Some Blue States Aim To Bolster Sagging Police Numbers By Hiring Non-Citizens
Brandon Poulter on August 21, 2023
Blue state politicians around the country are looking to non-citizens and asylum seekers to fill police forces amid a struggle to staff them, according to The Washington Times.
Recently signed legislation in California, Illinois and Colorado allows for certain non-citizens to become police officers or peace officers, who can enforce the law against citizens, according to public documents reviewed by the The Washington Times. Some in blue cities and states with struggling police forces are unsure of the legality of these laws designed to alleviate police shortages.
“It’s a massive problem,” Matt O’Brien, a former immigration judge, told The Washington Times. “You’ve got this muddle of issues where there is no settled law, and it’s now crashing into the fact that these idiots in the defund-the-police movement have caused a crisis in law enforcement.”
The California law, Senate Bill 960, signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in September of 2022 allows non-citizens to become police officers. The law allows anyone with federal work authorization to apply to be a police officer, and illegal immigrants who have been paroled by the DHS can apply for federal work authorization, according to DHS.
House Bill 3751, signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Illinois in July, also allows non-citizens to become police officers, and House Bill 23-1143, signed by Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in April, allows asylum eligible immigrants in Colorado to carry weapons as police officers. Polis signed the new law allowing DACA recipients to become armed police officers with the intent of alleviating the police shortage in the state, according to The Denver Post.
“We know nothing — literally nothing — about these people other than what they told us. We don’t even know if they’re giving us their real names, and if they have a criminal record back home, they’re definitely not giving us their real names. So how are you going to vet people?” Rosemary Jenks, vice president at NumbersUSA, a group that lobbies for stricter immigration controls, told The Washington Times.
Lawmakers are unclear on who can carry weapons and how the laws will be implemented, according to The Washington Times.
“If we are having folks that our government knows are in violation of the law or have broken the law and we are deputizing them to enforce other laws, that doesn’t bring confidence to our legal system,” Elizabeth Jacobs, director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Washington Times.
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