Thread: Bush wants more $ to train local cops on immigration laws

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...n17police.html


Bush wants to put more money into training that has yet to catch on locally


By Leslie Berestein and Tony Manolatos
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
May 17, 2006

A bigger National Guard presence at the border generated the most buzz, but President Bush briefly mentioned another controversial idea in Monday's address: expanding the level of cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local law enforcement.


K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune
Officer Carlos Ronquillo, an 18-year San Diego Police Department veteran who patrols San Ysidro, said yesterday that “our main objective and primary goal is to work with the community in partnership, and to have the public trust us.”
The president was referring to existing voluntary programs used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. The administration wants to boost spending to $50 million from $5.5 million for a program that trains local and state officers and authorizes them to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Law enforcement agencies in five states participate, including some in California. But there have been no takers in San Diego County, according to immigration officials, and it seems unlikely that the speech made any converts.

Agencies here maintain a hands-off policy when it comes to immigration law out of concern that it would obstruct their access to immigrant communities and interfere with investigations.

“For anyone to not approach us for fear of us enforcing immigration laws becomes a burden,” said Officer Carlos Ronquillo, an 18-year San Diego Police Department veteran who patrols San Ysidro. “It goes against everything this department has worked for. Our main objective and primary goal is to work with the community in partnership, and to have the public trust us.”

In a cash-strapped county, law enforcement officials complain that officers are stretched thin just doing their regular jobs.

“We are currently 200 positions short for our basic law enforcement needs throughout the county,” Sheriff Bill Kolender said in a statement yesterday, “and are unable to dedicate additional resources to help federal officers apprehend and detain illegal immigrants.”

The funding Bush is seeking would go to a program referred to by immigration officials as 287(g), for the section of a 1996 amendment to the immigration law that authorized it. Under the program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement provides participating state and local law enforcement agencies with training and authorization to “identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity,” according to an agency fact sheet.

While participating agencies can request training specific to any area of immigration law enforcement, such as checking immigration status during traffic stops, the program has been used mostly to identify and deport undocumented immigrants and deportable legal residents who land in local jails and state prisons.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said the agency does routine jail checks, but there is not sufficient access to identify all prospective deportees.

“Because people go in and out so quickly, we can't alone identify every single one of those persons,” she said. “With increased cooperation, if authority is delegated to deputy sheriffs, they could help us identify and hold those individuals for deportation.”

Annually, about 350,000 deportable immigrants are incarcerated in federal, state or local facilities, Mack said.

So far, California agencies participating include the Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County sheriff's departments, where employees have been trained to process deportable criminals while they are in county jails. Employees of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department are in training, Mack said. The Orange County Sheriff's Department has expressed interest in participating.

Across San Diego County, police do work with immigration agents to deport people who break the law or have arrest warrants.

“We work closely with ICE agents specifically to get rid of people with criminal backgrounds,” said Lt. David Mankin, spokesman for the Escondido Police Department.

However, Mankin said, the department isn't interested in cracking down on illegal immigrants. An unwritten code exists between cops and immigrants, who are free to report crimes and serve as witnesses without worrying about being deported.

“If you are here and, you're a victim of a crime, we want you to come forward . . . It's not 'Thank you, now we're deporting you.' We're not going to do that,” Mankin said.

Even with the hands-off approach, some immigrants have complained about too much cooperation with immigration officials. According to the American Friends Service Committee, a human rights group affiliated with the Quakers, Border Patrol agents have at times been called after officers pull over people lacking driver's licenses.

To expand cooperation between local and federal agencies would have a chilling effect on victims and witnesses, said Pedro Rios of the committee.

“I think it would be disastrous for community security issues,” Rios said. According to the White House, Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeks to train approximately 250 to 500 state and local law enforcement officers under 287(g).

But the money the President is seeking for the federal program “would be best spent on immigration services – to allow the Border Patrol to do their job. I've got enough to do just to get to the calls,” said San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne, whose department is losing an average of 16 officers a month because of benefit cuts and wage freezes.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen said there has been no mention of making the 287(g) program mandatory. The same goes for another voluntary program, Operation Stonegarden, which reimburses local, state and tribal agencies that work with the Border Patrol for overtime and travel expenses. The program is not used in the San Diego sector.

Meanwhile, according to the Border Patrol, apprehensions of illegal border crossers through the San Diego region continue to rise. There have been 94,999 apprehensions between Oct. 1, the beginning of the 2006 fiscal year, and Monday. There were 73,518 apprehensions during the same time period in fiscal year 2005, and 91,530 during this period two years ago.

At the Casa del Migrante shelter in Tijuana, most of the would-be border crossers had little knowledge of what was being discussed in Washington save for Clemente Monterosas, 45, who'd heard some news reports.

“The president of Mexico says that they will give documents to I don't know how many people, but I don't know if that is going to happen,” he said.

But Monterosas would have been there anyway: He has crossed several times in the past five years between his home in Puebla, and jobs in California.

Staff writers Anna Cearley and Kristina Davis contributed to this report.

Bill White, the mayor of Houston, Texas will tell you it's not his job to catch illegals in Houston and his new police chief will tell you the same......

Bush wants to put more money into training that has yet to catch on locally

The administration wants to boost spending to $50 million from $5.5 million for a program that trains local and state officers and authorizes them to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That is awefully big of the presidunce. Mexico gets more money than that from our generous foreign aide donations courtesy of our taxdollars.