Should cops be la migra?

At the heart of the debate over whether the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Order 40 should be revised is a call for closer cooperation between cops on the street and federal immigration authorities. Since 1979, when the policy went into effect, L.A. police officers have purposely stayed clear of enforcing immigration law. The reason seems obvious: In a city with growing immigrant populations, especially Latino, noncitizens must feel confident that they can come forward and inform cops when a crime is committed, or act as witnesses, without fear of deportation.

But the murder of Jamiel Shaw II, a promising college-bound football star, allegedly by an illegal immigrant with ties to a gang, has intensified demands that the order be revised to allow L.A. police officers to become more of an arm of la migra. The modification proposed earlier this month by City Councilman Dennis Zine would require police to investigate the immigration status of a known gang member suspected of committing a crime, and if the person is here illegally, to report the information to federal authorities.

This change would probably lead to the capture and deportation of more "criminal aliens." But according to a national survey that I and three colleagues conducted, relatively few police chiefs in the nation are inclined to assume the role of immigration enforcer. The main reason is that they fear it would make all city residents -- citizens and noncitizens alike -- less safe.

A law passed by Congress in 1996 gives state and local police the option to take on what has traditionally been a federal responsibility -- investigating the immigration status of individuals and arresting them if they are in the United States illegally. Under the program, dubbed "287(g)" for its U.S. code, state and local law enforcement agencies enter into a formal agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow some of their officers, after appropriate training, to add immigration enforcement to their duties. According to ICE, 41 agencies have signed up so far, among them the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which screens the immigrant status of inmates in county jail.