LAPD chief instructs officers to verify identity of federal immigration agents

Facing concerns from the community about unidentified federal agents and people posing as them, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell has issued new guidance for officers responding to the scene of possible immigration enforcement actions.

McDonnell discussed the policy publicly at the Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Tuesday. He said he issued the guidance on June 27.

The LAPD has not yet responded to a request for comment or to provide the full text of the directive.

According to McDonnell’s comments on Tuesday, the policy states that LAPD officers responding to the scene of potential federal immigration enforcement actions are required to:

• Request a supervisor if one is not already present
• Verify credentials of the supervisor or federal agent in charge if the agents are not clearly identifiable
• Capture that verification on body worn cameras “to ensure transparency and accountability”

At the commissioner’s meeting, McDonnell said officers have been instructed to take “appropriate enforcement action” if they determine an individual is not a legitimate federal enforcement officer. Those actions may include detaining or arresting the individual for impersonating a peace officer.

So far, McDonnell said he doesn't know of any substantiated cases of someone impersonating a federal officer during an immigration arrest.

“To my awareness, the officers, when they respond to the scenes, the ones we’ve been there, they’ve determined they are federal enforcement officers,” McDonnell said.

Last week, officers with the Huntington Park Police Department arrested an L.A. man accused of impersonating a federal immigration agent.

Concerns from the community

During the meeting’s public comment period, several community members expressed frustration at the ongoing enforcement actions.

Steve Rosenberger said he’s lived in L.A. for the past 15 years and has never seen a larger divide between law enforcement and the general public.

“There are hundreds of videos online that citizens take with their cameras of these masked, armed, unidentified individuals, tackling them in the middle of the street, blowing doors off houses, and there is never, never law enforcement present,” Rosenberger said. “In the instances where there are police visible, like you said, they're there to direct traffic around the often violent abduction of people.”

Rosenberger said the enforcement actions feel like “kidnappings.”

“Who are these people? I'm not sure they're officers at all,” Iris Schneider said, addressing the police commissioner board. “This behavior does not say to me, these are professional law officers, and you would have to agree, I think, that this is not the way law enforcement should look.”

Two people during public comment spoke in defense of federal immigration enforcement actions. Steve Riley said the idea that immigration arrests look like kidnappings is a “false narrative.”

“This is not kidnapping,” Riley said. “Those are arrests. Now you might not want those arrests to occur, but ICE and federal agents are enforcing the law. They are doing their job.”

Concerns about unidentified federal officers led state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) to introduce the “No Vigilantes Act” to the California State Legislature last week.

The legislation would require law enforcement to clearly display identification information while on the job and ban bounty hunters from engaging in any form of immigration enforcement in California.

“ We are supposed to assume they are federal agents from Homeland Security or ICE, but the truth is, unless these individuals provide proper identification, we don't know,” Pérez said at a news conference outside Pasadena City Hall on June 23.

Cooperating with ICE?

California law enforcement agencies are prohibited from enforcing federal immigration laws and from working with federal agencies looking to do the same, with some limited exceptions.

The LAPD’s actions during the protests that erupted last month prompted public officials and members of the community to question whether officers were openly cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts, in violation of local rules and state laws that ban coordination.

McDonnell addressed those concerns at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.

“We understand that public perception can be sensitive during these operations, some may see our presence as cooperation with federal immigration enforcement,” McDonnell said. “However, our officers are being reminded and are actively communicating on scene that their presence is solely to prevent injury, de-escalate tension and protect lives.”

McDonnell said the role of LAPD officers during federal enforcement actions is limited to maintaining public safety.

He said that includes tasks like creating “tactical separation” between federal agents and the public, maintaining a safe perimeter, directing pedestrian and vehicular traffic and making sure no one gets hurt.

In a Thursday appearance on AirTalk, LAist’s daily news radio program, Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna said the immigration enforcement actions he’s seen over the past two months are “highly unusual and unique.”

Luna said his office follows state law and county policy forbidding cooperation with immigration enforcement actions.

“But if you have a situation where federal agents believe they are under threat of attack or being attacked, just like anyone else asking for assistance, we at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will respond to assist under those specific circumstances,” Luna said.

Luna said he disagreed with some of the tactics used by federal agents in Los Angeles.

He called for striking a balance between protecting federal agents and ensuring community safety, adding that federal officers need to be identified so they can be held accountable for misconduct.

“There has to be humanity to what's occurring,” Luna said. “And we're not really witnessing that right now, so there's a lot of work to be done.”