Watchdog Group Wants Cities Probed for Policies Offering Illegal Aliens Sanctuary
by Chad Groening
January 9, 2007
(AgapePress) - - Judicial Watch, a public-interest group that investigates government corruption and advocates for transparency and accountability in government, has filed an open records lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department. The suit addresses that department's policies and procedures regarding illegal immigrants. Tom Fitton is president of Judicial Watch, which has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents dealing with how Chicago police officers are required to handle suspected illegal aliens they encounter. He says his organization believes the Windy City has become a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.
"You have some cities, including Chicago, evidently telling their police officers not to inquire as to someone's legal status, which we believe not only undermines the law but is contrary to the law," Fitton points out. He says Judicial Watch has already filed a lawsuit challenging the Los Angeles Police Department's "Special Order 40," which prohibits police officers from inquiring about someone's immigration status and even restricts officers from cooperating with federal immigration officials.
"This is a real issue," Fitton explains. "Federal immigration law is badly enforced as it is; we're not going to get anywhere in terms of enforcement when you have localities undermining the law as well," he says.
Local or state government officials who provide sanctuary to illegal aliens are violating federal law, the Judicial Watch spokesman emphasizes. "If the federal government did its job," he asserts, "it still wouldn't get anywhere if the cities like Chicago and Los Angeles were putting out big welcome mats, saying we don't care about illegal activity."
What such cities are doing, Fitton insists, is paramount to telling illegal aliens that "you can come here and do anything you want in terms of ... illegal immigration law, and we won't call the cops on you; or we won't even have our cops ask you any questions and call the federal police on you." To allow that to go on, he contends, is not only contrary to U.S. national security interests, but also contrary to the law.
In addition to investigating the handling of illegal aliens by police in Chicago and Los Angeles, Fitton says Judicial Watch is looking into the immigration policies of several other U.S. law enforcement agencies around the nation, including the Orange County (California) Sheriff's Department and the police departments in Houston, Texas, and Westchester County, New York.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
