Police recruiters make pitch to hire noncitizens

Banderas News ^ | May 16, 2007 | Tom Sharpe

[george76]

The Santa Fe Police Department is looking at the possibility of recruiting Mexican nationals to fill vacancies on the city police force, say sergeants in charge of training and recruiting.

Sgts. Gillian Alessio and Marvin Paulk told the city's Public Safety Committee on Tuesday that they are trying to think outside the box to fill 20 vacancies on the 155-person force.

New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy regulations currently prohibit noncitizens from serving as police officers, Police Chief Eric Johnson said later.

Alessio told the city panel: ``Every day, we get approached by young men and women from Mexico who are in the country legally but are not naturalized. There is a huge pool of people who are dedicated, hard-working and trying to become citizens of this country. They would like nothing better than to devote their time to protecting the communities that they live in.''

Some cities in other states already hire noncitizens as police officers.

Both the city of Santa Fe and the state of New Mexico have policies against police officers trying to enforce federal immigration laws.

[FredHunter08]

” The military accepts resident aliens as volunteers to fight for our Repulic’s freedom.”

There are significant restrictions on resident alien enlistees.

“I would use the same standard for the police forces, also subject to background checks as in the military.”

The same requirements as required for a commissioned officer should apply to law enforcement.

[af_vet_1981]

There are significant restrictions on resident alien enlistees.

Can you list some of them ?

[af_vet_1981]

The same requirements as required for a commissioned officer should apply to law enforcement.

Perhaps for a police office at the rank of Lieutenant or above, but not the rank of Sergeant or below.

[FredHunter08]

“Can you list some of them ?”

Here are a few, off the top of my head.

Non-citizen enlistees from hostile countries require a waiver. Non-citizen enlistees generally may not hold a position requiring a clearance. No non-citizen may be commissioned an officer.

[FredHunter08]

“Perhaps for a police office at the rank of Lieutenant or above, but not the rank of Sergeant or below.”

I wouldn’t agree. We’re talking about non-citizens holding the police power over citizens. I would never support that.

[elkfersupper]

OK, I get that Santa Fe is looking to add hispanic officers to its police roster. But do they expect anyone to believe that in Santa Fe, in New Mexico, there are no hispanic americans at all, who might be interested in the job?

I'm willing to bet that there are very few, if any non-hispanic officers on the Santa Fe government thug force now.

[elkfersupper]

The first thing I would do as mayor would be to jack up real estate taxes on all the multi-million dollar homes here owned by rich californians and texans (alot of hollywood types) and double the pay of the cops and increase their numbers.

Good grief!. Why not implement a city income tax as well?

[machman]

Well, moving from the Midwest, I was shocked at how low our property taxes were. Of course, we get what we pay for with poor schools and poor services......

[elkfersupper]

Well, moving from the Midwest, I was shocked at how low our property taxes were. Of course, we get what we pay for with poor schools and poor services......

There's a direct relationship. You had better thank God for that and resist all efforts to change it.

[Joe Brower]

Gee, didn't I read about something like this in a book recently? It was supposed to be a work of fiction...

[Travis McGee]

Seems like we’re on the road to Aztlan. Glad we’re out of Cali!