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ARTICLE
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mansoor17jan17,0,2617169.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
THERE HAS BEEN a lot of discussion about a recent vote by the Costa Mesa
City Council regarding illegal immigration. To the best of my knowledge,
no other city has approved such a proposal, and I would like to clarify
what it does and does not do.

Currently, when someone is arrested for breaking the law, most officers
are not authorized to ask about the suspect's immigration status. Costa
Mesa's proposal would involve training the police gang detail, the
special enforcement detail, investigators and possibly custody personnel
to enforce immigration laws when a major crime is involved. The
authority for it comes from a law passed by Congress, and the training
would be done under the guidance of U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, or ICE. It is similar to what is being proposed at the
county level and will focus on the most dangerous offenders.

Officers would simply carry out the policy through the course of their
daily duties if they arrest someone for a major crime. There would be no
sweeps for enforcement of immigration laws alone, as some have been
concerned about. In other words, there must be another crime involved
first.

Often, if people are in this country illegally and break a law, they are
either cited and released or, if convicted, released back into society
after they serve their time. It is inaccurate to think they are all
deported. Part of the reason for this is insufficient staffing.
According to a county report, there are only 2,000 agents nationwide
assigned to ICE who are charged with locating and apprehending violators
of immigration laws. The proposed policy would also allow our officers
to start the deportation process, something that only ICE agents can now
do.

So this type of enforcement will make the city safer for everyone, even
those who are here illegally but are otherwise law-abiding. According to
our city staff report, "the training under ICE would focus on
immigration law, civil rights, intercultural relations and the issues
and illegalities surrounding racial profiling."

There is a lot of support for the enforcement of our immigration laws,
and it is time we follow through with it. I believe that this is the
very least the American public expects from its elected officials and
law enforcement.

According to the county's draft proposal, "there are 400,000 individuals
in the United States who have received and ignored their final
deportation orders and â€¦ 80,000 of these offenders had criminal
convictions." The report also says that of our current state prison
population of 162,000 inmates, 17,650 are convicted foreign nationals
and 1,575 are convicted foreign nationals who have committed felonies in
Orange County.

The federal government has failed to do its job, but that doesn't mean
we should sit idly by and do nothing. My goal is to make Costa Mesa
safer, bring greater awareness to the facts of this issue and encourage
other cities to join in a cooperative effort to make this proposal more
effective.

I fully support legal immigration and respect those who come here
legally. This is not about race but about criminal offenses and legal
status. I am an American without a hyphen. My parents immigrated legally
from Egypt and Sweden, and this policy would be applied equally to
someone from the Middle East or Europe.

We operate under the rule of law, and it's time we got back to it.
Americans are standing up and asking their elected officials to enforce
the law.

This policy is simply one more tool that the police will have to
identify and help deport dangerous people who are involved in major
crimes, and it will make our cities safer places to live. Just ask a victim.