Unbelievable.
Via LA Times:
The Los Angeles Police Department has come under criticism from some corners after Chief Charlie Beck announced that hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested by his officers each year for low-level offenses would no longer be turned over to federal authorities for deportation.
“What the LAPD is doing is making federal law enforcement decisions, usurping federal law,” said Janis Kephart, national security policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies. “These policies create chaos where you absolutely need continuity of enforcement.”
But other praised the move.
Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and other supporters of the vetoed Trust Act, praised Beck and tried to position themselves for future negotiations with him. “We look forward to working with the police chief … to craft a policy that protects Los Angeles from the disruptions caused by the dangerous” federal laws.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials declined to address Beck’s policy change directly, but seemed to bristle somewhat at the move.
“ICE has been dedicated to implementing smart, effective reforms to the immigration system that allow it to focus its resources on criminals, recent border crossers and repeat immigration law violators,” agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a statement. “The federal government alone sets these priorities and places detainers on individuals arrested on criminal charges to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens and other priority individuals are not released from prisons and jails into our communities.”
HT: PJM