Published: March 9, 2010
Updated: 8:00 p.m.

City opposes housing possible illegal immigrants at Lacy jail

By EUGENE W. FIELDS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ORANGE – City Council members questioned Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens at length during Tuesday's council meeting about the Sheriff Department's proposal to house U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at Theo Lacy Facility.

Despite Hutchens answering 30 minutes worth of questions from the City Council, both Mayor Carolyn Cavecche and Councilman Jon Dumitru were "uncomfortable" with the proposal.

At issue is whether the proposal would violate the city's 15-year-old agreement with the county, which limits inmate population and defines the perimeters of the jail.

According to a staff report, ICE detainees are held in custody while a determination for possible deportation is made by the Federal government. Most detainees are former federal state or local inmates unable to provide proof of citizenship at the time of their arrest, who after serving their sentence, are turned over to ICE to begin the hearing process to determine whether or not they should be deported.

Hutchens said there are 1,200 inmates in the Orange County jail system that when they are finished serving their time, will become ICE detainees. Currently, ICE takes the detainees out of state and either deports them or releases them from custody.

Under the terms of her department's proposal, Hutchens said 99.9 percent of the detainees would be deported and the remaining detainees would be released from the ICE office in Los Angeles.

"I anticipate that you will have fewer releases to the streets if you have a federal detainee, as opposed to a county inmate," Hutchens said.

On March 2, the county Board of Supervisors authorized the Sheriff's Department to submit a proposal to house 838 ICE detainees in the Orange County jail system. Orange City Manager John Sibley said the Sheriff's Department wants to house 472 detainees at Theo Lacy, with the remaining 366 housed at the James A. Musick Facility.

Hutchens appeared at the Orange City Council meeting as a result of Sibley speaking at the March 2 Board of Supervisors meeting to express frustration with a lack of communication between the Sheriff's Department and Orange.

"Our concern is that they could be they're going to add facilities or they are going to build facilities," Sibley said. "Our agreement says the final project at Theo Lacy is the project. Any change in that would violate our agreement."

Sibley said the city gets regular updates from the Sheriff's Department on the occupancy at Theo Lacy, which has a maximum capacity of 2,986 inmates.

"As of Monday (March 8), there were 491 empty beds," Sibley said.

Hutchens said she did not believe the proposal would violate the existing agreement with the city because nothing new would be added to the jail.

"We have no intention of increasing the population above what was discussed (in the agreement)," Hutchens said.

Dumitru said he was not in favor of the proposal.

"I'm not comfortable with having this change at that jail," Dumitru said. "Right now, I don't believe it's an advisable move."

The agreement between the Federal government and the Sheriff's Department could generate up to $20 million a year, according to the staff report. Sibley said the city was more concerned with potential impact on the city from released detainees than any possible reimbursement.

"We were told that 99 percent of the detainees are deported," Sibley said. "But we're concerned about what that (one percent) is going to do to our area."

Sibley said the Sheriff's Department received a two-week extension to submit its proposal, extending the deadline to approximately March 22.

Hutchens pledged better communication between her office and city officials.

"I'm personally sensitive to the concerns of the city of Orange," Hutchens said. "I will endeavor to keep the council and the city manager informed of anything that we do at that facility."

Contact the writer: 714-900-2048 or efields@ocregister.com

http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-238 ... chens.html