This is great news! For those of you who do not know where this city is it is between San Diego and LA.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 117733.htm

Posted on Tue, Nov. 28, 2006



Costa Mesa to get immigration agent stationed at city jail


Associated Press

COSTA MESA, Calif. - A federal immigration officer will be posted permanently at the city jail to identify illegal immigrants who are incarcerated there, officials announced Tuesday.

Jim Hayes, director of the Los Angeles field office for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said a formal agreement was worked out Monday following an offer he made to the Orange County city two weeks ago.

The City Council voted late last year to seek an agreement with ICE that would allow the federal agency to train police officers to enforce immigration law. Hayes said Tuesday that the ICE agent, who will work up to 50 hours a week at the jail and be on call 24 hours a day, should alleviate the city's concerns about policing illegal immigrants.

"There has to be an interest on the part of the law enforcement agency and that's what we have in Costa Mesa," Hayes said. "That's why it's a good place to start."

A police spokesman could not be reached for comment after business hours Tuesday, but interim police Chief Steve Staveley said in a statement that the department was pleased. He praised the agreement's "cooperative nature (that) is the hallmark of policing in Orange County and throughout California."

Also Tuesday, 12 Orange County sheriff's deputies and two sergeants began a four-week training course with ICE to learn how to screen inmates for immigration status. A total of 24 personnel, mostly jail staff, will take the program, officials have said.

Orange County is the fourth county in Southern California - and the eighth nationwide - to train sheriff's deputies to screen inmates for their immigration status. San Bernardino, Riverside, and Los Angeles counties already have such programs, Hayes said.

Sheriff Mike Carona campaigned for the training for three years and had worked to dovetail his proposal with the Costa Mesa Police Department.