Former immigration attorney Martha Arevalo’s clashes with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department led by Jim McDonnell were years ago but were still fresh in people’s minds after this week’s election.
Under McDonnell, who served as sheriff during Donald Trump’s first term as president, the department allowed federal immigration authorities to operate freely, targeting people for deportation in the nation’s largest prison system.
So as soon as Arevalo heard that McDonnell had been selected for the job of LAPD chief — with Trump returning to office promising to conduct massive immigration investigations — she braced for another fight.
McDonnell and some of his supporters have defended his record at the Sheriff’s Department, saying his administration has turned over only the most dangerous criminals to federal authorities, in accordance with the laws. He wouldn’t do that as chief, McDonnell has said, because department rules prohibit it.
But Arevalo, executive director of CARECEN Los Angeles, is among those raising concerns about McDonnell’s record on immigration and pushing for stronger protections for the city’s diverse immigrant population. The incoming chief will appear before the City Council for confirmation on Friday, with his swearing-in scheduled for Thursday.
“It’s troubling in LA, where we are a city of immigrants, we’re electing someone to lead the police department who has no track record to care for, or is friendly, or even wants to protect the immigrant community,” Arevalo said. “Maybe this was naive of us, or naive of me, but I never thought the city and the mayor would choose someone like McDonnell as chief.”
The LAPD has long-standing policies that would prevent McDonnell – or any other chief – from working closely with federal immigration authorities.
For more than four decades, the LAPD has prohibited officers from questioning residents solely to determine their immigration status. After Trump’s first election in 2016, the department increased efforts to promote trust and cooperation among undocumented immigrants. Observers say the continued outreach has allowed the department to make significant progress in some communities that have long been suspicious of law enforcement.
The police force – once almost entirely white – has become more than half Latino, as has the ethnically diverse city it patrols. After passing a state law that allowed police to hire immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, the country also welcomed its first recruits, so-called Dreamers.
But Arevalo said that days after Mayor Karen Bass selected McDonnell for the chief job in early October, she and other immigration advocates held a meeting with both officials and “left disappointed with the very weak responses we received.”
“All he could really say is that he would follow the law and unfortunately we know that doesn’t necessarily guarantee protection,” Arevalo recalled of McDonnell.
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McDonnell gave a similar answer when he appeared before a council committee last month and was asked about his immigration record. He was non-committal when asked if he would support a sanctuary city ordinance being pushed by some community groups and several council members to protect the deportation of some immigrants, simply saying he would follow the law.
Advocates for the immigrant community say police encounters, already risky for the city’s undocumented population, will become even more problematic under the expected intensification of enforcement under a second Trump administration. Minor violations, such as a broken taillight or an unbuckled seat belt, can lead to a ticket for the average driver, but for someone without papers it can have life-changing consequences.
During the first four years of Trump’s presidency, police in LA and elsewhere reported a decline in reporting even serious crimes like domestic violence, which some experts saw as a sign that people had become afraid to call law enforcement.
“We saw it when McDonnell was sheriff, and families and victims will not call the police even if they are victims of domestic violence,” Arevalo said.
McDonnell has not granted interviews since he was appointed LAPD chief. In 2017, he described himself to The Times as “not a Trump guy” and “not an anti-Trump guy.” He was a registered Republican in the past, but said during his time as sheriff he was no longer affiliated with any political party.
Maraky Alemseged, a community organizer with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said the concerns extend beyond the Latino community. A study by the organization found that people of African descent were disproportionately represented among those deported in recent years, Alemseged said, often because a low-level crime led to their arrest.
“When we talk about the police deportation pipeline, this is a racial justice issue, and that’s exactly what we mean,” Alemseged said.
Other research has also shown that immigrants are less likely than U.S. citizens to commit violent crimes.
Alemseged and others have called on the City Council to reject McDonnell’s appointment; They plan to meet outside City Hall on Friday to voice their opposition.
The department’s relatively tolerant attitude toward undocumented immigrants dates to 1979, when then-Chief Daryl F. Gates responded to a wave of illegal immigration by trying to keep the lines of communication open between officers and the communities they police.
Gates issued the policy known as Special Order 40, which prohibited agents from contacting anyone for the sole purpose of learning their immigration status. Gates also banned arrests solely for violations of U.S. immigration law.
Currently, the department prohibits officers from inquiring about place of birth when interviewing victims, witnesses or people temporarily detained. Previously, during arrests – but no longer – a suspect’s birthplace was recorded during fingerprinting and sent to an FBI database, which immigration authorities can access.
The LAPD also no longer transfers people with certain low-level criminal convictions to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Agents continue to extradite people wanted on signed federal arrest warrants for serious or violent crimes, including murder, rape, criminal threats, carjacking and arson.
During a presentation before the Police Commission in May, Cmdr. German Hurtado of the Professional Standards Bureau said the department had failed to comply with 631 “detention requests” it received from federal authorities last year to detain undocumented immigrants for possible deportation.
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The department’s policy to protect undocumented immigrants has faced repeated attacks from both factions within the LAPD and from anti-immigration activists who say they are illegally releasing criminals into the country.
However, the department does assign agents to dozens of federal task forces, including one from Homeland Security Investigations that targets “crime tourists” from South America who travel to the state on temporary 90-day visas and form burglary rings.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
