Gov. Brown Vetoes AB 1081; LAPD Says We're Going to Implement it Anyway

Move by LAPD is a Threat to Public Safety and an Assault on the Rule of Law, Says FAIR

(October 4, 2012 — Washington, D.C.) - Just four days after Governor Jerry Brown vetoed AB 1081, a measure that would have required California law enforcement to ignore requests by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to detain aliens who were arrested for other offenses, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) defiantly announced its intent to implement AB 1081 anyway. On Thursday, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck proposed a policy under which the department would refuse to “grant an ICE Detainer Request without first reviewing the seriousness of the offense for which the person is being held as well as their prior arrest history and gang involvement.”

“The move by the LAPD is more than just a complete abrogation of their sworn duty ‘to protect and serve’ the citizens of Los Angeles. It represents more than just a senseless threat to public safety. The LAPD’s announcement is an assault on the rule of law itself,” charged Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

“What the LAPD is doing is part of a disturbing trend that ought to concern every American,” Stein continued. “Earlier this year, President Obama announced that he would implement the DREAM Act in spite of the fact that Congress defeated the legislation as recently as December 2010. Now the LAPD is deciding on its own to implement AB 1081 in spite of the fact that the governor of California, exercising his constitutional authority, vetoed the measure. Neither the president nor the Los Angeles Police Department has the authority to implement laws which were never enacted, or ignore laws that were.”

The policy the LAPD intends to implement, which mirrors AB 1081, was “vehemently” opposed by the California Sheriffs Association, including Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. The basis of their opposition was that releasing aliens with criminal records back onto the streets posed a threat to public safety and would force California law enforcement to violate federal law.

FAIR joined with Los Angeles resident Jamiel Shaw Sr., whose 17-year-old son was murdered in 2008 by an illegal alien who had been released from custody by County authorities one day before the murder, in urging Gov. Brown to veto AB 1081. “It took Chief Beck all of four days to remind people like the Shaws and millions of law-abiding citizens that, in Los Angeles, their safety and security takes a back seat to protecting illegal aliens — even illegal aliens with criminal records — from being deported,” concluded Stein.