Are badges and guns enough to protect someone from potential deportation under President Trump’s immigration crackdown?
This is the problem facing the Los Angeles Police Department and a handful of other law enforcement agencies Protected by DACAthe Obama era plan is the abbreviation of action to delay childhood arrival.
DACA grants more than 500,000 people illegally brought to the United States, providing work authorizations and other benefits. California has been one of the few states that allow DACA recipients to serve as police officers since 2022. LAPD said 13 officers have been hired in the program and seven police officers are currently working at the police academy.
LAPD chief Jim McDonnell spoke on a ribbon-cutter in the Port District last week, and his support for officers said they were no different from any other colleagues.
McDonald said the department has been monitoring the “current political climate” and will “everything in the law protect them.”
If the Trump administration revokes DACA, he has not elaborated on the additional protection the department can provide.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it has 15 DACA deputies and eight other recruits are undergoing training.
Trump’s first attempt to remove the plan was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, the President has sometimes sent contradictory messages about his position on DACA.
one Recent rulings from the Federal Court of Appeal The Supreme Court, which took over the policy for the third time, opened the door.
Caleb Mason, a criminal defense attorney representing police, noted that the Trump administration has shown a willingness to rewrite immigration policies, including the recent revocation of temporary protection status granted to Venezuelan immigrants.
Mason previously said he could not imagine a scenario where “some homeland security raids into the LAPD station and rounding up officials with DACA status.” He said he is not quite sure now.
Mason, who has filed an appeal process on behalf of clients in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, added: “I think if the federal government wants to push for deportation, regardless of career (can).
Mason said he knew there was no special protection for officials or other government employees employed by DACA, but said it was possible to suppress them from the White House by “enforcing discretion”.
Officials in Los Angeles and other cities with large immigrant communities have been overthrowing the White House, but Victor Narro, director of the UCLA Labor Center program, said they can only do a lot.
“I just didn’t solve the problem of what would happen to DACA elimination,” he said. “What will we have to do with the thousands of DACA employees?”
New LAPD leader Records on immigration have been reviewed Because he swore last fall.
McDonald was often criticized for allowing federal immigration authorities to target deportation when he served as Los Angeles County sheriff during Trump’s first term.
McDonnell defended his decision as sheriff in numerous public hearings and interviews, while insisting that he will comply with a long-term LAPD policy that prohibits officials from working closely with federal immigration authorities.
Since 1979, LAPD has ordered its officials not to contact someone to determine whether they are legally in the country.
Most Latino departments currently prohibit interviewing victims, witnesses or people temporarily detained and asking where they are born. It also stopped the previous practice of recording the suspect’s birthplace during fingerprinting and uploading the information to the FBI database, which immigration authorities can access.
The department plans to hold forums and listen meetings in the city’s immigrant communities to remind residents of their rights, as they did during Trump’s first presidency.
Federal agents are planning to execute “Massive” Immigration Law Enforcement Action In the Los Angeles area by the end of this month, according to a leaked document reported by the Times last week.
During Charlie Beck’s chief position from 2009 to 2018, the department stopped handing over people arrested for low-level crimes to federal agents for deportation. Officials also refused to jail at the request of federal officials.
But advocates of the immigration community say police encounters are still full of the risk of the city’s undocumented population, which will become even more so under the new administration.
While LAPD may not be able to work directly with federal agencies, advocates say they are concerned that data sharing protocols mean that technology such as driving license plate readers can be used for immigration execution.
Trump vowed to make the biggest deportation effort in the country’s history, declared a national emergency and deployed troops on the southern border with Mexico.
The government threatens to withhold millions of dollars in federal funds from Los Angeles and other cities that do not work with immigration crackdowns. News reports earlier this week said LAPD and city officials were assessing the potential impact if funds were frozen.
Times worker Keri Blawinger and the Associated Press contributed to the report.
