Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder June 2004
Crime & the Illegal Alien The Fallout from Crippled Immigration Enforcement
By Heather Mac Donald
ome of the most violent criminals at large backlash from Hispanics.” Another LAPD today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where commander in a predominantly Hispanic, gang- Scrime from these lawbreakers is highest, the infested district sighs: “I would get a firestorm of police cannot use the most obvious tool to appre- criticism if I talked about [enforcing the immigra- hend them: their immigration status. In Los An- tion law against illegals].” Neither captain would geles, for example, dozens of gang members from speak for attribution. a ruthless Salvadoran prison gang have snuck back But however pernicious in themselves, into town after having been deported for such sanctuary rules are a symptom of a much broader crimes as murder, shootings, and drug trafficking. disease: the near total loss of control over immi- Police officers know who they are and know that gration policy. Fifty years ago, immigration policy their mere presence in the country is a felony. Yet may have driven immigration numbers, but today should an LAPD officer arrest an illegal the numbers drive policy. The non-stop increase gangbanger for felonious reentry, it is the officer of legal and illegal aliens is reshaping the language who will be treated as a criminal by his own de- and the law to dissolve any distinction between partment — for violating the LAPD’s rule against legal and illegal immigration and, ultimately, the enforcing immigration law. very idea of national borders. The LAPD’s ban on immigration enforce- It is a measure of how topsy-turvy the ment is replicated in immigrant-heavy localities immigration environment has become that to ask across the country — in New York, Chicago, Aus- police officials about the illegal crime problem feels tin, San Diego, and Houston, for example. These like a gross social faux pas, something simply not so-called “sanctuary policies” generally prohibit a done in polite company. And a police official, asked city’s employees, including the police, from to violate this powerful taboo against discussing reporting immigration violations to federal criminal aliens, will respond with a strangled re- authorities. sponse—sometimes, as in the case of a New York Sanctuary laws are a testament to the deputy commissioner with whom I spoke, disap- political power of immigrant lobbies. So power- pearing from communication altogether. At the ful is this demographic clout that police officials same time, millions of illegal aliens work, shop, shrink from even mentioning the illegal alien crime travel, and commit crimes in plain view, utterly Center for Immigration Studies Center for wave. “We can’t even talk about it,” says a confident in their de facto immunity from the frustrated LAPD captain. “People are afraid of a immigration law.
Heather Mac Donald is a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to City Journal. This Backgrounder is adapted from Ms. Mac Donald’s article, “The Illegal-Alien Crime Wave” in the Winter 2004 edition of City Journal.1 Center for Immigration Studies
I asked the Miami Police Department’s Frank “Pancho Villa” Martinez, a Mexican Mafia spokesman, Detective Delrish Moss, about his member and illegal alien, controlled the gang from employer’s policy on illegal law-breakers. In Septem- prison, while serving time for felonious reentry ber 2003, the force had arrested a Honduran visa vio- following deportation. lator for seven terrifying rapes. The previous year, Mi- ami officers had had the suspect, Reynaldo Elias Good luck finding any reference to such facts Rapalo, in custody for lewd and lascivious molesta- in official crime analysis. The LAPD and the Los An- tion, without checking his immigration status. Had geles City Attorney recently requested a judicial in- they done so, they would have discovered his visa junction against drug trafficking in Hollywood. The overstay, a deportable offense. “We have shied away injunction targets the 18th Street Gang and, as the from unnecessary involvement dealing with immi- press release puts it, the “non-gang members” who gration issues,” explains Detective Moss, choosing his sell drugs in Hollywood on behalf of the gang. Those words carefully, “because of our large immigration “non-gang members” are virtually all illegal Mexicans, population.” smuggled into the country by a trafficking ring orga- Police commanders may not want to discuss, nized by 18th Street bigs. The illegal Mexicans pay much less respond to, the illegal alien crisis, but its off their transportation debt to the gang by selling magnitude for law enforcement is startling. Some drugs; many soon realize how lucrative that line of examples: work is and stay in the business. The immigration status of these non-gang • In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding war- “Hollywood dealers,” as the City Attorney calls them, rants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) is universally known among officers and gang pros- target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugi- ecutors. But the gang injunction is silent on the tive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens. matter. And if a Hollywood officer were to arrest an illegal dealer (known on the street as a “border • A confidential California Department of Justice brother”) for his immigration status, or even notify
