Are there non-citizen or illegal alien cops in the LAPD? Under the California Public Records Act, I asked the LAPD.
Capt Kevin F. MCarthy
Risk Management
As a new immigrant from Mexico 15 years ago, my wife attended Van Nuys Adult Night School (Van Nuys High School) to learn the English language. One evening when I met her in the counselor's office, I saw an LAPD ad on the bulletin board. It was an ad to recruit candidates to become LAPD police officers. I was surprised that in the sales pitch, it said that applicants did not have to be American citizens as long as they had applied for citizenship and would become a citizen within three years.
I started to wonder if the LAPD had a check and follow-up system which would assure that those non-citizen candidates who were recruited three years before, had indeed become U.S. citizens.
On February 12, 2002, under the California Public Records Act , I asked the LAPD's Risk Management Division how they verified citizenship. Here is the text of my letter:
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According to the information on the LAPD's own website: "The City of Los Angeles requires that a Police Officer candidate be a United States citizen, or that a non-citizen be a permanent resident alien who, in accordance with the requirements of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is eligible and has applied for citizenship. During the selection process, each non-citizen will be required to prove that his/her application for citizenship was accepted by INS prior to the date of application for employment. California State law requires that citizenship be granted within three years after the employment application date. For information regarding citizenship requirements, please contact the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) of the Federal Government."
By way of this letter, I am requesting the following information:
How does the LAPD verify that an officer has received his/her U.S. citizenship within the three years after the employment application date?
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The answer I got is as follows:
"...The Department interprets your request as one for the records, as that term is defined in the Act, outlining the process by which compliance with the U.S. citizenship requirement for police officer appointees is verified. The department does not currently maintain any written policy on this matter, therefore, there are no records responsive to your request...." (Letter signed by Kevin F. McCarthy, Captain, Commanding Officer Risk Management Division) Click here to view original letter.
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Translation: The LAPD does not know if non-citizen officers have become citizens within three years of being hired.
When the ICE (formerly INS) receives any application form and the accompanying fee, it mails an acknowledgment to the applicant that they received that form and fee. To apply for Naturalization, one needs to be a legal alien resident and fill out INS form N-400. But an applicant who is an illegal alien can supply false information and declare that he/she is a legal resident. The lay clerks at ICE who process applications are not charged with verifying the information that the applicant has submitted -- they only process the paperwork. Ultimately (from two to three years), an interview with the applicant by ICE would be required, but the applicant can simply ignore such an interview since there is no coordinated sharing of information between the the ICE and the LAPD. The LAPD only wants "proof" that the applicant has applied. And the only "proof" anyone needs to apply to the LAPD, is the acknowledgment from the INS that they have applied for naturalization.. Simply put, any legal or illegal alien can send in the N-400 form with false information and the filing fee to receive an acknowledgment known as a "Notice of action" which is nothing more than a receipt that the applicants information and a filing fee have been received. But what does the LAPD do three years from the date that the officer applied to the LAPD to verify the completion of the citizenship process?
Answer: NOTHING!
According the LAPD's Captain Kevin F. McCarthy:
THE LAPD DOES NOT VERIFY COMPLETION OF THE CITIZENSHIP PROCESS.
