Thread: CA: How locals can best help feds enforce immigration laws

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01 ... _16_07.txt



Wednesday, January 17, 2007

How locals can best help feds enforce immigration laws

By: North County Times Opinion staff

Our view: Screening in Escondido, county jails good examples of cooperation with federal effort

Illegal immigration and how to respond to it is one of the most divisive issues of our era and our area. But there are a few points on which we should all agree, where the center should settle and spread. And square in the middle of that common ground should be the federal focus on removing illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes.

Two such efforts were highlighted in North County Times stories over the weekend.

At San Diego County's four jails, including the Vista Detention Facility, federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are screening more and more people for their immigration status. In late September, they added a second shift, and expect next month to be working around the clock to identify illegal immigrants before they are booked and released back onto San Diego County streets. With increasing staffing, training and use of a digital database, the feds hope to triple the 3,000 to 5,000 inmates they now divert from county jails to federal custody. That's good news.

In Escondido, police Chief Jim Maher is developing a series of ways in which the city can best target criminal illegal immigrants, a package expected to come before the City Council this month. As part of Maher's package, a federal ICE agent is inspecting the immigration status of the city's documented gang members, and has identified about 30 for possible deportation. That's also good news, though a bit more problematic than the county effort.

Both city and county efforts are well-targeted, rational responses to what most folks agree is a growing problem. Crucially, in both cases federal agents are the ones verifying the immigration status of suspects, not city or county employees. And both efforts are targeting people who aren't just here illegally, but are also violating other laws.

It's no coincidence that both the Escondido Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department are led by men who have demonstrated admirable leadership in guiding their departments through the dangerous waters of immigration enforcement. What links these otherwise very different men is the recognition that, due to financial constraints as much as other concerns, their agencies must prioritize enforcing local and state laws.

Sheriff Bill Kolender has resisted tasking his deputies with immigration screening at the county's jails, correctly arguing that their time is better spent on the streets. We hope Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials fulfill their obligations to a county contending with growing pains exacerbated by unchecked illegal immigration.

Chief Maher appears to be deftly delineating a policy that will both satisfy the Escondido City Council majority, which wants to reap the political benefits of looking tough on today's pariahs, and respect city taxpayers by limiting the department's role in federal law enforcement. We eagerly await the details of his immigration-enforcement policy for a city in sore need of sound leadership on the issue.

Though we deplore the fear and violence sown by criminal gangs on our streets, we remain wary of some of the tools that law enforcers are using to squash them. Deporting criminal gang members who are here illegally is a no-brainer, but targeting people based solely on whom they associate with still wobbles the scales of justice. Where Escondido and ICE are catching criminals, we applaud them, but we hope their net's mesh isn't so fine that it sweeps up folks whose only crime is hanging out with the wrong crowd.

The best way our local law enforcement agencies can address the problems associated with illegal immigration is by enabling federal agents in the enforcement of federal laws. Sometimes that will mean actively assisting federal efforts. Sometimes it will mean getting out of their way. Sometimes, as in the case of federal reimbursement to local governments grappling with immigration, it may mean political lobbying. But a federal problem needs a federal response most of all.

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