All illegal aliens are "criminals", but there's a subset who commit many felonies in addition to their mere presence and who local police are afraid to arrest and prosecute due to political pressure. For example, 95% of outstanding homicide warrants in Los Angeles target illegal aliens. That's an amazing figure, but due to Special Order 40 the police claim to be unable to assist federal law enforcement in apprehending known illegal aliens who have already been convicted of felonies, deported, and who then return to Los Angeles.
I'm glad to see the issue getting some attention here in Los Angeles thanks to the John and Ken Show on FKI 640 AM, but it's even better to see FoxNews doing a piece on it and the Washington Times mentioning Special Order 40 in a larger article about the illegal alien crime wave. Jerry Seper writes:
Making matters more difficult for federal authorities are several municipalities that have passed ordinances prohibiting their employees, including police officers, from enforcing federal immigration laws.Known as "sanctuary laws," the ordinances are in place in varying degree in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston. ...
The Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement (FILE), also based in the District, has begun to bring lawsuits against those municipalities with sanctuary ordinances and has promised additional legal challenges.
FILE has argued that state and county governments are prohibited from adopting policies that prevent its employees from contacting federal immigration authorities about the legal status of any noncitizen or to report violations of U.S. immigration law by any noncitizen.
"These policies, called 'sanctuary policies,' promise foreign nationals who have broken our laws that the municipality in which they live will help them in their lawbreaking by resisting efforts to report them to the proper authorities," FILE said in a statement.
"Such policies are illegal, naturally, and have been rejected by the courts. Nevertheless, some cities, remarkably, persist in maintaining their illegal sanctuary policies," FILE said. "Unfortunately, the executive branch of the federal government has been for many years utterly derelict in forcing, as is its duty, municipalities to abide by the law."
There's some good-ish news at the end of the article: it looks like the Department of Homeland Security is going to create a few teams to help track and prosecute illegal alien felons. But uh, does anyone notice anything missing?
Assistant Secretary Michael J. Garcia, who heads ICE, the investigative arm of Homeland Security, has promised a vigorous enforcement effort for criminal aliens now in the country, including a $10 million effort to fund eight new teams of agents to apprehend and deport aliens convicted of crimes in the United States.The new teams, which join eight already in operation, will be based in Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas and Washington state.
California? Hello? We've got more illegal aliens than anyone else, how about a little help here?
Update:
Here's a page on John and Ken's website with phone numbers and email addresses for the powerful people in Los Angeles. Call them and tell them you're opposed to Special Order 40.
