The Los Angeles Police Department's landmark Special Order 40, which prohibits officers from inquiring about the immigration status of suspects, has come under an aggressive assault by anti-illegal immigrant activists who argue that it ties the hands of police.
The nearly 30-year-old policy has long been controversial, but the current national debate about illegal immigration has prompted lawsuits that are aimed at overturning Special Order 40 and similar rules across the country.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday April 27, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 87 words Type of Material: Correction
Police and immigrants: An article in the April 11 California section about a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department stated that the department's landmark Special Order 40 "prohibits officers from inquiring about the immigration status of suspects." The 1979 order states that "officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person." Although officers have long interpreted the order as a prohibition, LAPD officials said they don't consider Special Order 40 a blanket ban on inquiring about immigration status.
Los Angeles was the first major city to enact the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on illegal immigration, though most other police agencies have followed suit. So the outcome of the legal challenges could have a widespread effect.
The latest challenge would come this week, with a lawsuit that would ask a judge to require that the LAPD inform federal immigration officials when illegal immigrants are arrested on drug charges.
The suit, which is endorsed by the Federal Immigration Reform Enforcement Coalition and is scheduled to be filed as early as today, cites an obscure state code that appears to require local police to report to federal authorities the names of any illegal immigrant arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking or possession.
The city is already gearing up for a trial over a Special Order 40 challenge that has been filed by another anti-illegal immigration group, the Washington, D.C.-based Judicial Watch. That group argues that the order is unconstitutional.
In both cases, plaintiffs said, they are supported by rank-and-file police officers who don't like the policy but are afraid to speak out publicly because Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton are vocal proponents of it.
Some officers are calling on the Los Angeles police union board of directors to consider, for the first time, taking a formal position on Special Order 40. The board plans to discuss the issue soon.
"We have heard there is concern among the members," said Bob Baker, president of the Police Protective League, on Tuesday.
Some legal experts said Tuesday that they were intrigued by the anti-illegal immigrant forces' use of a section of the state's Health and Safety Code to attack Special Order 40.
The section, which was written in 1972, states that in drug possession and trafficking cases involving a noncitizen, "the arresting agency shall notify the appropriate agency of the United States having charge of deportation."
