More cross-deputizing to come?

July 17th, 2007
Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona said he will seek training for more officers under the agency’s cross-deputization program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To date, the program has allowed 24 officers working in the county’s jail system to access a federal immigration database - but Carona said hopes to expand this program to his investigations teams sometime after this year.

Carona talked about the program Monday night at a meeting of the Minuteman Project Support Chapter at a Coco’s restaurant in Laguna Niguel. About 15 people attended.

In the first six months of this year, Carona said his officers have:

booked 34,095 people in the county jail
identified 3,685 foreign-born inmates for officers to investigate
placed immigration holds on 2,446 people
Carona said he’s keen to get his investigative officers trained to track people who commit multiple crimes, but that timing would depend on ICE.

Last year, the proposal to cross-deputize officers outside of the jails faced opposition from Latino and community groups who said it would inhibit people from reporting crime.

http://immigration.freedomblogging.com/