Thread: CA: Immigration agents working with Escondido police

ESCONDIDO: Immigration agents working with Escondido police

Police chief says agents help catch criminal illegal immigrants

By EDWARD SIFUENTES
Posted: June 23, 2010 10:40 pm
The Escondido Police Department has new allies in its fight against crime: two immigration agents.

The two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who started working with the department last month, assist patrol officers in their contacts with criminal illegal immigrants, said Chief Jim Maher. They help determine whether suspects are in the country illegally or are wanted for deportation, Maher said.

Victor Torres, a spokesman for the civil rights group El Grupo, said the partnership will further alienate the city's immigrant community and act as a deterrent against reporting crime in Escondido.

Maher disagreed, saying that the partnership was aimed at making the city safer for all, including immigrants.

"These criminals are victimizing immigrants," Maher said. "We're making those communities safer."

Working with immigration agents is not new in Escondido. The department has had two agents working out of its headquarters, whose main job is to assist its gang enforcement team and the multi-agency North County Regional Gang Task Force, Maher said.

Since the two new agents started working in Escondido last month, they've helped identify 108 criminal illegal immigrants, Maher said, including several child molesters, people with multiple drunken driving convictions, drug dealers and burglars.

Torres, a criminal defense attorney, said there are other ways to get criminal illegal immigrants deported.

Under a program called Secure Communities, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department checks all suspects booked into its jails for immigration violations and legal status.

Maher said having ICE agents working directly with the department helps get criminals off the streets faster. Police officers often see criminals who have been deported to their home countries back in the city's streets soon after they have returned, the chief said.

In those cases, officers can tell the immigration agents. The agents check the suspects' immigration status and those people can be deported again, Maher said. Police don't have to wait until they have committed another crime, he said.

El Grupo has long criticized Maher's policy on conducting driver's license checkpoints, which the group says disproportionately affects undocumented immigrants who are prohibited by state law from obtaining licenses.

Torres said immigrants will be afraid and that will lead to more crime going unreported.

"The Escondido Police Department seems to be bent on doing all it can to alienate the Latino community by embracing ICE agents," Torres said.

Maher said it was activists who were creating fear in the community by making false allegations against the department.

The chief said he knows it will be difficult to say that the department will work with immigration authorities, while at the same time tell illegal immigrant victims of crime or witnesses that they can trust police officers. But he said that is exactly the message he wants to get across.

"It's going to be hard to get that message across to people," Maher said. "Don't be afraid of us. Your issue is with the federal government. Your issue with me is just be a good upstanding member or this community."

www.nctimes.com

"The Escondido Police Department seems to be bent on doing all it can to alienate the Latino community by embracing ICE agents," Torres said.


Legal citizen translation:

The illegal latino community is upset that the legal citizens of Escondido seem to not want illegal aliens in their community.


No Mr. Torres, the Escondido Police Department embraces the rule of law and of course they will embrace other law enforcement agenecies both federal, state, county, and city. Joint partnerships between law enforcement agencies are done all the time.

Just say what you really mean Mr. Torres, that you and your latino group are upset because they entend to enforce the law.