http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22176482/opinion-l-police-put-new-piece-immigration-policy?source=rss
Posted: 12/12/2012 10:00:08 AM PST
Updated: 12/12/2012 10:15:02 AM PST
Los Angeles has new details today about the police department's shrinking participation in the Secure Communities program, under which local cops share arrestees' fingerprints with federal immigration authorities.
Chief Charlie Beck had announced in
October that the LAPD would stop honoring federal requests to detain illegal
immigrants arrested for other crimes -- at least those nabbed for non-serious
offenses -- for 48 hours until U.S. agents come and get them. L.A. County
Sheriff Lee Baca followed up with a similar change in his department's policy
last week. That sparked an
editorial here today.
California Attorney General Kamala
Harris issued new guidelines last week that made participation in Secure
Communities voluntary.
The editorial board believes
questions about what to do with suspected illegal immigrants should be settled
not by individual law-enforcement agencies but by lawmakers on the state level
and -- better sooner than later -- in Congress.
In fact, a new bill regarding Secure
Communities has been introduced in the California Assembly.
Tuesday,
the L.A. Police Commission acted on Beck's request and set
a policy to no longer honor detention requests for arrestees assigned bail of
less than $5,000. The policy is to take effect in January and its effect examined
after six months.
Details of the sheriff's new policy
are to come.
State and federal lawmakers must
work urgently to replace this patchwork of immigration policies with a cohesive
plan.
-- Opinion staff
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