study reported in 1995 that 60 percent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),* he bloody 18th Street Gang in California is illegal would be severely disciplined for violation of (estimated membership: 20,000); police officers Special Order 40, the city’s sanctuary policy. say the proportion is undoubtedly much greater. The gang collaborates with the Mexican Mafia, the dominant force in California prisons, on com- A Safe Haven plicated drug distribution schemes, extortion, and The ordinarily tough-as-nails former LAPD Chief drive-by assassinations, and is responsible for an Daryl Gates enacted Special Order 40 in 1979 — in assault or robbery every day in Los Angeles response to the city’s burgeoning population of ille- County. The gang has dramatically expanded its gal aliens — showing that even the most unapolo- numbers over the last two decades by recruiting getic law-and-order cop is no match for immigration recently arrived youngsters, a vast proportion demographics. The order prohibits officers from “ini- illegal, from Central America and Mexico. tiating police action where the objective is to discover the alien status of a person.” In practice, this means • The leadership of the Columbia Li’l Cycos gang, that the police may not even ask someone they have which uses murder and racketeering to control arrested about his immigration status until after crimi- the drug market around L.A.’s MacArthur Park, nal charges have been entered. They may not arrest was about 60 percent illegal in 2002, someone for immigration violations. Officers cer- says former Assistant U.S. Attorney Luis Li. tainly may not check a suspect’s immigration status
* In 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was broken up into three bureaus in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS): the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP); and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This Backgrounder focuses on ICE, which is responsible for, among other things, enforcement of federal immigration laws in the interior of the United States. 2 Center for Immigration Studies prior to arrest, nor may they notify ICE about an illegal alien picked up for minor violations. Only if Los Angeles’ Special Order 40 prohibits an illegal alien has already been booked for a felony officers from “initiating police action where the or multiple misdemeanors may they inquire into his objective is to discover the alien status of a status or report him to immigration authorities. The person.” The bottom line: a cordon sanitaire bottom line: a cordon sanitaire between local law en- between local law enforcement and forcement and federal immigration authorities that immigration authorities that creates a creates a safe haven for illegal criminals. Los Angeles’ sanctuary law, and all others like safe haven for illegal criminals. it, contradicts everything that has been learned about public safety in the 1990s. A key policing discovery cooperate with the police without fear of of the last decade was the “great chain of being” in deportation and to encourage all illegal aliens to take criminal behavior. Pick up a law-violator for a “mi- advantage of city services like health care and educa- nor” crime, and you’ll likely prevent a major crime. tion (to whose maintenance illegals contribute little). Enforcing graffiti and turnstile-jumping laws nabs you There has never been any empirical verification murderers and robbers. Enforcing known immigra- whether sanctuary laws actually increase cooperation tion violations, such as reentry following deportation, with the police or other city agencies. And no one has against known felons would be even more produc- ever suggested not enforcing drug laws, say, for fear tive. LAPD officers recognize illegal deported gang of intimidating drug-using crime victims. But in any members all the time — flashing gang signs at court case, the official rationale for sanctuary rules could be hearings for rival gangbangers, hanging out on the honored by limiting police utilization of immigra- corner, or casing a target. These illegal returnees are, tion laws to some subset of immigration violators: simply by being in the country after deportation, com- deported felons, say, or repeat criminal offenders mitting a felony. “But if I see a deportee from the whose immigration status is already known to the Mara Salvatrucha [Salvadoran prison] gang crossing police. the street, I know I can’t touch him,” laments a Los The real reason why cities prohibit their Angeles gang officer. Only if the deported felon has police officers and other employees from immigra- given the officer some other reason to stop him — tion reporting and enforcement is, like nearly every- such as an observed narcotics sale — can the officer thing else in immigration policy, the numbers. The accost him, and only for that non-immigration-re- population of illegal aliens and their legal brethren lated reason. The officer cannot arrest him for the has grown so large that public officials are terrified of immigration felony. alienating them, even at the expense of annulling the Such a policy is extraordinarily inefficient and law and tolerating avoidable violence. In 1996, a puts the community at risk for as long as these vi- breathtaking Los Angeles Times expose on the 18th cious immigration-law-breakers remain free. The Street Gang, which included descriptions of innocent department’s top brass brush off such concerns. No bystanders being murdered by laughing cholos [gang big deal if you’re seeing deported gangbangers back members], disclosed for the first time the rate of ille- on the streets, they say. Just put them under surveil- gal alien membership in the gang. In response to the lance for “real” crimes and arrest them for those. But public outcry, the Los Angeles City Council ordered surveillance is very manpower-intensive. Where there the police to reexamine Special Order 40. You would is an immediate ground for arresting a violent felon, have thought they had suggested violating some it is absurd to demand that the woefully understaffed shocking social taboo. A police commander warned LAPD ignore it. the council: “This is going to open a significant, heated debate.” City councilwoman Laura Chick put on a brave front: “We mustn’t be afraid,” she said firmly. The Impact of Sanctuary Policies But immigrant pandering, of course, trumped The stated reason for sanctuary policies is to public safety. Law-abiding residents of gang-infested encourage illegal alien crime victims and witnesses to neighborhoods may live in terror of the tattooed 3 Center for Immigration Studies
Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy On September 5, 2001, Former New York against Congressional override. A 1996 federal law Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s hand-picked char- declared that cities could not prohibit their employ- ter revision committee ruled that New York ees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said may still require that its employees keep Giuliani; just watch me. He sued to declare the 1996 immigration information confidential. Six days federal ban on sanctuary policies unconstitutional, and later, several former visa-overstayers though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his hand-picked charter conducted the most devastating attack on the revision committee ruled that New York may still city and the country in history. require that its employees keep immigration infor- mation confidential to preserve trust between immi- gangbangers dealing drugs, spraying graffiti, and grants and government. Six days later, several former shooting up rivals outside their homes, but such visa-overstayers conducted the most devastating distress cannot compare to a politician’s fear of attack on the city and the country in history. offending Hispanics. At the start of the reexamina- The 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws was tion process, LAPD Deputy Chief John White had conveniently forgotten in New York until a gang of argued that allowing the department to work more five Mexicans — four of them illegal — abducted closely with the INS would give officers another and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near means to get gang members off the streets. Trying to some railroad tracks in Queens. Three of the illegal build a case for homicide, say, against an illegal gang aliens had already been arrested numerous times by member is often futile, he explained, since witnesses the NYPD for such crimes as assault, attempted rob- fear deadly retaliation if they cooperate with the po- bery in the second degree, criminal trespass, illegal lice. Enforcing an immigration violation would gun possession, and drug offenses. The department allow the cops to lock up the murderer right now, had never notified the INS. without putting a witness’ life at risk. Unfortunately, big city police chiefs are by Six months later Deputy Chief White had now just as determined to defend sanctuary policies changed his tune: “Any broadening of the policy gets as the politicians who appoint them. They repudiate us into the immigration business. It’s a federal law any interest in access to immigration law, even though enforcement issue, not a local law enforcement is- doing so contradicts the universally respected theory sue.” Interim Police Chief Bayan Lewis told the Los of broken windows policing. (Sentiment is quite oth- Angeles Police Commission: “It is not the time. It is erwise among the rank-and-file, who see daily the not the day to look at Special Order 40.” benefit that an immigration tool would bring.) Nor will it ever be the time to reexamine sanc- tuary policies, as long as immigration numbers con- tinue to grow. After the brief window of opportu- Overwhelmed by Numbers nity in 1996 to strengthen the department’s weapons But the same reality that drives cities to enact sanctu- against gangs, Los Angeles politicians have only grown ary policies — the growing numbers of legal and ille- more adamant in their defense of Special Order 40. gal immigrants — also cripples federal authorities’ own After learning that police officers in the scandal- ability to enforce the immigration law against crimi- plagued Rampart Division had cooperated with the nals. Even if immigrant-saturated cities were to dis- INS to try to remove murderous gangbangers from card their sanctuary policies and start enforcing im- the community, local politicians threw a fit. They migration violations where public safety demands it, criticized district commanders for even allowing INS it is hard to believe that ICE could handle the addi- agents into their station houses. The offending tional workload. Perennially starved for resources by officers were seriously disciplined by the department. Congress and the executive branch, ICE lacks the de- Immigration politics have had the same tention space to house the massive criminal alien popu- deleterious effect in New York. Former New York lation and the manpower to manage it. In fact, little Mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the the INS and its successors have done over the last 30 4 Center for Immigration Studies
years — above all its numerous displays of manage- for a visa after 10 years). A deported aggravated felon rial incompetence — can be understood outside of who has reentered may be sentenced for up to 20 the sheer overmatch between the agency and the size years. The deported Mara Salvatrucha gang members of the population it theoretically oversees. that LAPD officers are seeing back on the streets fall In theory, ICE is supposed to find and into the latter category: they are aggravated felons who deport all aliens who have entered the country ille- have reentered, and hence are punishable with 20 years gally through stealth or fraudulent documents. (Ille- in jail. gal entry could in theory also be prosecuted as a mis- To other law enforcement agencies, triage by demeanor by a U.S. Attorney prior to the alien’s de- immigration authorities often looks like complete in- portation, but such low-level prosecutions virtually difference to immigration violations. An illegal alien never occur.) In fact, immigration authorities have who has merely been arrested 14 times for robbery, not gone after mere status violators for years. The say, without a conviction will draw only a yawn from chronic shortage of manpower to oversee, and deten- an ICE district director. In practice, the only tion space to house, aliens as they await their deporta- real sources of interest for immigration authorities tion hearings (or, following an order of removal from are aggravated felons and returned deported an immigration judge, their actual deportation) has aggravated felons. forced the agency to practice a constant triage. The bar for persuading managers to detain someone has “Run Letters.” Lack of resources also derails the risen ever higher. conclusion of the deportation process. If a judge has Even in the days when the INS and the issued a final order of deportation (usually after years police could cooperate, the lack of detention space of litigation and appeals), ICE in theory can put the defeated their efforts. Former INS criminal investi- alien right on a bus or plane and take him across the gator Mike Cutler worked with the NYPD catching border. It rarely has the manpower to do so, however. Brooklyn drug dealers in the 1970s. “If you arrested Second alternative: put the alien in detention pend- someone who you wanted to detain, you’d go to your ing actual removal. Again, no space and no staff in boss and start a bidding war,” Cutler recalls. “He’d proportion to demand. In the early 1990s, for say: ‘Whaddya got?’ You’d say: ‘My guy ran three example, 15 INS officers were responsible for the blocks, threw a couple of punches, and had six pieces deportation of approximately 85,000 aliens (not all of ID.’ The boss would turn to another agent: ‘Next! of them criminals) in New York City. The agency’s Whaddid your guy do?’ ‘He ran 18 blocks, pushed actual response to final orders of removal is what is over an old lady, and had a gun.’” But such one- known in the business as a “run letter” — a notice upmanship was usually unavailing. “Without the jail that immigration authorities send to a deportable alien space,” explains Cutler, “it was like the Fish and Wild- requesting that he kindly show up in a month or two life Service — you’d tag their ear and let them go.” to be deported, when maybe the agency would have some officers and equipment to take custody of him. Triage. Currently, the only types of aliens who run The results are foreordained: in 2001, 87 percent of any risk of catching the attention of immigration au- deportable aliens who received “run letters” disap- thorities are, in ascending order of interest: illegal aliens peared, a number that was even higher — 94 percent who have been convicted of a crime; illegal aliens who — if the alien was from a terror-sponsoring country. have reentered the country following deportation John Mullaly, a former homicide detective without explicit approval of the attorney general (a with the NYPD, shakes his head remembering the felony punishable by up to two years in jail); illegal INS’s futile task in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, aliens who have been convicted of an “aggravated where Mullaly estimates that 70 percent of the drug felony” — a term of art to refer to particularly egre- dealers and other criminals were illegal. “It’s so over- gious crimes; and illegal aliens who have been deported whelming, you can’t believe it,” he explains. following conviction for an aggravated felony and who “The INS’s workload was astronomical, beyond have reentered. (Aggravated felons become inadmis- belief. Usually, they could do nothing.” Were Mullaly sible for life, whereas mere deported aliens may apply to threaten a thug in custody that his next stop would 5 Center for Immigration Studies
be El Salvador unless he cooperated, the criminal just immediately deported without taking up precious laughed, knowing that immigration authorities would detention space. But the process immediately bogged never show up. The message sent to the drug lord down due to the magnitude of the problem — in and to the community could not be more clear: this 2000, for example, nearly 30 percent of federal pris- is a culture that can’t enforce its most basic law of oners were foreign-born. The agency couldn’t find entry. And if policing’s broken windows theory is enough pro bono attorneys to represent criminal aliens correct, the suspension of one set of rules breeds more (who have extensive due process rights in contesting universal contempt for the law. deportation), and so would have to request continu- ICE’s capacity deficit gives an easy out to ance after continuance for the deportation hearings. police departments when a known immigration Securing immigration judges was a difficulty as well. violator commits a terrible crime. Testifying before In 1997, the INS simply had no record of a whop- Congress about the Queens rape by the illegal Mexi- ping 36 percent of foreign-born inmates who had been cans, New York’s criminal justice coordinator, John released from federal and four state prisons without Feinblatt, peevishly defended the city’s failure to no- any review of their deportability. They included 1,198 tify the INS after the rapists’ previous arrests on the aggravated felons, 80 of whom were rearrested for ground that the agency wouldn’t have responded any- new crimes in short order. way. “We have time and time again been unable to reach INS on the phone,” Feinblatt told the House immigration subcommittee in February 2003. “When Conflicting Missions we reach them on the phone, they require that we Resource-starvation is not the only reason immigra- write a letter. When we write a letter, they require tion authorities fail to act against criminal aliens, how- that it be by a superior.” ever. The INS and its successor agencies are creatures of immigration politics, no less than immigrant-satu- No Answer. However inadmirable his failure to take rated cities and states. Until it was broken up, the responsibility, Feinblatt nevertheless was describing a agency had two conflicting missions: handing out im- sad fact of life: Even when police agencies do contact migration “benefits” such as permanent residency, citi- immigration authorities about illegal aliens, they rarely zenship, and work permits, on the one hand, and en- get a response. Federal probation authorities in Brook- forcing the immigration laws against border trespass- lyn, who currently have 148 illegal alien felons on ers, illegal workers, counterfeiters, and felons, on the their active caseload, have given up trying to coordi- other. Local politicians are usually only concerned nate with ICE on deportation. “Our thinking is: these about the benefits mission: the more green cards is- guys should be removed ASAP,” says a probation su- sued in their districts, the happier the ethnic voters. pervisor. “Should the taxpayer be paying for our ser- So INS district directors were traditionally