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Chief of Border Patrol sector defends Riverside office


10:09 PM PDT on Friday, June 19, 2009

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes much of the Inland area defended the Riverside office against allegations of racial profiling and said he does not believe the office established arrest quotas that violate federal rules.

Jeffrey Calhoon, chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector, gave The Press-Enterprise an hour-long interview as the Border Patrol faces strong criticism from some Latino and immigrant-rights activists upset about tactics in the Inland area.

Several advocacy groups hosted a meeting Tuesday on the Border Patrol in a Riverside church; participants made accusations that Border Patrol agents randomly stop Latinos, including many who are not illegal immigrants. They said the focus should be on people who have committed crimes. Calhoon said agents stop people in the street only if they act suspiciously.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Border Patrol agents arrested about 15 suspected illegal immigrants down the street from the church, in an area where day laborers regularly gather to wait for work, several immigration activists said. Assistant Chief Border Patrol Agent Frank Amarillas said agents from the Riverside office have made arrests in recent days, but he said the agency does not confirm exact numbers of apprehensions at specific locations.

Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach agreed this week to meet with members of the Riverside Human Relations Commission after they expressed concern about police cooperation with the Border Patrol, including turning over suspected illegal immigrants after arrests for minor violations.

Supporters of stronger immigration-law enforcement have come to Calhoon's defense, saying Border Patrol agents are simply doing their job. U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, recently invited Calhoon to his Riverside office to personally thank him for the increase in immigration-related arrests.

'No Knowledge'

Lombardo Amaya is president of the National Border Patrol Council's Local 2554, representing unionized agents in Riverside. He said tension is so high at the Riverside office that the patrol agent in charge there, Ramon Chavez, should resign.

Agents in the office have complained of being punished for not meeting arrest quotas, Amaya said. The Border Patrol allows supervisors to set numerical goals, but does not permit punishing agents for not meeting those goals.

A federal investigatory arm is looking into the allegations. In an interview last week, Calhoon said federal investigators have questioned supervisors in the Riverside office -- but not him -- about the quota allegations. He said he believes Chavez will be exonerated.

"I did not incept a system of quotas, and I do not believe the Riverside station did that as well," he said. "I have no knowledge of anyone being punished."

Several agents in the Riverside office have complained to the union that their schedules were frequently switched as punishment for not meeting quotas, Amaya said.

Calhoon's response: "The union frequently alleges we take inappropriate actions against their employees" and, he said, management is often exonerated.

Amaya said he does not believe Calhoon was aware of the alleged quotas. Calhoon is supporting Chavez because he feels an obligation as chief to defend the Border Patrol, Amaya said. "His duty as chief is to protect his agency and his managers. That doesn't mean they're correct."

Amaya said the union rarely goes public with complaints but made an exception in this matter.

"The union has not talked to the media like this in the last 20 years," he said. "The reason we're doing this is we cannot talk to them. Our environment is an antagonistic environment."

More Aggressive

Calhoon said he does not know which federal investigatory arm is conducting the inquiry. Former Agent Tony Plattel, dismissed by the Border Patrol in January for insubordination, said he was interviewed about the quotas by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security.

Amaya is calling for a congressional investigation of quotas and Plattel's firing.

Calhoon said that, under his two-year tenure, agents from the Riverside office have become more aggressive, spending more time observing cars on Interstate 40 near Barstow and visiting places such as informal day-labor pick-up sites near home-improvement centers.

The sweeps of day-labor sites have angered some Latino and immigrant activists, who say they smack of racial profiling and lead to legal residents and citizens being questioned. They also say that agents randomly stop Latinos on the street and in cars for questioning.

Amaya and Plattel said agents are taught tactics that amount to racial profiling of Latinos, something they fear leaves agents open to lawsuits. They say the Riverside office's approach of questioning larger numbers of people is designed to pump up arrest numbers rather than deport criminal illegal immigrants, which they say should be the priority.

Calhoon said that, based upon agents' experience, a majority of workers at most informal day-labor sites in the Inland area are illegal immigrants, so it makes sense to go there. Some of those workers have committed crimes, he said. For example, he said, of nine suspected illegal immigrants arrested Thursday near a Corona day-labor site, two were criminals who had committed offenses that include assault, auto theft and driving under the influence.

"Statistically speaking, the more contact you make with illegal aliens, the more criminal aliens you will be able to find and remove from the country," Calhoon said. "That's good for everyone in the community. ...

"Our best way to find criminal aliens is to do routine patrol work in cities and traffic operations."

Agents do not make random stops, he said. Instead, they look for signs of nervousness that people of any race or ethnicity might have when they spot a Border Patrol agent, he said.

"Body language, running, hiding would draw our attention," he said.

Calhoon acknowledged that the large majority of people questioned are Latino. But he said that's because the vast majority of illegal immigrants in the Inland area are Mexican illegal immigrants.

The Riverside office also has arrested people from outside Latin America, Calhoon said. So far this year, at least 10 illegal immigrants from Asia and Europe have been detained, he said. Calhoon declined to release the total number of arrests in the Riverside office this year, saying it could compromise investigations. But he said it appears to be a record number.

Who Is 'Suspicious'?

Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center immigrant-assistance group, said he has monitored Border Patrol sweeps several times, and each time agents randomly stopped Latinos and talked to no one else. He doesn't accept Calhoon's assertion that agents only stop people who act suspiciously. Anyone can be deemed "suspicious," said Amaya, who is not related to Lombardo Amaya.

"You can always find a justification," he said.

"Who's suspicious?" asked Plattel, who said he never saw a non-Latino arrested during his year and a half as an agent in the Riverside office. "Everyone who walks down the street is suspicious? Is someone with a black shirt over his head suspicious or just cold?"

Calvert said that, although there could be rare instances of agents acting inappropriately, he does not believe the Border Patrol is engaging in wide-scale racial profiling.

"The people in ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) and the Border Patrol -- a large number of them are Hispanic," Calvert said. "They're not profiling people. They're going after people who are here illegally."

Calvert said that, even though the Border Patrol has come under fire for its Inland operations, he believes most people support the agency.

"I think there are a minority of voices who are obviously opposed to enforcement of our immigration laws," Calvert said. "But I think the great majority of people want to enforce our immigration laws."

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