Finding Fault In the Wrong Place On Immigration Enforcement

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation quickly corrected the record, pointing out that the state's prisons are now filled at about 135 percent of capacity.

AB 109 is a state law that allows those convicted of a nonserious, nonviolent, nonregistrable sex-offense felony to serve time within the county where the crime was committed instead of automatically going to state prison. Proposition 47 was a voter ballot initiative that reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor a number of nonviolent property and drug crimes.

In case you're wondering what these laws have to with Pharis' murder, I wondered that myself. Martin told reporters that, two weeks before the crime, his officers arrested Ramirez for possession of methamphetamine. He was placed in the county jail. Martin said the culprit was let go because county sheriffs are no longer allowed to keep people in jail on misdemeanors as they were in the past.

"That's the problem with this system," Martin said. "This is not just in Santa Maria. This is all over the state of California and all over the United States."

Martin should mind his own city. He is in no position to know what's happening with immigration enforcement "all over the United States."

Law enforcement only works if the players all stay in their own lanes. And yet it sounds like Martin would like the authority to enforce federal immigration law. If so, he could attack the root of the problem and order his officers to arrest local employers -- farmers, ranchers, restaurant managers, owners of construction firms -- for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants in violation of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Of course, while there is no pushback for attacking government, a dragnet at the Chamber of Commerce would strain community relations. So employers are left off the hook

That's true in Santa Maria, and -- like the chief says -- all over the United States.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.