Crime Dropped During Sweeps, Police Report

Police in Orange have released a report stating that their controversial roundups of day laborers have reduced crime in the city’s east end as they had predicted.

Since March 1, police and immigration officials have arrested 500 undocumented workers, many of whom gather in the city’s east end, police said.

In the same period, major crimes in the area declined significantly, according to the police report.

The report says crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, assault and burglary decreased by as much as 43% in the city’s east end between February and March, 1988. The report also said serious crimes in the rest of the city dropped 7% during the same period.

Crime had steadily increased in the east end from November, 1987, to February, 1988, Lt. Ed Tunstall said. Police sweeps began after business owners and school officials complained that large numbers of day laborers were creating a public nuisance by congregating on street corners.

A special enforcement team arrested suspected illegal aliens for misdemeanor violations such as littering and jaywalking and then turned them over to the U.S. Border Patrol for deportation.

“We are not arresting people for being illegal (aliens),” Tunstall said. “We’re arresting them for violating California law.”

Tunstall said the policy of strict law enforcement in the area will continue indefinitely.

County civil rights groups say the pattern of arresting primarily undocumented workers indicates that the police are trying to enforce federal immigration law.