Police Chiefs – Justifying Illegal-Alien Crime

By Ronald W. Mortensen on December 9, 2009

The ability of law enforcement officers to justify the criminal acts of illegal aliens, while at the same time making them out to be victims, never ceases to amaze me.

I recently wrote about the outgoing Los Angeles Chief of Police’s concern for maintaining good relations with the illegal-alien community at the expense of law-abiding American citizens and legal residents.

Now, we learn that Massachusetts police chiefs are concerned about illegal aliens who buy false documents that are – well, “false.”

According Chief Michael Wynn of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts police department, illegal aliens purchase fraudulent driver’s licenses so they can drive to their jobs that, parenthetically, they obtained by defrauding employers with stolen or fake Social Security numbers, bogus green cards, and, of course, stolen identities.

The Chief apparently has no problem with illegal aliens who are using fraudulent documents. What seems to bother Chief Wynn is that when his officers stop illegal aliens with fake licenses, they have to arrest them because they don’t have real driver’s licenses. The chief finds this to be unfair because the illegal aliens are victims of the false document dealers who “defrauded” them by selling them fraudulent driver’s licenses.

Chief Wynn: "A lot of times, they're victims of fraud, they've been sold bad documents," Wynn said. "They did whatever they thought they could do, but they're still unlicensed. And in that set of circumstances, our hands are tied - it's an arrestable offense [driving without a valid license]."

Apparently Chief Wynn is shocked that fraudulent document dealers would be selling “fraudulent” documents that are “bad.” But what does he expect? They are fraudulent document dealers after all and they aren’t licensed by the state to issue valid driver’s licenses. Furthermore, the illegal aliens know full well that they are buying phony documents when they transact their business with crooks on street corners, in public parks or in the parking lot of the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

And what is law enforcement’s solution to illegal aliens buying false documents so they can unlawfully drive, get jobs and other benefits that they are not legally entitled to? Well, according to a fellow police chief, Massachusetts should issue real, honest to goodness driver’s licenses to illegal aliens so they won’t have to buy phony licenses from unscrupulous fraudulent document dealers.

According to press reports, Chief Richard Wilcox of the Stockbridge Police Department agreed that illegal aliens are victims of fraud. "I'm of the opinion is (sic) that if it's done right [state issued driver’s licenses for illegal aliens], I don't see why not," he said. "I don't have a problem if it's someone just trying to get by, trying to make a living.”

Now, when the chief says, “I don’t have any problem if it’s someone just trying to get by, trying to make a living” he fails to differentiate between someone who can legally work in the United States and someone who has to commit document fraud, perjury and possibly even identity theft in order to get a job which is the case for all illegal aliens.

Of course, document fraud, perjury and identity theft are felonies but for some reason, police chiefs readily turn a blind eye to these crimes as long as they are committed by illegal aliens and not by American citizens.

Now compare the actions of the law enforcement officers in Massachusetts with a successful program developed by a group of sheriffs in the Florida Panhandle as described in my Backgrounder for the Center for Immigration Studies, entitled "Illegal, but Not Undocumented: Identity Theft, Document Fraud, and Illegal Employment."

In Florida, after a large number of new workers were attracted to construction jobs following a hurricane, sheriffs noticed a sharp increase in both the use of false documents and of identity theft. The perpetrators included both illegal aliens and U.S. citizens with criminal warrants trying to avoid detection.

After consulting with a state’s attorney, the sheriffs proceeded to expand the investigative scope of an existing multi-county task force. Acting on tips from members of the communities, officers launched investigations at four businesses and their subcontractors. The task force also received requests for inspections from many businesses seeking confirmation that they were employing a legal workforce.

Within three months of the first inspections, communities in the Panhandle region began to report that noticeable numbers of illegal aliens and their families were leaving the area. Illegal aliens interviewed by local news media stated that they had difficulty finding jobs.

As a result of the inspections, businesses became better informed of their responsibilities to review documents. These results were achieved without agencies having to conduct large numbers of inspections or having to make large numbers of arrests. Similar programs in other locations have achieved comparable results.

So while, the police chiefs in Los Angeles and Massachusetts go about their business of protecting the perpetrators of job-related crimes from arrest and prosecution, the sheriffs in Florida go about protecting the American citizens and legal residents who are the true victims of illegal alien job-related felonies.

While the police chiefs are afraid to enforce the law when it applies to illegal aliens, the Florida sheriffs uphold their oaths of office and enforce the laws equally for both illegal aliens and American citizens who are committing job-related felonies.

While the police chiefs call for amnesty for all illegal aliens under comprehensive immigration reform, including amnesty from document fraud, perjury on I-9 forms and identity theft, the sheriffs are targeting the criminals who are committing these crimes whether they are American citizens or illegal aliens.

I wonder if the police chiefs ever even considered that if the illegal aliens simply obeyed the law rather than violating it at every turn, they wouldn’t be “victims” of fraudulent document dealers?

And I wonder how the chiefs justify their discriminatory practice of giving illegal aliens a free pass from crimes that they would readily arrest American citizens and legal residents for?