ICE can jail up to 120 more undocumented immigrants as Orange County Sheriff contract expands by $5 million

By JORDAN GRAHAM | jgraham@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: May 9, 2017 at 2:58 pm | UPDATED: May 9, 2017 at 8:07 pm


Federal immigration agents will be able to incarcerate as many as 120 more undocumented detainees in Orange County jails after the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the expansion despite opposition from advocates who urged the board to end its already robust jailhouse detention contract, saying it has been implemented inhumanely.

The unanimous vote was met with yelling, sobbing and chants of, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” – a chorus that continued until the supervisors cleared the room and withdrew into a closed-door portion of the meeting.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens requested the expansion of her department’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which now will bring in an extra $5 million per year. That amount bolsters the approximately $31 million the county already earns for jailing up to 838 ICE detainees.

Hutchens’ request comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have attempted to increase deportations of undocumented immigrants and strengthen partnerships with local law enforcement agencies to help do so.

Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Peters defended the contract, saying it benefits Orange County-based families of undocumented immigrants because it keeps detainees local rather than incarcerating them near the border in San Diego County, in Bakersfield or just outside Victorville – the closest alternatives.

“If they are going to be detained, the distance is much closer here,” Peters said.

Supervisor Shawn Nelson agreed, saying it was more humane to jail ICE detainees near their families.

But dozens of opponents of the contract turned out, saying a recent government report and testimonials from federal immigration detainees reveal that conditions and practices at the Theo Lacy jail make it unfit to house ICE inmates.

A March report from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s office claimed that ICE detainees held at Theo Lacy were served spoiled lunch meats, forced to use dirty showers and moldy bathroom stalls, and held in solitary confinement for 24-hour periods without access to recreation or visitors, in violation of ICE detention standards. Those allegations were largely denied by the Sheriff’s Department, although it said it made some changes based on the report.

“I have heard of unsanitary, unsafe conditions from people in the detention center,” said Faby Jacome, 25, a Silverado resident and the deportation defense organizer at Orange County Immigrant Youth United, who has been undocumented since she immigrated from Mexico with her family when she was 1 years old.

Hutchens repeatedly has called the March report inaccurate. She has said the meat referenced in the report was not spoiled and defended the jail’s food handling procedures.

She has noted that showers and bathrooms are cleaned by the detainees themselves and that the jail had recently implemented a more intensive cleaning schedule. And she has said detainees had only limited stays in solitary confinement and only as punishment when other disciplinary methods failed.

“We addressed all of their concerns,” Hutchens said to the board. “If there are any issues raised about confinement, medical access, mental health care access, cleanliness…they are addressed immediately.”

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens spoke with reporters shortly after the Board of Supervisors approved her request to expand the county’s contract to jail undocumented immigrants arrested by federal immigration agents. (Photo by Jordan Graham, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Other opponents of Tuesday’s vote said expanding ICE’s jail contract would cause undocumented immigrants to be less trustful of the sheriff’s department.

“Trust today in the sheriff’s department has been undermined, which undermines public safety,” said Jennifer Rojas, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Hutchens has been clear that her deputies will not enforce immigration laws in neighborhoods or arrest people based on their immigration status.

But the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is the only local law enforcement agency in the state that allows sheriff’s deputies to act as ICE agents in its jails, giving them the ability to question people they suspect might be undocumented immigrants in order to determine their legal status. That information helps ICE identify undocumented immigrants who aren’t in federal databases so they can be targeted for deportation.

And in February, Hutchens asked U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to provide a legal directive to allow her to detain some immigrants convicted of violent or other serious crimes beyond their set release dates so federal agents could retrieve and deport them. Hutchens said she thinks holding some undocumented immigrants beyond their release dates could keep criminals from being released to local neighborhoods. Currently, the practice of detaining undocumented immigrants beyond their release date is significantly restricted under California law and federal courts have found it to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
As Orange County expands its contracts with federal immigration authorities, the City of Santa Ana has significantly reduced its connection to ICE.

On Monday, the final remaining ICE detainees at held Santa Ana Jail were transferred out, less than three months after the agency terminated its agreement with the city. Federal agents canceled that contract after the City Council voted in December to reduce the number of detainees in its jails and eventually phase out its agreement with ICE.

Orange County’s expanded agreement will recoup 60 percent of the local capacity lost when ICE ended its Santa Ana contract. ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said last week that it was a goal of the agency to house detainees within the same area where they were arrested.

One reason the county might be eager for additional federal funding is because it faces a potential budget shortfall. When the state recently said it will end funding for a program providing services to low-income elderly and disabled people, it shifted more than $465 million in costs to the county over the next six years, according to county estimates. County documents show that could reduce public safety funding by tens of millions of dollars.

However, the state Legislature is considering a bill that would prohibit jails in California from housing ICE detainees. That bill passed the state Senate last month. If it becomes law, the sheriff’s department could lose millions of dollars in ICE contract revenue, including the new income it gained Tuesday.

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/05/09...rom-advocates/