under enor- vices to monitor, investigate, and provide services for mous pressures to divert enforcement resources into individuals who are not citizens and should not be benefit distribution and away from criminal or other here at all?” But the supervisor’s sense of urgency is investigations. In the late 1980s, for example, the INS not answered at the other end of the line. “You send refused to participate in an FBI task force against Hai- the paperwork over to the INS, and you never hear tian drug trafficking in Miami, for fear it would be back,” explains the federal probation official. “We criticized for engaging in “Haitian-bashing.” In 1997, used to have a person assigned to us from the agency, the Border Patrol announced it would no longer ac- who told us to not even bother sending over forms.” company Simi Valley, Calif., probation officers on Immigration numbers stymied a program to home searches of illegal-alien-dominated gangs. The ensure that criminal aliens were in fact deported after change in policy followed protests from Hispanic ac- serving time in federal and state prisons. The Institu- tivists, after a highly-publicized raid netted nearly two tional Hearing Program, begun in 1988, was dozen illegals. Crowed an attorney with the Ventura supposed to allow the INS to complete deportation County Mexican-American Bar Association: The hearings while a criminal was still in state or federal Border Patrol’s reversal showed that it “can be at times prison, so that upon his release, he could be responsive to the desires of all segments of a community.” 6 Center for Immigration Studies
The disastrous Citizenship USA project of the government used whatever it had. Currently, the 1996 was a classic instance of the politically-driven Saudi changes his cell phone every month. sacrifice of enforcement responsibilities to benefit dis- Probation overseers desperately want to see tribution. Citizenship applications from resident aliens the men deported, but the two Middle Easterners have had skyrocketed in the first half of the 1990s, due in hired lawyers and are staging lengthy deportation part to the increasingly likely prospect of welfare re- fights. “Due process allows you to stay for years with- form. Most welfare reform proposals promised to out an adjudication,” says a probation officer in frus- disqualify non-citizens from the dole. In response, tration. “A regular immigration attorney can keep you welfare-consuming immigrants were applying for citi- in the country for three years, a high-priced one for zenship in record numbers to preserve their eligibility ten.” In the meantime, Brooklyn probation for a monthly government check. The Clinton Ad- executives are watching the bridges. ministration sensed a potential political windfall from hundreds of thousands of newly-naturalized, perma- No Fear of Enforcement. Finally, the overmatch nently-welfare-qualified citizens, and ordered that the between the immigration authorities and the num- naturalization process be radically expedited. Due bers of illegal immigrants mars what should be the likely to relentless administration pressure, a 1996 happy end of the criminal alien saga: their deporta- audit showed that 99 percent of applications in New tion. Even where the ICE successfully nabs and de- York contained processing errors while 90 percent ports criminal aliens, the reality, says a former federal contained errors in Los Angeles. As a result, tens of gang prosecutor, is that “they all come back. They thousands of aliens with criminal records, including can’t make it in Mexico.” The tens of thousands of for murder and armed robbery, were naturalized. illegal farm workers and restaurant dish-washers who overpower U.S border control every year carry in their wake hundreds or thousands of brutal assailants and Extended Stay terrorists who use the same smuggling industry as the Immigration numbers also lie behind the daunting “good” illegal aliens, and who benefit from the same array of due process weapons that criminal aliens de- irresistible odds: there’s so many more of them than ploy to defeat their deportation. The American Im- the Border Patrol. migration Lawyers Association (AILA) is a powerful The government’s inability to keep out force on Capitol Hill. It has won an elaborate set of criminal aliens is part and parcel of its inability to trial rights for criminal aliens that savvy attorneys can patrol the border, period. The reasons are the same in use to keep them in the country indefinitely. Federal both cases: numbers-driven politics and acute institu- probation authorities in Brooklyn have two illegal tional incapacity. As a result, for decades, the INS aliens on their caseload — a Jordanian and an Egyp- had as much effect on the migration of millions of tian with Saudi citizenship — who look “ready to illegal aliens into the country as a can tied to the tail blow up the Statue of Liberty,” according to a proba- of a tiger. And the immigrants themselves, despite tion official, but, at the time of this writing, the the boilerplate image in the press of hapless aliens liv- department couldn’t get rid of them. The Jordanian ing fearfully in the shadows, seem to regard immigra- had been caught fencing stolen government checks, tion authorities with all the concern of an elephant such as Social Security checks and tax refunds; now for a flea. he sells phone cards, which he uses himself to make Fear of immigration enforcement is not in untraceable calls. The Saudi’s offense consisted in us- ready evidence among the hundreds of illegal day la- ing a fraudulent Social Security number to get em- borers who hang out on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, ployment — a puzzlingly unnecessary scam, since he in front of money wire services, travel agencies, im- receives large sums of money from the Middle East, migration attorney offices, and phone arcades, all ca- including from millionaire relatives. But intelligence tering to the local Hispanic population (as well as to links him to terrorism, so presumably he worked in drug dealers and terrorists). “There is no chance of order not to draw attention to himself. Ordinarily getting caught,” cheerfully explains Rafael, an such a minor offense would not be prosecuted, but Ecuadorian. Like the dozen Ecuadorians and 7 Center for Immigration Studies
