County to step up screening of illegal aliens
RYAN ORR Staff Writer
April 18, 2008 - 3:19PM

SAN BERNARDINO — The county is expected to expand the illegal alien screening program to jails in the High Desert.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Illegal Alien Identification Unit, created in 2006, currently only includes nine custody specialists and exists only at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

The specialists were trained by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and interview suspected illegal aliens that are booked at the jail.

If they find out someone is an illegal alien, they put a detainer on the inmate and as soon as they are done serving their time, they are turned over to ICE officials for deportation, said David Zook, spokesman for San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt.

It would cost millions of dollars to expand this program to the other jails throughout the county, Zook said.

Mitzelfelt instead, is proposing a $100,000 plan to equip other jails — including the Victor Valley and Barstow jails — with video conferencing capabilities.

The funds will come from Mitzelfelt’s priority policy budget.

The idea is for the nine current custody specialists to conduct video interviews with inmates suspected of being illegal aliens, at jails throughout the county.

Booking centers in San Bernardino and the Morongo Basin will also be included.

At West Valley Detention Center last year alone, there were more than 4,000 people booked that were initially identified as potential criminal illegal aliens, said Zook.

Of those, more than 2,300 had illegal immigration detainers put on them and were or will be handed over to ICE for deportation.

“We do see a fair share of illegal immigrants in the desert jails,â€