Growing ICE criticism leads to scrutiny of LAPD relationship with feds

After the recent shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, some police leaders have joined growing criticism of the Trump administration’s migration blitz.

One voice is missing in the fray: LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.

This week, the chief reiterated that the department maintains a close working relationship with federal law enforcement and said he would not order his agents to enforce a new state law — currently being challenged as unconstitutional — that prohibits the use of face masks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents.

The nation’s top police officers rarely criticize their federal partners, relying on collaboration to investigate gangs, extremist groups and other major criminals — while also relying on millions of dollars in funding from Washington each year.

McDonnell and the LAPD found themselves in a particularly difficult position, longtime observers of the department say. The city has been rocked by immigration raids and protests, and local leaders, including Mayor Karen Bass, have lambasted the White House. But with the World Cup and Olympics approaching – events that will require coordination with the federal government – ​​the leader chose his words carefully.

Over the past year, McDonnell has fallen back on the message that the LAPD has a long-standing policy of not getting involved in civil immigration enforcement. Unlike his counterparts in Minneapolis, Portland and Philadelphia, he has largely avoided publicly commenting on the tactics used by federal agents, reserving his harshest criticism for protesters accused of vandalism or violence.

In a radio interview last spring, the chief said that “it’s critical that in a city this big, a city that is as big a target for terrorism as Los Angeles, that we have a very close working relationship with federal, state and local partners.” He boasted that the LAPD had “the best relationship in the country on this.”

McDonnell stood alongside FBI Director Kash Patel on an airport tarmac last week to announce the capture of a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder accused of smuggling tons of cocaine through Los Angeles. Then, at a news conference Thursday in which city officials touted historically low homicide numbers, McDonnell said LAPD officials were as “disturbed” as everyone else by events in other parts of the country, alluding to the Pretti shooting without mentioning him by name. He said the department would continue to work closely with federal agencies on non-immigration issues.

Explaining his position not to enforce the mask ban, McDonnell said he would not risk asking his officers to approach “another armed agency creating a conflict for something that” amounted to a misdemeanor.

“This is not a good political decision and it was not well thought out in my opinion,” he said.

Elsewhere, law enforcement officials, civil rights advocates and other legal experts have decried how ICE and other federal agents have flouted best practices in making street arrests, controlling crowds and maintaining public safety amid mass protests.

After a shooting by officers of two people wanted for arrest in Portland, Oregon, in mid-January, the city’s police chief gave a tearful news conference, saying he had sought to understand Latino residents “through your voices, your concern, your fear, your anger.”

Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal ignited a social media storm after calling ICE agents “made-up, fake, wannabe law enforcement.”

In Minneapolis, where the Trump administration has deployed 3,000 federal agents, Police Chief Brian O’Hara reportedly privately warned his officers that they would lose their jobs if they did not intervene when federal agents used force. And at a news conference this week, the New Orleans police commissioner questioned ICE’s arrest of one of the agency’s recruits.

Doubts also extended to smaller towns like Helena, Mont., whose city police chief pulled officers from a regional drug task force following his decision to collaborate with U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Over the weekend, the International Assn. of Police Chiefs, the nation’s largest and most influential group of police chiefs, called on the White House to convene local, state and federal law enforcement partners for “policy-level discussions aimed at identifying a constructive path forward.”

McDonnell’s supporters say the chief’s role is apolitical, even though many of his predecessors became national voices who shaped public safety policy. Speaking out, the chief’s supporters say, risks drawing backlash from the White House and could also affect the long pipeline of federal money the department relies on, for example, to help fund officers’ de-escalation training.

Rep. Mark González (D-LA) was among those who opposed McDonnell over his willingness to work with ICE while he was Los Angeles County sheriff, but said he now views him as a “great partner” who supported recent anti-crime legislation.

So he said he was disappointed by McDonnell’s reluctance to denounce racial profiling and excessive force by federal agents in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“We have to trust a leader who is able to say that ICE hiring and detaining 5-year-olds and detaining flower sellers is not what this system was created to do,” said González, the Assembly majority whip. “It would help when law enforcement supports a community they serve.”

Within the LAPD, top officials supported McDonnell’s balancing act, suggesting that promises from officials in other cities to detain ICE agents rang hollow.

“Have you seen them arrest any? No,” said Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton.

LAPD officers are part of nearly three dozen task forces with federal officials, where they share information and resources to track down criminals, said Hamilton, the department’s chief of detectives. Cooperation with federal partners is essential to combat “human trafficking in Figueroa” and dismantle international theft networks, he said. As part of these investigations, the two sides pool information — arrangements that some privacy groups say are now being exploited as part of the government’s crackdown on immigration.

Hamilton said “nothing is happening right now that would affect our relationship with the federal government at any level.”

Art Acevedo, a former leader in Houston and Miami, said that for any leader of a big city, taking an official position on an issue as controversial as immigration can be complicated.

Being seen as taking a stand against President Trump carries “some political risks,” he said.

But leaders of immigrant-rich cities like Houston and Los Angeles must weigh that against the potentially irreparable damage done to community trust by failing to condemn the recent raids, he said.

“When you don’t speak out, the old adage that silence is deafening is absolutely true. You end up losing the public and you put your own people in danger,” he said. “The truth is, when you’re a police chief, you have a bully pulpit, and what you say or don’t say matters.”

Those with federal experience said it goes both ways.

John Sandweg, former ICE director under President Obama, said federal authorities need local police and the public to inform them and support operations, but that the immigration agency’s “zero tolerance” approach puts such cooperation “at risk.”

“Ideally, in a perfect world, ICE would be able to work within immigrant communities to identify really bad actors,” he said. “But when you have this zero tolerance, when the quantity of arrests matters much more than the quality of arrests, you eliminate any possibility of cooperation.”

Times writers Brittny Mejia, Ruben Vives and Associated Press contributed to this report.