LA County Sheriff Baca to Undocumented Immigrants: No Constitution For You!

Sheriff Lee Baca had some shocking news for the residents of Los Angeles County this week: apparently, if your papers aren't in perfect order, the Constitution doesn't apply to you.

Last Thursday, in a radio interview with KCRW in Los Angeles, Sheriff Baca (no stranger to controversy) let loose with statements that dangerously distorted the constitutional rights of undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles County, sparking a wave of protest and a Change.org petition calling on the Sheriff to correct the record.

The local NPR affiliate in Los Angeles was roughly halfway through a segment about California's federal fingerprint-sharing program known as  "Secure Communities." The ICE initiative, widely criticized by local activists and elected officials as a dangerous blend of local and federal law enforcement, reportedly seeks to identify and deport undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes. However, Secure Communities has instead excelled at hauling in people convicted of no crime at all, including one single mother featured in a recent LA Times investigation.

Crime or no crime, Mr. Baca apparently believes undocumented immigrants aren't in a position to defend themselves in the first place. In the interview, Sheriff Baca casually erases decades (if not centuries) of well-established civil rights law, twisting the Constitution to fit his ideological framework. Warren Olney, host of KCRW's Which Way, L.A., was audibly shocked to hear Sheriff Baca strip undocumented immigrants of their rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Olney: "So you’re saying that if people are here illegally, they simply are not subject to the kinds of civil rights protections that American citizens are?”

Sheriff Baca: “That’s basically correct.”

Basically, that's incorrect, and Sheriff Baca should know better. Protections provided by the U.S. Constitution and its amendments make no distinction between race, religion, sex, national origin, or immigration status. If what Mr. Baca says is to be taken at face value, undocumented immigrants live and work within a legal netherworld, their comings and goings governed and protected by nothing.

Sheriff Baca has sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, yet he fails to understand its provisions. Sheriff Baca has been given the responsibility to protect the people of Los Angeles County, yet he categorically denies thousands of county residents their rights. Clearly, there is something wrong with the Sheriff's recent judgement, although he is the the first to deny any problem exists.

"We don't get complaints about mistrust of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department," Sheriff Baca says. But already, activists are rallying to defend the rights of LA's undocumented. The National Immigration Law Center has called on Sheriff Baca to retract his statements. Join the fight in support of undocumented immigrant's civil rights. Tell Los Angeles County Sheriff Baca: The Constitution Protects Us All.

Photo credit: Neon Tommy