Police: Crime may rise with illegal-alien law


UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Tucson, Ariz., Police Chief Roberto Villasenor says the new state immigration law is so burdensome that it will overwhelm even federal processing of arrested suspects.

By Pete Yost ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:08 p.m., Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Arizona's new immigration law and similar proposals in other states would lead to an increase in crime, some police chiefs from across the country told Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in an hourlong meeting Wednesday.

The chiefs told the attorney general that having to determine whether a person is in the United States illegally will break down the trust that police have built in communities and will divert law enforcement resources from fighting crime.

If that happens, "we will be unable to do our jobs," said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. "Laws like this will actually increase crime, not decrease crime."

Tucson, Ariz., Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said the requirements of the new law are so burdensome that "we doubt the federal government can even handle the numbers of people we will bring to them" on immigration status.

The new law "puts Arizona law enforcement right in the middle" at a time when police budgets are already in crisis, said John Harris, president of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police.

On Monday, the FBI reported that both violent crime and property crime dropped dramatically last year, a trend the police chiefs said could be imperiled if immigration is added to law enforcement's responsibilities.

The Obama administration is weighing a possible court challenge to the Arizona law, which empowers police to question anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. It faces five lawsuits, including two from individual police officers, and two people filed paperwork this week to begin gathering signatures for separate ballot measures opposing the law.

The other police chiefs in the meeting were from Philadelphia, Houston, Minneapolis, San Jose, Salt Lake City and Montgomery County, Md.

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