Thread: L.A. Latinos Sue Sheriff Lee Baca for Failing to Reveal

L.A. Latinos Sue Sheriff Lee Baca for Failing to Reveal Internal 'Secure Communities' Correspondance With ICE

By Simone WilsonWed., Jun. 29 2011 at 3:45 PM

Sheriff Baca just got sued.

​This should be an interesting lawsuit -- not only for the future of immigration reform, but for frustrated journalists who repeatedly get their California Public Records Act requests brushed off like mosquitos by angry secretaries who apparently have better things to do than keep our government transparent.

In this case, the PRA requests were to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- inquiring into its correspondence with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

You know what that means: Immigrants-rights orgs smell something rotten within "Secure Communities," the county-to-federal teamwork method of deporting as many "criminal" Latinos as possible.

(If only pop-turned-political hacker group LulzSec had targeted SoCal instead of Arizona, we could have gone about this with a simple security breach. But alas, they've disbanded for good, and unless Anonymous swoops to our rescue, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.)

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca's adversaries will be three big immigrants-rights organizations, coming together in the Southland to sue him for the documents his attorneys have failed to provide. The good thing about the case being in the Superior Court (as opposed to splurged all over the unruly Internet) is that, hopefully, the plaintiffs can set a favorable precedent for PRA requests. And, hopefully, scare some future secretaries into handing over documents the first time we ask.

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles spokesman Carl Bergquist tells us his organization has repeatedly asked for documents "that would reveal the extent and the nature of the Sheriff's Department's collaboration with ICE." This would encompass not only the nationally controversial Secure Communities program, but 287(g) and the lesser-known Criminal Alien Program.

All three involve county officials being able to either act as immigration enforcement, or call in the feds in when a criminal alien is involved.

The big problem with that: Many of the "crimes" are as puny as selling ice cream on the sidewalk. Bergquist gives us two recent examples: Magali and Blandina, two undocumented L.A. mothers with citizen children, who were taken to county jail for "illegal vending" and handed deportation papers in the process.

Melissa Keaney, an attorney from the National Immigration Law Center, says the PRA requests go back as far as May 2007. She says the Sheriff's Department has "blanketly claimed that some they didn't have, and some weren't public." So, like we said, court proceedings should prove useful for a precedent on what's private and what isn't within local and federal law-enforcement agencies.

Update: Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore says that "a lot of times, things can't be publicly released because of personnel records." We're contacting the Department of County Counsel for the exact reasons the PRA requests were denied.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011 ... ee_bac.php

The big problem with that: Many of the "crimes" are as puny as selling ice cream on the sidewalk. Bergquist gives us two recent examples: Magali and Blandina, two undocumented L.A. mothers with citizen children, who were taken to county jail for "illegal vending" and handed deportation papers in the process.

So, because they have anchor babies is that supposed to make them immune from deportation? Illegal immigration is just that illegal.

As the mother of a citizen child, if I rob a bank I wonder if I would be immune from prosecution.

The big problem with that: Many of the "crimes" are as puny as selling ice cream on the sidewalk. Bergquist gives us two recent examples: Magali and Blandina, two undocumented L.A. mothers with citizen children, who were taken to county jail for "illegal vending" and handed deportation papers in the process.

Thats a BIG problem?? I don't see the problem with that at all. If they're illegal aliens, they need to be deported, period, NOW!!!!! The anchor-babymamas can take their anchors with them.

Our laws do NOT say its hunky-dory to be an illegal alien here, as long as you don't commit any other BIG crimes: if its murder we MIGHT deport you, but other than that, or rape, or assault, its a free-for-all, come one and all.

Thats NOT what our laws say. God these people are SO dam entitled it truly makes me sick.

As the mother of a citizen child, if I rob a bank I wonder if I would be immune from prosecution.

Yes, apparently you would be immune from prosecution, WhatMattersMost. Go rob all the banks you want!! It would not be fair of us to split up your family by sending you to prison. It would not be fair of us to punish your innocent child by punishing you. So go, be free, to rob all you want!!!

RELATED

L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca: Let us deport the bad guys

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-238210-baca.html

Thursday, June 30, 2011Last Update: 10:29 AM PT

L.A. Sheriff Says Deportation Info is ICE's Duty

By MATT REYNOLDS

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Civil rights groups asked the Superior Court to order L.A. Sheriff Leroy Baca to hand over its arrest records of people deported under the "Secure Communities" immigration program, amid allegations that sheriff's officers engage in racial profiling.

A sheriff's spokesman said that the information, if it is released at all, must come from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - not from the Sheriff's Department.

Lead plaintiff the National Day Laborer Organizing Network claims the Sheriff's Department refused to hand over the records or sent outdated or irrelevant information.

The plaintiff, joined by the National Immigration Law Center and the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, claims the county's collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement destroys trust in vulnerable communities the sheriff is supposed to protect.

"Community groups have raised concerns that this unprecedented collaboration between the Sheriff's Department and federal immigration officials destroys trust between the Sheriff's Department and immigrant communities, jeopardizing decades of community policing work," the complaint states.

The groups add that in "challenging fiscal times" the deportation programs, including Secure Communities and the Criminal Alien Program, place additional burdens on community police.

The NILC says it attempted to obtain information on policies and procedures under the Department's 2009 agreement to renew its collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - as well as arrest records dating back to 2004.

The groups say that the immigration enforcement programs have generated "increasing public controversy" in Los Angeles, a microcosm of the nationwide debate over immigration laws and enforcement.

The Secure Communities deportation program has been criticized in several reports that show that though the Department of Homeland Security and its creature the ICE claim the program targets dangerous criminals, the vast majority of people deported under the program do not fit that description.

"Each petitioner is uniquely positioned to contribute meaningfully to this debate from the perspective of advocating for low-wage immigrants, an extremely vulnerable population, and of ensuring that as a nation we respect our constitutional principals while engaged in immigration enforcement," the plaintiffs say in their complaint.

"Under Baca's watch, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has become a deportation machine for the federal government," Jessica Karp, a staff attorney for the NILC, told Courthouse News. "But Los Angeles is not Arizona - we will not tolerate the use of county resources to facilitate mass deportations and rampant civil rights violations."

Snajukta Paul, lead counsel in the FOIA complaint, said that "the plain text" of California's public records laws and the "strongly worded reiterations" of the state constitution show that release of the records is a "fundamental requirement."

"I am truly surprised by the recalcitrance of the Sheriff's Department, a sophisticated public entity, in responding to legitimate requests for information from these organizations regarding matters that are plainly of public concern," Paul said in a statement to Courthouse News.

But L.A. County Sheriffs Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said only ICE had authority to attend to the plaintiffs' records request.

"We have an agreement with ICE, so this is their information to release," Whitmore told Courthouse News, adding that if the government chose to respond to the request, that was "fine" with Sheriff Baca.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/06/30/37802.htm