COLUMN LEFT / NEILS W. FRENZEN & FRANK ACOSTA : Immigrants’ Roundup Was a Dirty Trick : LAPD and INS teamed up, unjustly, under cover of ‘crisis.’

The fires were barely out when the scapegoating began, with the immigrant Latino community, especially undocumented Central Americans and Mexicans, the target for much of the blame.

It came as no surprise that Police Chief Daryl F. Gates would finger “illegal aliens” as major participants in the rioting, or that the Immigration and Naturalization Service would back him up. What was more dismaying was the media reinforcement of this perception. For example, a KABC reporter said, during a live telecast, that many of the looters appeared to be “illegal aliens.” What possible basis could there have been for that remark? Clearly, the reporter equated Latinos with “illegals.”

Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin took the first official jab, announcing on the “Today” show that 30% of those arrested for looting in Los Angeles were “illegal aliens.” Assistant Secretary of Labor Steve Hoffman later said that the information had been provided by the attorney general’s office. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a right-winger trying to get reelected in a new district in Orange County, joined in the wholesale condemnation of immigrants, demanding that President Bush implement special procedures to deport arrested immigrants as quickly as possible.

How and where the attorney general’s office came up with the 30% figure--which it has since said was incorrect--is still unclear. The LAPD was behind in the paperwork normally associated with arrests and the criminal court system was in chaos. Why the federal government went public with unsubstantiated allegations is an entirely different question that demands an answer, for the effect was only to feed racism and raise tensions within Los Angeles’ immigrant communities.

What is clear is that the INS and the LAPD have taken advantage of the civil disturbance to arrest and deport hundreds of suspected undocumented immigrants from the community. Many of the arrests were carried out under cover of the dusk-to-dawn curfew; in most cases where there were witnesses, there wasn’t even the flimsy excuse that criminal activity was “suspected.”

Immigrant-rights organizations are now working to document these outrageous activities and to represent the victims of these injustices.

Here are just two flagrant but typical examples: On May 4 at 10 p.m., a team of INS agents and LAPD officers entered an apartment in Pico-Union on the pretext of searching for looted goods. No search warrant had been obtained. The apartment was turned upside down, and when no goods were found, the INS agents demanded immigration papers. A resident of the apartment was unable to produce papers and was taken into custody by the INS.

On May 3, LAPD officers arrested day laborers at Hoover Street and Washington Boulevard. On May 5, LAPD officers arrested day laborers near Sunset Boulevard and Alvarado Street. In both cases, the LAPD drove the men directly to the federal building and turned them over to the INS. Several of the men were able to prove that were legal residents and were released. The LAPD had arrested them simply because of their race.

Local police have no legal authority to make arrests for violations of federal laws, and it has long been LAPD policy not to report undocumented people encountered during routine police business. If they are convicted of crimes, they are turned over to the INS for deportation after serving their sentences. LAPD Lt. John Dunkin confirmed that the policy was suspended. The INS even set up a special substation in the Rampart Division station to process people detained by the police.

Arrested immigrants do not have a right to court-provided lawyers at deportation hearings. Numerous lawyers are organizing to provide free representation to the hundreds who are in INS custody now--or soon will be, when no criminal charges are brought against them and they are released from jail and turned over to the INS.

The INS is doing everything it can to frustrate lawyers’ access to the detained immigrants. Attorneys are being made to wait for several hours before being able to speak with their clients, and then the INS allows them only five minutes. The INS hopes to prevent the circumstances of many of the arrests from coming out in court proceedings.

The Latino immigrant community will not forget that when they needed police protection, they were instead delivered to the Border Patrol. As calm settles on Los Angeles, violations of civil rights must be vigorously investigated.