controls. But the enforcement of laws against illegal Hiring practices in illegal-immigrant-saturated labor is at the absolute bottom of the government’s industries are a form of play-acting: Millions priorities. In 2001, only 124 agents in the entire coun- of illegal workers pretend to present valid try were trying to find and prosecute the hundreds of documents, and thousands of employers thousands of employers and millions of illegal aliens pretend to believe them. who violate the employment laws, the Associated Press reports. Interior enforcement generally, whose Mexicans on his particular corner, Rafael is hoping mandate includes not just the worksite, but also docu- that an SUV seeking carpenters for a $100 a day will ment fraud, alien smuggling, and criminals, has al- show up soon. “We don’t worry, because we’re not ways been laughably underfunded compared to bor- doing anything wrong. I know it’s illegal, I need the der operations, a situation that has been likened to a papers, but here, nobody asks you for papers.” football team’s placing its entire defense on the line Even the newly fortified Mexican border, the of scrimmage. Currently less than 2 percent of immi- only spot in the country where the government gration resources go for interior enforcement, and a devotes significant resources to preventing illegal im- mere 2,000 agents police the entire country beyond migration, is regarded as a minor inconvenience by the borders — responsible for deporting some 10 the day laborers. The odds, they realize, are over- million illegal aliens, eradicating thousands of coun- whelmingly in their favor. Miguel, a reserved young terfeiters, finding hundreds of thousands of scofflaw Mexican with a 12-year-old son back in Mexico, employers, and breaking up smuggling rings. crossed the border at Tijuana three years ago with 15 other people hidden in a truck. Border Patrol spotted Lack of Legal Tools. But even were ICE to allocate the truck, but the outcome was predetermined. There resources to worksite investigations commensurate to were six officers to 16 illegals. Five were caught; the the magnitude of the violations, not much would rest, including Miguel, got away. “But even if you’re change, because its legal tools are so weak. That’s no caught,” he reflects, “they don’t do nothing. You only accident. Though it is against the law to hire illegal get one night in jail.” aliens, a coalition of libertarians, business lobbies, and In illegal border crossings, you get what you left-wing advocates has consistently blocked the pre- pay for, according to Miguel. “If you want your requisite to making that ban enforceable: a fraud-proof family to come safely, you pay money. If you want to form of work authorization. Libertarians have erupted go over the mountain, pay little.” Miguel’s wife was in hysteria at such proposals as a toll-free number that flying in from Los Angeles that very day, but he was would allow employers to confirm Social Security blasé about it, not even knowing at which airport she numbers with the Social Security Administration, was arriving. “Because I pay, I don’t worry.” (The bill hurling out comparisons to concentration camp tat- was $2,200 this time.) If you try to shave on the fee, toos and godless Communism. Hispanics warn just however, the coyotes will abandon you at the first as stridently that giving employers a means to verify problem. But hasn’t security gotten tighter at the work authorization would result in invidious discrimi- border recently? I ask him. “You can always find nation against Hispanics — implicitly conceding the another way,” he shrugs. “Everything’s possible. Para point that there are vast numbers of Hispanics nosotros, es facil.” working illegally. The result? Hiring practices in illegal-immi- grant-saturated industries are a form of play-acting: Jobs Magnet Millions of illegal workers pretend to present valid The only way to dampen illegal immigration and documents, and thousands of employers pretend to its attendant train of criminals and terrorists, short believe them. The law imposes no obligation on the of revolution in the sending countries or an employer to verify that a worker is actually qualified impregnably militarized border, is to remove the jobs to work, and as long as the proffered documents are magnet. As long as migrants believe they can easily not patently phony, the employer will nearly always get work, they will find ways to evade border be insulated from liability merely by having eyeballed 8 Center for Immigration Studies them. To find an employer guilty of violating the In 13 states, they can get drivers licenses, according to ban on hiring illegal aliens, immigration authorities Mexican officials. States everywhere are being pushed must prove that he knew he was getting fake papers to grant in-state college tuition and scholarships to — an almost insurmountable burden. Meanwhile, illegal aliens; many accede. One hundred banks, over the market for counterfeit documents has exploded. 800 law enforcement agencies, and dozens of cities Fraud now pervades every aspect of the immigration accept an identification card created by Mexico to cre- system. In one month alone in 1998, the INS seized dential illegal Mexican aliens in the United States. The nearly two million counterfeit documents in Bush Administration has given its blessing to this Los Angeles, destined for workers, welfare seekers, “matricula consular” card, over the strenuous protest criminals, and terrorists. of the FBI. The massive security loopholes in the card, For illegal workers and employers, there is no warns the FBI, make it a natural for money launder- downside to the employment charade. If immigra- ers, immigrant smugglers, and terrorists. Border tion authorities ever do conduct an industry-wide authorities have already caught an Iranian man sneak- investigation, which will at least net the illegal em- ing across the border with a Mexican matricula card, ployees, if not the employers, local congressmen