Police departments hiring immigrants as officers
3/21/2015
Law enforcement agencies struggling to fill their ranks or connect with their increasingly diverse populations are turning to immigrants to fill the gap.
Most agencies in the country require officers or deputies to be U.S. citizens, but some are allowing immigrants who are legally in the country to wear the badge. From Hawaii to Vermont, agencies are allowing green-card holders and legal immigrants with work permits to join their ranks.
At a time when 25,000 non-U.S. citizens are serving in the U.S. military, some feel it’s time for more police and sheriff departments to do the same. That’s why the Nashville Police Department is joining other departments to push the state legislature to change a law that bars non-citizens from becoming law enforcement officers.
Department spokesman Don Aaron said they want immigrants who have been honorably discharged from the military to be eligible for service.
“Persons who have given of themselves in the service to this country potentially have much to offer Tennesseans,” he said. “We feel that … would benefit both the country and this city.”
Current rules vary across departments.
Some, like the Chicago and Hawaii police departments, allow any immigrant with a work authorization from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become an officer. That means people in the country on temporary visas or are applying for green cards can join.
Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Justin Mullins said the department usually struggles to fill trooper positions in less populous corners of the state, including patrol sectors high up in the mountains. He said immigrants from Canada, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Central America who are willing to live in those remote places have helped the agency fill those vacancies.
“People that want to live there and build a family there and work there is a little more difficult to find,” Mullins said. “People moving from out of state, or out of the country, if they’re willing to work in these areas, then that’s great for us.”
Other agencies, like the Cincinnati Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, require that officers at least have a pending citizenship application on file with the federal government. And others, like the Burlington, Vt., and Boulder, Colo., police departments, require that officers be legal permanent residents, or green-card holders.
With more immigrants moving to places far from the southern border or away from traditional immigrant magnets like New York City or Miami, agency leaders say it’s important to have a more diverse police force to communicate with those immigrants and understand their culture. Bruce Bovat, deputy chief of operations in Burlington, said their immigrant officers help the agency be more “reflective of the community we serve.”
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said he has no problems with green-card holders becoming police officers because they’ve made a long-term commitment to the country and have undergone extensive background checks. But he worries about the security risks associated with allowing any immigrant with a work permit to become an officer, especially considering that the Obama administration has given hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants work permits.
“We’re handing over a gun and a badge to somebody whose background we don’t really know a lot about,” Krikorian said.
Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said any immigrant authorized to work in the U.S. has already undergone a thorough background check and will undergo even more screening in the police application process.
“The security risk is a straw man,” he said. “This is about people who have gone through criminal background checks, who are meeting the very high standards that we set as a country to stay here and who only want to serve and protect their communities.”
Harold
ACGR's "News with Attitude" 
This is but yet another ongoing attempt to desensitize the American people to the progressive-left concept that “citizenship” has no value and as such should not play any role whatsoever in our national security or as it pertains to the security of our communities and neighborhoods. For far too long, the progressive-left element in this country has been the driving force in securing a constitutional basis for illegal aliens so that they would be viewed as an oppressed populace only coming to America for a better life and to do the jobs that American’s won’t do. This propaganda has gone on so long now that a simple minded majority now believes it and they do so to the detriment of the nation. LEO’s have also fallen into that trap, but their indoctrination comes at the direct hands of the Executive Branch, the DOJ and the DOD. Via the intense scrutiny of entire Cities, the Executive Branch with the direct assistance of the DOJ has given local Sheriff’s and LEO’s a black eye per the ongoing accusations of racism and profiling. The mere fact that large Police Agency’s have this “government albatross” hanging around their necks essentially drives these communities to seek out new recruits from minority populations, rather than to get the best qualified candidates who will ultimately police our streets with a badge, a gun and the authority to arrest and incarcerate those suspected of criminal activity. By this approach, LEO’s have established a self-imposed quota system that meets the criteria set out by the Federal government and in that set of protocols, immigrants play an important role. What never gets acknowledged is the fact that most if not all immigrants from Central and South America and from Mexico and the Middle East and an assortment of countries from the African continent are all “refugee’s” from nations where law enforcement is managed by the ruling class in the form of gifts and bribes and those unable to provide such compensation are generally subject to unspeakable treatment and certainly to no justice. This learned behavior does not go away and when it is brought here and then given an opportunity to enter into our communities….the once highly thought of cure to our police shortages becomes the nightmare played out every single day in the countries from which our new immigrant cops came from. The worse part of the example here is the fact that so much of the Police Leadership in the USA has fallen victim to the DOD perks that come their way via Armored Personnel Carriers, Drone aircraft, highly sophisticated weapons seen only on the battlefield and a host of other incentives. These items come with a price and in general terms, this price is to lower the standards of citizenship to the point that it doesn’t matter when it comes to enforcing the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law. already, American born Police Officers willingly violate all of a citizens basic rights, simply because they are told that they can. Now, would it be reasonable to expect that non-citizen immigrants with psychological baggage would be any different and perhaps far worse, given their own history coming from nations where such horrific treatment of citizens is common place? Such a plan is dangerous in and of itself. Immigrants who have entered this nation illegally are now processed out into the communities of America, rather than deported back to their own nation…..because they claim police brutality and political asylum. Once released beyond the control of ICE and the Border Patrol, they are not able to be found. Indeed, of the 65,000 children and young adults processed by ICE last year via Texas, a mere 12 % showed up as ordered for their hearing. The rest have blended into the interior and might never be found. Yet, via their ability to obtain fraudulent documentation, many of these individuals may very well apply to a local Police Department, be hired, given a gun and a badge and assigned to patrol your neighborhood. to be sure, the ramifications of one bad decision leads to more bad decisions. It is ironic that the Federal government has stopped local LEO’s from enforcing immigration laws, yet, local law enforcement is looking favorably upon hiring immigrants whose legal status may never be known due to the politically correct approach to law enforcement now being used across the USA. Citizenship grants American’s a host of privileges not afforded to those who have yet to attain such an honor. What local LEO’s are doing is not an attack on crime, but rather an attack on America. This is but another slippery slope that will diminish the Sovereignty of the nation and the constitutional rights of the American Citizen. Nothing good can come from such a unilateral action that excludes the absolute requirement that in order to swear allegiance to the Constitution, one must first be an American citizen, because how can a foreign nation swear an Oath to a foreign nation? A legal Resident is not a Citizen of the USA, or anywhere near being a Citizen. He/she is still a citizen of the nation of their birth and their loyalty is to that nation and not to ours. Let’s keep it simple folks and work a little harder getting the Citizen recruits that you require.
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