L.A.: Alteration to law would allow officers to investigate immigration status of "gang members"

Calling it a response to public outrage over gang crime in Los Angeles, Councilman Dennis Zine said Friday he wants to alter the LAPD's long-standing Special Order 40 by allowing officers to question gang members about their immigration status.

Opposed by immigration-rights activists, the amendment would bolster already existing relationships with immigration officials and require police to report gang members who are in the country illegally.

But it would not alter the crux of the 1979 rule that prohibits officers from asking crime victims about their immigration status.

"These are people who are terrorizing their own communities," Zine said. "They are extorting business for protection money. They are victimizing their own communities. We need to give gang officers another tool to deal with the problem."

Still, activists and the LAPD say officers should not be used to enforce immigration laws and argue that authorizing officers to obtain gang members' immigration status would do just that.

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