Thread: Deal guts O. C. plan

This is so typical of the Bush administration.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ne ... 299610.php

Friday, October 6, 2006
Deal guts O.C. plan
A pact may slash the role local police would have in enforcing U.S. laws.
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
Sheriff Mike Carona's extensive plan to train local deputies to enforce immigration laws has been significantly diluted under a tentative final agreement with federal officials.

In a draft of the agreement with Orange County, a U.S. immigration agency appears poised to approve the training of 15 deputies to do checks for immigration status in the county's jails.

Carona originally proposed that 200 deputies working in the jails, doing criminal investigations and eventually conducting patrols would make immigration checks.

Sheriff's Capt. Tim Board, who has been in charge of the proposal since Carona started crafting it two years ago, said the federal agency was more comfortable with a scaled-back plan.

"The sheriff's OK with it because it's consistent with what lots of other agencies are doing," Board said. "The feds were more comfortable with the smaller numbers, and the feds were more comfortable with limiting it to the jails."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wouldn't comment on the plan, saying it has yet to be finished.

Carona's plan will look much like programs in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, where deputies have been trained to use federal databases to check a local jail inmate's immigration status.

Carona had hoped his proposal would make Orange County the first local agency in the country to have an ambitious plan to fight illegal immigration and cut the cost of housing criminals. The sheriff often spoke of the proposal while campaigning for a third term.

Some wondered if the federal agency's decision was a conflicting message from Washington, where the House recently passed a bill that reconfirms state and local law-enforcement agencies' right to enforce immigration laws.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, who voted in favor of the House bill, blasted the Bush administration for forbidding Carona from implementing a larger plan. Rohrabacher said the federal agency's decision is "like a cold splash of water in the face" to remind people that President Bush is out of touch with most Americans.

"This is what you'd expect from an administration like the Bush administration that places such a low priority on stopping the out-of-control flow of illegal immigration in our country," Rohrabacher said. "I'd like to know who … he's playing to by downplaying the importance of enforcement of immigration laws."

Rohrabacher, who helped Carona win his second chance at a hard-fought GOP endorsement in April by promoting the immigration plan, commended the sheriff's original plan as "a solid step to get control of an out-of-control situation."

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, who voted against the House bill, said she opposed Carona's original plan because local police agencies opposed it.

"They believe it would hinder the information they would get from the immigrant communities if the immigrant communities believed the police would be stopping them and looking at their immigration status," she said.

Some Hispanic activists were pleased with the news of the scaled-back plan. Amin David, a member of Carona's Community Coalition, which voted against the plan, said the group was concerned that Hispanics could be stopped on the street or while driving and have their immigration status questioned.

"What our very grave concern was ... that he wanted these deputies in the field to have these magical immigration powers," David said. "But wow, it is very much watered-down or even changed radically. That really does please us."

Others said they still had problems with local deputies' taking on federal immigration powers. Jess J. Araujo, chairman of the Orange County Community Forum, said Hispanics feel vulnerable and scapegoated and fear being singled out for arrest because of race.

"Obviously, you still have a heck of a public-relations problem with immigrants, illegal or not," Araujo said. "It's going to be very hard to explain in a meaningful way (to immigrants) this whole concept that immigration duties and issues are going to be handled by local law enforcement."

Lawyers for the county and the federal agency are working out details, but they are close to agreement, Board said.

The plan needs the approval of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which could see it in the next several weeks, he said.

Supervisor Bill Campbell, chairman of the board, said he was disappointed that the proposal had been made smaller but that he wanted to vote on it and approve it as soon as possible.

The reduction of the sheriff's plan will probably mean that Costa Mesa's proposal will also be smaller, said Allan Mansoor, the city's mayor.

Mansoor has spearheaded the effort to train local police officers to make immigration checks.

Costa Mesa planned to tailor its program after that approved for the sheriff, and it aimed to train city investigators, gang detail and special enforcement officers. The city will keep working with federal officials because even a smaller program will help make the community safer, Mansoor said.

"It's still a step in the right direction," he said.

Why are the feds so comfortable with a smaller scaled back plan? Gonzales maybe?

This really makes me mad and I'm trying to be civil here and not say something I shouldn't. I lived in Orange Co. most of my life, I know that area and deeply care about it. The county seat is Santa Ana which is gone. Has been for decades. The police want to try and bring some type of law and order to their community but this Bush administration is a disaster and will do all it can to further their agenda. I feel so stupid I voted for the man twice. I will think real hard and deep before I ever vote for another president. I can't wait until this administration is gone. History books won't be kind to them, I'd bet on it.

"Obviously, you still have a heck of a public-relations problem with immigrants, illegal or not," Araujo said. "It's going to be very hard to explain in a meaningful way (to immigrants) this whole concept that immigration duties and issues are going to be handled by local law enforcement."

And please Sir, tell me who gives a rat's ass about the "public-relations problem with immigrants, illegal or not". If they don't like it, they can go back home..."illegal or not".

We already have more people than we can sustain here in the grand ole USA. If future immigrants find a "public relations" issue with our enforcing US Immigration Law as a deterrent to entering the US..."illegal or not", then I say:

YIPPEE!!!

Here are the sad facts about the United States.

We have 47,000,000 people in America who do not earn enough money to purchase health insurance or pay for their medical care but make too much to qualify for public assistance programs.

We have 37,000,000 people in America living below the poverty line and therefore on public assistance programs.

That's 84,000,000 people in the United States that can not sustain themselves.

That's almost one-third of the US population that is ALREADY UNSUSTAINABLE and that's during a "great economy", "record stock market", and the lowest "unemployment" in modern history.

Oh, Judy, well said! Bravo.