LAPD Chief: Deporting Immigrants is “Not Our Job”

In response to Donald Trump’s pledge to crack down on federal immigration enforcement and deport up to 3 million people, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said on Monday that he will not participate in the deportation of immigrants.

The LAPD has had a policy for the past few decades that prohibits officers from initiating an interaction based solely on somebody’s immigration status. Since Beck has been the police chief, the department has officially stopped turning over low-level criminals to federal agents for deportation.

Beck said that  he plans to maintain this separation from federal immigration enforcement.

“I don’t intend on doing anything different. We are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status,” he said. “We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.”

Trump said that he intends to focus his immigration policies on those with criminal records. In a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday with Lesley Stahl, Trump explains:

What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally. After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that you’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that– But before we make that determination– Lesley, it’s very important, we want to secure our border.

Could Trump’s plans be stifled if police departments across the country refuse to cooperate?