Not a Local Job

The Anaheim City Council used sound judgment in refusing to consider the ill-conceived request from a self-appointed immigration watchdog group--the same one that drafted the mean-spirited and legally flawed Proposition 187 in 1994--to turn local police into immigration officials.

The council acted primarily because of the added potential for abuses against legal Latino residents and the visitors that the city constantly courts.

Mayor Tom Daly rightly advised anyone with “a beef with immigration” to take up the matter with federal officials in Washington. Councilman Frank Feldhaus was the only council member who thought the issue needed further review. It doesn’t. Immigration is not a local issue. City police don’t want that power, and a federal immigration agent already reviews arrests to determine legal status.

The idea came from Harald Martin, an Anaheim police officer who sits on the Anaheim Union High School District board of trustees and was a force in its 1999 decision to bill foreign countries and the federal government for educating the children of illegal immigrants, an idea that the Justice Department promptly shot down.

Despite Anaheim’s rejection, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform says it will lobby other cities to seek federal approval to give local police the power to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Barbara Coe, the coalition chairwoman, says the federal government has not done enough to control illegal immigration.

The border is the best place to address illegal immigration, not in communities where the rights and free movement of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants can be compromised and someone here legally can be detained and questioned for hours if they’re not carrying proof of citizenship or legal residency. What would be next in cities, many with large Latino populations? Car stops just because someone looks Latino? Neighborhood sweeps? Checkpoints?

Giving police immigration powers would create an “us against them” atmosphere and limit the cooperation that police count on.

There is no question that illegal immigration must be controlled. But it’s best handled by experienced federal immigration officers, not local police.