Immigration status to be checked for anyone arrested in Sonoma County

By JULIE JOHNSON



Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 1:27 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 1:27 p.m.

Anyone arrested and booked into Sonoma County Jail automatically will have their immigration status checked under a program announced today by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


Sonoma County is the first in the Bay Area to launch a program called Secure Communities, begun by ICE this year in jurisdictions using electronic booking machines. All fingerprints will be cross-referenced with records kept by the Department of Homeland Security as people are booked into jail. Those with prior immigration records will be flagged for review by ICE.

Previously, ICE staff visited local jails about three times a week and checked booking records for foreign-born inmates, said Craig Meyer, assistant field office director for ICE detention and removal operations in San Francisco.

Now, everyone booked into Sonoma County Jail will have their fingerprints checked against homeland security records in an automated process that won’t add extra work for jail personnel, Meyer said.

The program will increase the number of people flagged to immigration, though officials don’t yet know by how much, he said.

“We’ll have to make a choice on which cases we pursue,â€