America's Voice Blog

Posted 04/09/10 at 02:21pm By Patty Kupfer

What Happened to the Worst of the Worst?: NYT Says “Pull the Plug on 287(g)”

An editorial in today’s New York Times adds to a week of attacks on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), since last Friday’s release of a new report by the agency’s Inspector General that slams the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to the Times’ analysis of the OIG report:

The [287(g)] program lacks basic safeguards like data collection and reporting requirements to ensure that deputies don’t violate civil rights. The report also found that fewer than 10 percent of its sample of captured offenders had committed serious “Level 1” crimes, and almost half had no connection at all to violence, drugs or property crimes.

The report reinforces what a leading police association and police chiefs, including William Bratton of Los Angeles, have argued strenuously — that 287(g) undermines public safety. Police officers can’t fight crimes when communities they serve fear and avoid them.

Click here to read more.
Posted 10/27/09 at 02:09pm By Jackie Mahendra

LAPD Police Chief on Immigration: Fight Crime, Protect Communities

Yesterday, in “Warning: Talking Sanely about Immigration May Be Hazardous,” we reported on Sacramento’s Police Chief Rick Braziel, and his measured, rational approach to immigration and community policing.

Today, we are happy to highlight another key voice on this issue. Outgoing LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton is a member of the rapidly-growing network of police chiefs across the nation calling for a serious immigration overhaul. According to his LAPD bio, Chief Bratton oversaw a historic drop in crime during his six years in office:

… After six years in office, crime in LA has been reduced to historically low levels, with Part I crimes down 33% and homicides down 41%.

The only person ever to serve as chief executive of the LAPD and the NYPD, Chief Bratton established an international reputation for re-engineering police departments and fighting crime in the 1990s.

As he prepared to depart from distinguished service, Bratton laid out a strong immigration position in an op-ed in today’s LA Times, drawing on his 40 years of law enforcement experience:

On March 12, Juan Garcia, a 53-year-old homeless man, was brutally murdered in an alley off 9th and Alvarado streets in the Westlake District, just west of downtown Los Angeles. At first, the police were stumped; there were no known witnesses and few clues. Then a 43-year-old undocumented immigrant who witnessed the crime came forward and told the homicide detectives from the Rampart station what he saw. Because of his help, a suspect was identified and arrested a few days later while hiding on skid row. Because the witness was not afraid to contact the police, an accused murderer was taken off the streets, and we are all a little bit safer. Stories like this are repeated daily in Los Angeles.

Keeping America's neighborhoods safe requires our police forces to have the trust and help of everyone in our communities. My nearly 40 years in law enforcement, and my experience as police commissioner in Boston and New York City and as chief in Los Angeles, have taught me this.

Stressing the need to keep communities safe by working in partnership with victims and witnesses to crimes, Bratton points out important flaws in the federal government’s 287(g) program. He argues:

A person reporting a crime should never fear being deported, but such fears are real and palpable for many of our immigrant neighbors.

This fear is not unfounded. Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that 11 more locations across the United States have agreed to participate in a controversial law enforcement program known as 287(g). The program gives local law enforcement agencies the powers of federal immigration agents by entering into agreements with Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Although many local agencies have declined to participate in 287(g), 67 state and local law enforcement agencies are working with ICE, acting as immigration agents.

Click here to read more.
Posted 07/28/09 at 09:20am By Patty Kupfer

Center of the storm: 100 Police Chiefs Gather to Talk Immigration

PoliceThe stories have barely begun before the frustration boils over.

Those of us who came to observe the convening see the nods and sense the recognition as more stories came out.  Police chiefs have journeyed from Mesa, AZ, Prince William County, VA, Salt Lake City, UT... from all across the US. It wasn't at first obvious to an outsider what these police chiefs had in common, but after an hour's worth of discussion it became clear:

They've all been caught at the center of an immigration fire storm, without ever choosing to be there.

Several police chiefs participating in the Police Executive Research Forum's daylong summit on local immigration enforcement explained what it is like to be stuck in the middle. They described how local politicians pandering to an extreme base had created policies that severely compromised public safety. Chief George Gascon of Mesa, AZ, alluding to his battle with the Maricopa County's Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his infamous neighborhood sweeps, lamented:

"I have seen the ugly side of this enforcement."

Click here to read more.
Posted 03/24/09 at 08:22pm By Web Team

Phoenix Police Chief: Don’t Just Treat the Symptoms, Fix the Problem

Jack HarrisThe Washington Post's George Will has a great column on Police Chief Jack Harris, who argues that Washington's failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform directly affects his ability to fight crime in Phoenix.

According to Will, Harris fits the profile of a top cop, "is stolid and patient, but there are limits." He writes:

Clearly, he is weary of explaining that this is one of America's safest large cities, with declining rates of violent crime and property crime. Unfortunately, there are the kidnappings.

For them, Harris says, "The answer is not in Phoenix. The answer is in Washington. "We know how to close a border," says Harris with acid dryness: "build a wall" and deploy "machine gun nests."

But "I personally think that is stupid." For now, however, the U.S. "has turned immigration policy over to Mexican thugs." So, we have reached a point at which barbed wire, car batteries and acid become the business tools of kidnapper-torturer-extortionists.

What does Harris suggest as an alternative to turning our nation's immigration policy over to "thugs?" Simple:  if you want to crackdown on crime, deal intelligently with the borders, get folks out of the shadows, and create a system that people want to go through and not around.

Pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Click here to read more.