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Will local cops bust migrants?
Sheriff's official splits with top cop on immigration bill

Nicole C. Brambila
The Desert Sun
March 25, 2006

Riverside County Sheriff's deputies in the east valley won't become an extension of the border patrol even if an upcoming federal anti-immigration bill passes, a Coachella Valley sheriff's official said Friday.
The comments from sheriff's Capt. Walt Meyer contradict an earlier statement from Sheriff Bob Doyle.

"No one from the Coachella Police Department of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department (is) going to knock on their doors about an immigration violation," Meyer said. "We don't do business that way."

Last week, Doyle said in a written statement that he was "duty bound to enforce the laws of our nation and state; if HR 4437 is passed I will do just that."

Meyer's comments Friday came in the wake of the city of Coachella formally opposing House Bill 4437, which would empower local police to enforce federal immigration law.

"The resolution takes a position against HR 4437," said Councilman Eduardo Garcia, who proposed the resolution. "We believe it calls for the inhumane treatment of our residents and places an unfunded burden on our police."

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department polices 13 county cities, including Coachella.

Several attempts to reach the sheriff regarding Meyer's comments Friday were unsuccessful. Through a spokesman earlier in the day, Doyle said he hopes to maintain a relationship with Coachella.

County sheriffs have policed Coachella since 1998, when the city disbanded its police department. Last fiscal year, Coachella paid $3.8 million for those services.

More than 100 deputies are stationed at the sheriff's Indio branch. Rotating schedules give the city the equivalent of 33 officers.
Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage also contract with the sheriffs in the valley.

Marchers will unite

Local organizations opposed to the anti-immigration bill are expected to bus protesters to marches today and Sunday in Los Angeles.
Several hundred Coachella Valley residents are expected to caravan to the Los Angeles protest. Many of those marching in Los Angeles today walked the streets in Coachella for a similar protest that drew more than 800 people on Sunday.

"Immigrants are really trying to be present and visible in their opposition to the bill," said Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigration rights in Los Angeles.

The nonprofit formed 20 years ago to advocate for humane policies.

Thousands of demonstrators in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta staged school walkouts, marches and work stoppages Friday.

At the center of the growing national debate over immigration reform is House Resolution 4437, approved in Congress in December. It proposes building a 700-mile, $2 billion fence along the border and criminalizes those who help the undocumented. The Senate has yet to vote.

"Immigration law is civil law; law enforcement never enforces civil law," Salas said.

The proposed bill, if passed, would change all that - at least theoretically.

Meyer said the sheriff's department would "choose not to do it."

"Immigration is a federal problem," he said. "It's a federal issue."

As the law stands now, law enforcement officers do not arrest individuals based solely on their immigration status.

The growing debate is dividing communities nationally and in the Coachella Valley.

"I'm so tired of them saying 'undocumented people' - they're flat out illegal," said Melinda Lerg, a 65-year-old Palm Desert resident.

She's not alone.

As Robert Kahmann, a Cathedral City contractor, sees it, undocumented workers undercut his business. Establishing a resolution supporters describe as creating an immigrant sanctuary is "spitting in the face" of American ideals.

"They're providing a safe haven to people who have broken a federal law," Kahmann said.

Immigration 101

As it is now, immigration law is enforced federally — except in a handful of cities, such as Costa Mesa, where local authorities check the immigration status of those suspected of serious crimes.

Local police agencies do not enforce immigration law just as they don’t go after tax evaders because both are civil laws.

What Judiciary Committee Chair F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., proposes in his anti-immigration bill — passed in the House in December and up for a vote in the Senate this month — is making U.S. entry a crime.

The bill also criminalizes those who aid the undocumented and proposes building a 700-mile fence along the border.