Thread: 'Sanctuary city' policy puts an end to NOPD's immigration enforcement

By Robert McClendon, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on March 01, 2016 at 2:29 PM, updated March 01, 2016 at 8:08 PM

New Orleans police will no longer cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, a momentous change likely to elicit denunciations from opponents of such "sanctuary city" policies.

The new regulations mark a sharp departure for a department that until recently actively participated in immigration sweeps and detained people suspected of being in the country illegally.

The new policy, which went into effect Sunday (Feb. 2, forbids officers from so much as inquiring into an individual's immigration status.

That provision and others stem in part from court-supervised reform agenda, the result of lawsuits alleging unconstitutional policing practices. Despite that consent decree, the NOPD had been slow to formally adopt a "bias-free policing" policy.

The Congress of Day Laborers, a New Orleans immigration rights group, has been pushing the NOPD to overhaul its immigration policy for two years. The group has documented several cases of what it said was discriminatory policing, including the investigation of residents' immigration status during routine interactions, such as traffic stops.

"Our communities fought for this policy, and we're celebrating it today," said Santos Alvarado, a member of the Congress of Day Laborers, in a statement. "It's going to improve relations between NOPD and immigrant communities, and it's going to make all our communities safer by making police more accountable. This is a model policy we will be fighting for other parishes to adopt across Louisiana."

Tyler Gamble, a spokesman for the NOPD, said the new policy is the result of long negotiations with federal authorities. "The updated policy establishes a clear set of guidelines for officers that focus on protecting public safety and building trust between the community and the NOPD," he said. "The Department of Justice, the federal consent decree monitor and the federal judge overseeing the consent decree have approved the revised policy."

The Congress of Day Laborers said the NOPD may have investigated the immigration status of crime victims, even though the previous policy expressly forbid it.

Modesta Medina was arrested by federal immigration agents shortly after she reported to NOPD that her husband's truck had been burglarized. Before hauling her before an immigration judge, she previously said in an interview, the agent had appeared on her doorstep and asked "are you the lady with the truck."

Criminologists condemn questioning victims about their immigration status, as the practice discourages residents from reporting crimes.

The new policy preserves the ban on such inquiries and extends it to cover anyone officers come into contact with, including potential suspects. Should officers learn that someone is in the country illegally, they are forbidden from sharing that information except under court order.

"To encourage crime reporting and cooperation in the investigation of criminal activity, all individuals, regardless of their immigration status, must feel secure that contacting or being addressed by members of the NOPD will not lead to an immigration inquiry and/or deportation," the policy says.

The new rules also cut off regular cooperation with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside criminal investigations. Immigration violations, such as overstaying a visa, the most common way for undocumented immigrants to enter the country, are usual civil matters.

The city has routinely provided traffic control and other support for immigration roundups carried out under the Criminal Alien Removal Initiative. The ICE operations typically involved dragnet-style raids at locations where immigrants are known to frequent, including grocery stores, laundromats, and parks.

The city no longer participates in such raids as a matter of practice, but the new policy explicitly forbids it. The department will now only assist if there is a clear public safety interest or there has been a warrant issued by a judge. The department will also ignore arrest warrants issued by ICE unless they are for criminal charges.

Immigration violations are usually considered civil infractions, punishable only by deportation.

The city's new stance on ICE warrants mirrors that of Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who, since 2013, has ignored ICE detainers for inmates being released from jail.

The NOPD's policy has already resulted in a backlash from conservatives who say cities should play a role in enforcing federal immigration laws.

Local immigration enforcement exploded on the national stage last year when an undocumented immigrant who had been deported five times was implicated in the seemingly random slaying of a woman in San Francisco. Local authorities, who had been holding the man on a minor drug charge, didn't notify federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement before releasing him, as they had been requested to do.

Sen. David Vitter in the ensuing furor sought to penalize cities that don't facilitate immigration enforcement, but Democrats blocked his bill.

Although San Francisco describes its ordinance as a "sanctuary city" policy, there's no uniform definition of the term, and it's applied to cities with varying degrees of cooperation with federal immigration enforcers.

The new NOPD policy includes nearly all of the provisions sought by immigration advocates, making New Orleans one of the most liberal cities in the country when it comes to immigration enforcement.

'Sanctuary city' policy puts an end to NOPD's immigration enforcement | NOLA.com

by CAROLINE MAY
3 Mar 2016

The new policies the city of New Orleans has implemented that prevent law enforcement officers from sharing the immigration status of individuals they arrest with federal immigration officials has created yet another sanctuary city, and local leaders should reconsider the guidelines, according to Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).

In a letter Thursday to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman, Vitter called on the officials to rescind the new regulations, highlighting the public safety concerns of harboring illegal immigrant criminals.

“This ridiculous policy prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from doing their job to stop the illegal immigration epidemic is an insult to residents of New Orleans,” Vitter wrote. “If you do not think creating a sanctuary city will attract more illegal immigrants – some who could be dangerous criminals – you are incredibly naive.”

Sanctuary cities have been under fire in recent months following high-profile crimes committed at the hands of criminal aliens released due to sanctuary city policies. In his missive Thursday, Vitter warned of the dangers of sanctuary cities by pointing to some recent illegal immigrant crimes — including the murder of Kathryn Steinle.

Sanctuary city policies lead to increased crime and violence—just look to the murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal immigrant and five-time deportee, in San Francisco last year. The illegal immigrant had a criminal past but was not detained or deported due to similar sanctuary polices in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Ms. Steinle is far from the only victim of violent illegal immigrants. There is widespread evidence that sanctuary city policies have led directly to widespread crime and violence.

In July 2015, an 18 year-old girl and her 4 year-old son were found shot and burned in their car in Franklin County, Washington. The woman’s boyfriend is being held as a suspect on $1 million bail. They have already determined he is an illegal immigrant who was deported in 2014, and since illegally re-entered the United States.

Also in July 2015, an illegal immigrant who has been deported four times confessed to killing his wife with a hammer in Laredo, Texas. Laredo Police reported continuously encountering the man in violent episodes with his wife, yet did not notify Border Patrol.

In January 2015, an illegal immigrant was arrested on charges of shooting a convenience store clerk in Mesa, Arizona. At the time of arrest, he was awaiting a final deportation order.

In July 2014, an illegal immigrant beat and murdered his girlfriend in Metairie and was later arrested in Texas. He was originally apprehended at the southern border in Texas in June 2014, while illegally entering the U.S. He was released shortly after his original apprehension because of policies similar to what you have just implemented

Last year the House passed legislation to crack down on sanctuary cities. Senate Democrats blocked legislation, offered by Vitter, later that year to combat sanctuary cities and increase the penalty for illegal reentry after deportation. Last month the Justice Department signaled it would punish cities that do not comply with federal law, including immigration law.

“There are too many stories of undocumented violent criminals released from police custody and seeking safe harbor in sanctuary cities,” Vitter wrote. “I do not need to remind you that New Orleans is struggling with a devastatingly high murder and violent crime rate. Providing incentive for undocumented criminals to flock to the city is a huge mistake and I hope you will immediately reverse this policy.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...y-city-policy/

Sanctuary cities DO NOT CARE @ American citizens; therefore ANTI-American - declaration of such is a left over from a lawless admin that is soon to be ...
OUT THE DOOR!