LAPD CHief Beck said he planned to maintain the long-standing separation.
For decades, the LAPD has distanced itself from federal immigration policies. The LAPD prohibits officers from initiating contact with someone solely to determine whether they are in the country legally, mandated by a special order signed by then-chief Daryl Gates in 1979. During Beck’s tenure as chief, the department stopped turning over people arrested for low-level crimes to federal agents for deportation and moved away from honoring federal requests to detain inmates who might be deportable past their jail terms.
“I don’t intend on doing anything different,” he said. “We are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status. We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.”
In Los Angeles, officials have tried to alleviate some of those concerns by signaling their support for the city’s immigrant residents. At a meeting Friday at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city would question Trump’s decisions on immigration.
“If the first day, as president, we see something that is hostile to our people, hostile to our city, bad for our economy, bad for our security, we will speak up, speak out, act up and act out,” Garcetti said.
The mayor also said that the LAPD would continue to enforce Special Order 40, the Gates-signed directive that bars officers from contacting someone solely to determine their immigration status.
“Our law enforcement officers and LAPD don’t go around asking people for their papers, nor should they,” he said. “That’s not the role of local law enforcement.”
Beck said his command staff has also been meeting with community leaders to hear their concerns about immigration enforcement.
via http://ift.tt/2eYHd7b Tyler Durden