Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck today reassured the city’s undocumented population that his department would not engage in any immigrant witch hunts.
Beck was joined by the Consul General of Mexico and five Central American countries in downtown Los Angeles to reaffirm his support for Special Order 40.
He urged members of the immigrant community to cooperate with the department if they have either been a victim of or a witness to a crime.
But immigrant rights activists say the problem isn’t Special Order 40 so much as the federal government’s Secure Communities Program. They say immigrants convicted of minor crimes are being deported in record numbers.
Pacifica’s Ernesto Arce files this report from Los Angeles.