from as well as an alien smuggler with seven cards, each the affected areas will almost certainly call it off. An with his picture and a different name. INS inquiry into the Vidalia onion industry in Geor- But the rhetoric of contemporary immigra- gia in the late 1990s was not only aborted by Georgia’s tion is as startling as its legal attributes. Hispanic Washington delegation, it actually resulted in a local advocates have successfully pushed the idea that to amnesty for the growers’ illegal workforce. The down- distinguish between a legal and illegal resident is an side to complying with the spirit of the employment act of irrational bigotry, not a consequence of the law. law, on the other hand, is considerable. Ethnic advo- “These are hate, wedge issues,” cried Dolores Huerta, cacy groups are ready to picket employers who dis- a regent of the University of California, as the Cali- miss illegal workers, and employers understandably fornia State Senate repealed a recently-enacted law fear being undercut by less scrupulous competitors. giving drivers licenses to illegal aliens. In signing the In 1999, the sheer numbers of illegal aliens ill-fated law, former California governor Gray Davis again dictated immigration policy, rather than vice had explicitly renounced any distinction between il- versa. The INS announced a “major shift” of strategy legal and legal immigrants. (An eruption of populist away from worksite enforcement to alien smuggling, rage against the measure catapulted Arnold alien absconders, and document fraud. The agency Schwarzenegger into the governor’s mansion, but was merely rationalizing the real: An official told The ethnic advocates are having the last laugh, since Washington Post that the new priorities reflected an Schwarzenegger, having repealed the bill, has already “inability within current resources to deal with the promised a revised version.) Arrests of illegal aliens undocumented population in the U.S.” And the re- inside the border are now inevitably accompanied by vised strategy was little more than window-dressing: protests, often led by the Mexican government, and as long as the worksite remains wide open, alien smug- those protests will inevitably feature signs calling gling, document fraud, and the attendant influx of for No mas racismo. It is the government that is criminal absconders will continue at record rates. constantly on the defensive now for enforcing the law, not those who break it. The editor of Los Angeles’s biggest Spanish- Blurring the Line language daily, La Opinion, reflected recently that the The continuing surge of illegal and legal migrants is Virgin Mary would never have imagined that her fol- changing American politics, demographics, and cul- lowers would find themselves discriminated against ture in ways that have yet to be grasped. But one of not for the color of their skin, but for their lack of the most profound changes is already visible: the documents. But it is not “discrimination” to breakdown of the distinction between legal and ille- experience the legal consequences of breaking the gal entry. Everywhere illegal aliens receive free public immigration laws; it is to encounter the inevitable education and free medical care at taxpayer expense. results of one’s freely-chosen actions. 9 Center for Immigration Studies
boycott in California against the repeal, Nativo Lopez If the idea of giving voting rights to non- of the Mexican-American Political Association, says citizen majorities catches on, Americans that the action is about “justice, dignity, and respect.” could be faced with the ultimate absurdity of An immigration agent says that people he’s stopped people outside the social compact making in the past “got in your face about their rights, be- rules for those inside it. cause our failure to enforce the law emboldens them.” Expect the push to dissolve any distinction Immigrant advocates now use the nebulous between citizens, legal aliens, and illegal aliens to ac- language of “human rights” to trump such trivia as celerate. Joaquin Avila, a UCLA Chicano Studies pro- citizenship laws. The apprehension of some illegal fessor and former legal advisor to the Mexican-Ameri- aliens in San Diego and San Juan Capistrano, Calif., can Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), last summer triggered a huge outcry, well-summed argues that to deny non-citizens the vote, especially up by Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Ser- in the many California cities where they constitute vice Committee: The arrests showed that “the cur- the majority, is a form of apartheid. Voting laws al- rent administration wants nothing to do with hu- low an ethnic minority (presumably white Califor- man rights,” he said. “They are simply establishing a nians) to impose their will on the majority, he says. state of repression in Latino communities and other Taken to its logical conclusion, this immigrant communities across this nation.” In other movement against the law of borders and citizenship words, no law enforcement agency has any legitimacy points towards the dissolution of national sovereignty in enforcing the fundamental laws of entry. itself. Sen. Alan Simpson observed in the early 1980s that Americans “are fed up with efforts to make them “No Person is Illegal.” The term “amnesty” is under feel that [they] do not have that fundamental right of attack, since it implicitly acknowledges the validity any people — to decide who will join them and help of borders even as it dissolves them. “Amnesty — form the future country in which they and their there’s an implication that somehow you did some- posterity will live.” thing wrong and you need to be forgiven,” grouses Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D- Ill.). It’s the border that is illegal, not the crossing of it without permission. “No Conclusion person is illegal,” Los Angeles Cardinal Roger The most striking political constant in the last four Mahoney told parishioners on a day of protests in decades of immigration policy is the overwhelming California against the repeal of the driver’s license bill. popular desire to rein in immigration, and the utter That