LA Gang Policy Continues to Generate Heat

JMC (here) posted earlier this week, which drew several comments, on a new policy of submitting the names of gang injunction violators in Los Angeles for possible immigration enforcement.  The policy (here) continues to draw protests from some community leaders who say the injunction process is flawed because it lacks an easy way out for people who mend their ways. Councilwoman Janice Hahn and several civil rights leaders said Friday that City Attorney Rocky Degadillo’s new policy should be suspended until major changes are made in the way that young people are included and removed from gang injunctions. “I’d like to see them overhaul this thing,” Hahn said. “Some people who are on the list aren’t gang members anymore.” Activists have been calling on the city attorney for more than a year to revise the injunction program so that it focuses only on active gang members. A attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California supports a suspension of the new policy, commenting that “[a] lot of times, they label young people as gang members who are not really affiliated with a gang.” City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said changes are coming in the program that involves 33 court injunctions limiting the activities of 50 gangs. But in the meantime, Delgadillo said, his new policy of submitting the names of people convicted of violating gang injunctions to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible immigration enforcement will include safeguards to make sure only criminals are subject to deportation.

My comment to JMC’s post is worth repeating here:

One of the most interesting things to me in this story is the division of opinion among City of Los Angeles officials on the propriety of local assistance of the federal government in its removal efforts. Among others, up-and-coming pol City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who ran in the Democratic primary for California Attorney General against Jerry Brown last year, supports the City’s efforts to help the feds. Mayor Antonio Villaraigoso and Chief of Police Bratton oppose such efforts and fear that local cooperation with the feds will chill immigrants from cooperating in criminal investigation.

KJ