LAPD Recruits INS in Battle Against Gangs

In response to what he called “a dramatic increase” in the number of crimes by street gangs made up of illegal aliens, the commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s gang activities section said Thursday that his unit has launched a new program in cooperation with the Immigration and Naturalization Service aimed at sending such gangsters back to their home countries.

Lt. Robert Ruchoft said that in a little more than a week, 36 members of two street gangs have been “shipped back” by the INS.

An INS source said that in fact, suspected aliens are given the choice of returning voluntarily or going before an INS court for a hearing. He also said the total to date is closer to 60.

Catherine Leslie, police practices attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said she had not heard of the new program and had received no complaints about it, but she added: “We certainly will look into it. We are worried whether the (police) department is stepping beyond its jurisdiction.”

There has been no formal announcement of the new program, which as yet is unnamed. Ruchoft commented on it only after a reporter inquired about it.

The gangs section head said he proposed the new program because “street gangs are our No. 1 crime problem . . . and we have become increasingly aware over the last two or three years of a dramatic increase in illegal aliens involved in criminal street gangs, particularly in Central (downtown) and in Rampart divisions.”

Ruchoft said he sat down with INS representatives about two months ago and asked how the department could help rid the city of alien street gangsters. The cooperative program, under which the department’s CRASH units and gang activities section provide the expertise on the gangs themselves, received approval “all the way from the top,” Ruchoft said.

He said INS has assigned a four-man team to work with his division and officers of CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), who know the hangouts, names and activities of street gang members.

“We know who they are, and where they are, and the criminal activities in which they are taking part. . . . They are no different from other street gangs in their criminal activities--from murder to robbery to burglary to auto theft,” Ruchoft said.

Ruchoft said INS agents make the arrests, except in instances when gang members are caught in actual criminal acts, such as dealing drugs.

He characterized the program so far as “highly successful. . . . It is too early to tell whether it will result in a big decrease in (street) crime--but it can’t hurt.”

Ruchoft said there are “about a half-dozen” criminal street gangs made up of undocumented aliens. He said he believes the gangs have formed here rather than in the home countries of the aliens.