How to Make Allies Into Enemies : Immigrant victims of crime need to know that the LAPD is not the INS

The Los Angeles Police Department may have an image problem in the city’s large immigrant community. It could become a crime problem unless Chief Daryl F. Gates and the men and women in his command show more flexibility in dealing with immigrants who are crime victims.

The image problem stems from a couple of recent, highly publicized incidents involving smugglers who held illegal immigrants for ransom. In both instances, the ransom demands were reported to the LAPD, which rescued the victims. But then police turned around and handed the victims over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which expelled them from the country. The incidents caused an outcry among local agencies and volunteer groups that help immigrants, who argue that these police operations violated a longstanding LAPD policy against detaining people because they happen to be in the country illegally.

That policy was set in 1979, when the size Los Angeles’ growing immigrant community was first becoming apparent. In an effort to reassure immigrants who were crime victims or witnesses that they could cooperate with the police without fear of being detained, the city Police Commission ordered officers not to arrest anyone for immigration law violations, or even to question them regarding their immigration status, unless they were suspected of some other crime. To put it succinctly, illegal immigrants must know that the LAPD is not the INS.

That policy is still technically in effect. But the recent incidents raise questions about how carefully it is being followed. That’s why City Councilmen Richard Alatorre and Michael Woo want the council and the commission to restate it and, if necessary, clarify it. They have a good point.

Let’s face it: Dealing with illegal immigrants is tough for local cops. They suspect the foreigner they’re questioning is in the country illegally--a lawbreaker, in effect. All their instincts tell them to detain the person and inform their law enforcement colleagues in the INS. And certainly there are times when the LAPD and INS must cooperate, such as in keeping tabs on international terrorism suspects. But when it comes to street crime, the entire community has an interest not just in keeping tabs on it, but keeping it under control. If crimes go unreported because the victims are too afraid of the police to call for help, nobody benefits. Except, of course, the bad guys who, as a result of such fear, get away with crime.