Here's a letter-to-the-editor I'm preparing to send to various Los Angeles newspapers. Any comments will be appreciated.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and LAPD Chief William J. Bratton have been quick to complain about voters who have refused to vastly increase their law enforcement budgets, but are our top cops using their existing funds wisely? The officials made nearly unbelievable promises during their campaign for Measure A -- which would have imposed an additional $560 million sales tax burden on Los Angeles residents -- going so far as to boast that with the additional money they could cut crime by 50% and (gasp!) stop releasing prisoners early from overcrowded jails. Who can argue with promises like that?
Los Angeles voters wisely decided against providing the additional funding, judging correctly that what is needed is not simply more money, but a substantial paradigm shift in our county's approach to law enforcement. In fact, the required change is one with which Chief Bratton is intimately familiar, having pioneered it in New York City under Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Chief Bratton's "broken windows" theory suggests that by thwarting minor crimes and creating a sense of order, the police can preempt major crimes by keeping the public sphere under the control of the law-abiding majority. Normally the theory is applied to literal "broken windows" and other nuisances like graffiti and public drinking, but I'd like to suggest that our law enforcement officials reconsider their tolerance for another "minor" offense that's a proven precursor to violent crime and the breakdown of the social order: illegal immigration.
What's the connection? Are all illegal aliens violent criminals? Certainly not -- but a considerable number of violent criminals are in our country illegally. In the Winter 2004 issue of City Journal, Heather Mac Donald wrote that,
"Some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where the crime these aliens commit is highest, the police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their immigration status. In Los Angeles, for example, dozens of members of a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have sneaked back into town after having been deported for such crimes as murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and drug trafficking. Police officers know who they are and know that their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet should a cop arrest an illegal gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is he who will be treated as a criminal, for violating the LAPD’s rule against enforcing immigration law."
She also notes that in Los Angeles, 95% of outstanding homicide warrants target known illegal aliens, as do two-thirds of fugitive felony warrants. Perhaps even more frightening, Jerry Seper reported in the September 28th, 2004, edition of the Washington Times that Homeland Security officials are convinced that al Qaeda operatives are attempting to link up with illegal alien gangs in the United States. He wrote:
A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans — mostly gang members — into the United States.
The connection is clear. It would be vastly more useful for our local law enforcement officials to capture and expel known illegal aliens before waiting for them to commit a violent crime, than for them to continually ask us to cough up more money for speed traps. So why don't they? The reason is what's known as "Special Order 40" -- a 25-year-old policy of the LAPD which states that the police do not consider illegal aliens to be lawbreakers merely because of their presence in the country. Our top law enforcement officials have made a conscious decision to not enforce the law until after an illegal alien gets caught committing a "serious" crime.
Perhaps Chief Bratton and Sheriff Baca don't consider federal felonies such as illegal reentry to be as serious as "broken windows", but it should be clear to the rest of us that the presence of illegal aliens -- particularly illegal alien gang members with known criminal histories -- creates a hostile atmosphere for the law-abiding public and effectively cedes the streets to the criminals. Next time you get pulled over for going five miles per hour over the limit or for not coming to a complete stop, consider that the officer who took 15 minutes to write you a ticket could instead be arresting and deporting violent criminals, if not for the misguided priorities of our top cops.
I'm not aware that illegal immigration is, by itself, a federal felony. But I am not intimately familiar with federal criminal law, so if you have information to the contrary, let me know.
P: I believe that re-entering after being deported is a felony. Re-entering after being convicted of a crime and deported is a felony, I think. I'm not sure what the actual formulation is.
Correct. Of course, it's an open secret that the U.S. Attorney's office has stricter guidelines for enforcement of that statute than are mandated by federal law -- otherwise they'd be overrun with such cases.
To me the key is deportation, not prosecution. The difficult issue is how to do it without panicking otherwise law-abiding illegals into avoiding seeking police help when they truly need it.
I'm not a lawyer, but what you say seems to me to be common sense. Of course because it is common sense the LAT will be against it.
Rod Stanton
Cerritos