same day, a march for amnesty arrived at St. pulverization of that desire by special interests. No Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, under the banner: poll has ever shown that Americans want ever-more “Messengers for the dignity of a people divided by a open borders, yet that is exactly what the elites de- border” (“mensajeros por la dignidad de un pueblo liver year after year. If the idea of giving voting rights dividido por la frontera”). New York’s Monsignor Josu to non-citizen majorities catches on — and don’t be Iriondo greeted the marchers, and repeated their call surprised if it does — Americans could be faced with for the elimination of the border between Mexico the ultimate absurdity of people outside the social and the United States. compact making rules for those inside it. As with every contemporary protest move- But the push to annul the laws of immigra- ment, the push for open borders is replete with the tion does not even help its purported beneficiaries. language of entitlement and plaintive calls for respect Sanctuary policies contribute to the terrorization of and dignity. Illegal aliens and their advocates speak immigrant communities. By stripping the police of loudly about what they think the United States owes what on occasion may be their only immediate tool them, not vice versa. “I believe they have a right . . . to remove a psychopathic gangster from the streets, to work, to drive their kids to school,” said sanctuary policies leave law-abiding immigrants California Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes after the defenseless against the social and financial devastation license bill repeal. The organizer of an economic of crime and handicapped in the march up the 10 Center for Immigration Studies economic ladder. Anyone who cares about their when to use immigration rules will be a matter of future success should want every possible law enforce- discretion, but discretion is at the heart of all wise ment means deployed to protect them. And immi- policing. The CLEAR Act, now before Congress, gration optimists, who argue that assimilation into would help by clarifying the authority of local law American ideals is proceeding just fine and dandily, enforcement to cooperate with immigration authori- should take another look: In many immigrant com- ties. The police should have access to federal data- munities, assimilation into gangs seems to be out- bases of immigration violators, an idea that the stripping assimilation into civic culture. Toddlers are administration is slowly acting upon, against great being taught to flash gang signals and to hate the po- opposition from the usual suspects. lice, reports the Los Angeles Times. In New York City, And then the successor agencies of the INS “every high school has its Mexican gang,” and most should be given the resources they need. More deten- 12 to 14-year-olds have already joined, claims Ernesto tion space should be built, or contracted through pri- Vega, an illegal 18-year-old Mexican who works at a vate providers, so that deportable aliens are not re- New York association for Mexican empowerment. leased back to the streets. The missing link in Such pathologies are only exacerbated when the first workforce law — a fraud-proof work ID — must be lesson of American law learned by immigrants is that created, and then employers must be held responsible Americans don’t bother to enforce it. “Institutional- for demanding it. izing illegal immigration creates a mindset in people Advocates for amnesty argue that it is the only that anything goes in the U.S.,” observes Patrick solution to the illegal alien crisis, because enforcement Ortega, the News and Public Affairs Director of “Ra- clearly has not worked. They are wrong in their key dio Nueva Vida” in Southern California. “It creates a assumption: Enforcement has never been tried. new subculture, with a sequelae of social ills.” Amnesty, however, has been tried — in both an in- Taking immigration law seriously may make dustrial-strength version in 1986, and in more lim- a start in combating these worrisome trends. The ited doses ever since — and it was a clear failure. police should be given the option of reporting and Before we proceed again to the ultimate suspension acting on immigration violations, where doing so of the nation’s self-definition, it is long past time to would contribute to public safety. The decision about make immigration law a reality, not a charade.
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11 Center for Immigration Studies 7-04 Washington, DC 20005-1202 Washington, 1522 K Street NW, Suite 820 1522 K Street NW, [email protected] • www.cis.org [email protected] Center for Immigration Studies By Heather Mac Donald (202) 466-8185 • Fax (202) 466-8076 (202) 466-8185 • Fax Immigration Enforcement The Fallout from Crippled Backgrounder Fifty years ago, immigration policy may have driven immigra- ago, immigration policy may have driven years Fifty ome of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet in cities where crime from these lawbreakers is highest, the these lawbreakers crime from in cities where Yet police cannot use the most obvious tool to apprehend them: their Crime & the Illegal Alien
immigration status. These so-called “sanctuary policies” generally policies” These so-called “sanctuary immigration status. reporting immi- including the police, from employees, a city’s prohibit gration violations to federal authorities and are a testament the politi- cal power of immigrant lobbies. So powerful is this demographic clout that police officials shrink from even mentioning the illegal alien crime wave. It is a measure of how topsy-turvy the immigration environment has become that to ask police officials about the illegal crime problem feels like a gross social faux pas, something simply not done in polite company. The non-stop policy. tion numbers, but today the numbers drive increase of legal and illegal aliens is reshaping the language law to dissolve any distinction between legal and illegal immigration and, the very idea of national borders. ultimately, S
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