Immigration issues arise at Santa Cruz police meeting about gangs
By Jennifer Squires - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted: 06/09/2010 09:29:59 PM PDT
Updated: 06/09/2010 09:30:31 PM PDT

SANTA CRUZ - How to combat gang violence in Santa Cruz and if using federal immigration agents to target gang members is the correct choice for the community were the big questions during a Santa Cruz police-sponsored community meeting Wednesday night.

A diverse crowd of about 80 residents - including young Latino men, parents with children and retirees - turned out for the meeting. During the forum, police brass discussed the manpower the department is throwing at gang crime and drug investigations: more than 25 percent of the police force is assigned to some sort of investigation team, be it the gang unit or the street crimes cops who target drug offenders.

Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry told the group that the gangs use drug sales and gun trafficking to fund their illegal activities, and are interstate and transnational. It's not just a local issue, he said.

"Now the federal agencies are involved so we can take care of this problem," Skerry said.

The police department is getting free help from four outside agencies - the FBI, the state Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the much-talked-about partnerships with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

That last collaboration was what riled people the most at the meeting.

Outside the meeting, a leader in a local gang intervention and prevention group said he didn't think bringing ICE officials into the city was a good idea.

O.T. Quintero of Barrios Unidos said women have asked him if ICE agents will come to their homes if they call 911 to report domestic violence. People are scared, he said, of both gang violence and law enforcement.

He said it will take several strategies, not just arresting people, to reduce crime.

"We have to do something different here," Quintero said, adding "we're all trying to achieve the same goal: to keep another child from having tragedy happen."

There have been seven homicides in Santa Cruz since October. Five of the killings were gang related and a sixth was a drug rip-off, according to police.

But Quintero's view on ICE led to a heated discussion outside the forum with Santa Cruz resident Steven Brodsky, who said he thinks any efforts to reduce crime in the city are valid, including tougher court penalties against offenders.

City officials and police tried to caution residents that ICE agents were focusing on gang crime and that regular people would not be "caught in the net."

"That's not the mission at all," Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Rick Martinez said. "This is a gang team.... Their sole focus is not immigration."

Mayor Mike Rotkin said that he hoped the presence of ICE agents in the city wouldn't dissuade residents from cooperating with police. He said it needs a partnership that requires cooperation and collaboration.

"We did have problems in the past with immigration in this community," Rotkin said, talking about sweeps in the 1980s in Beach Flats "where they rounded up anyone with brown skin" and prompted the City Council to deem Santa Cruz a "sanctuary city."

However, Rotkin said drug deals, shootings in broad daylight and gang violence in the city is unacceptable, and that no one should be protected, regardless of their immigration status.

"I don't think the 'sanctuary city' in any way limits them in carrying out this activity," Rotkin said of police, adding that the resolution doesn't have any practical application.

"There is a gang team that's here to help, not ... to do sweeps," Martinez said.

Police and the ICE national gang unit have arrested two Salvadoran gang members suspected of being in the United States illegally since the partnership started a month ago.

Jose Abrego Galdamez, 30, was arrested in late May and indicted in federal court Wednesday. Skerry said the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang member was charged federally on an immigration violation after the local District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute him for possessing drugs. He's looking at two years in prison before being deported, the chief said.

"We'll go wherever we need to get successful prosecutions on these cases," Skerry said.

The second suspected gang member, Jose Alvarenga, 23, of Aptos was arrested Friday and will face local drug charges before ICE takes custody of him for deportation proceedings. Police say he is a key player in heroin and cocaine sales in Pogonip.

Several questions touched on Barrios Unidos, the community group dedicated to keeping kids out of gangs, and why the police department wouldn't team with them. Martinez said police have had "mixed results" in working with the group in the past, but would welcome outside assistance.

The department also created its own gang intervention program this year. The PRIDE program launched in May with a group of about a dozen middle school-age at-risk boys.

"This problem is not solved just as the suppression level," Rotkin said, adding that more funding needs to be dedicated to community programs and the educational system. "We don't have the resources right at our fingertips. It's going to take some real work."

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