An article in World Net Daily on 16 September, 2006, described an ACLU-sponsored effort to support Special Order 40 of the Los Angeles Police Department. This Order requires the police in that City to refuse to ask for and act on the illegal status of any alien whom they question or arrest. This is part of the effort of the City Council there to make L.A. a “sanctuary city.”

The national organization, Judicial Watch, has brought the federal case to strike Special Order 40 because it conflicts with a ten- year-old federal law which prohibits “any government entity or official” from communicating to or from the Immigration and Naturalization Service about the “lawful or unlawful immigration status of any individual.” In short, the argument is that pre- existing federal law prohibits any state or local government from requiring its police (or any other officials) to stick their heads in the sand concerning the legality of any person they are questioning concerning any crime.

As the article stated, in one case an illegal immigrant went on a rampage and mugged three people, burglarized two apartments, and raped a women, AFTER he had been deported for robbery, drug violations and burglary. He sneaked back into the US, and had been stopped for several traffic violations. But he was not reported to INS because of L.A.’s Special Order 40.

The facts, but not the legal conclusions here, come from the following article:

https://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp? ARTICLE_ID=52012