CA: Police: immigration checks make community safer

[Jean]

Comments are being left after this article at the source link.
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Monday, November 12, 2007
Police: immigration checks make community safer
Suspected illegal immigrants have been detained in droves during past year, usually after being picked up for misdemeanors.
By JEFF OVERLEY

COSTA MESA – Top city police officers are lauding the placement of a federal agent in the city's jail, saying the move has created "a safer community" by identifying illegal immigrants.

In a new report to be publicly discussed Tuesday, police Lts. Allen Huggins and Tim Schennum say that 422 arrestees have been identified as potential illegal immigrants subject to deportation from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30.

The figures do not include another 46 arrestees flagged for immigration violations in December, the program's first month, or for last month, since those numbers haven't been finalized.

The program's birth came one year after the City Council voted to train city police officers to conduct immigration checks. The idea caused a furor, with many opponents saying the plan would discourage illegal immigrants from reporting crimes and alienate the city's sizable Latino population.

Ultimately, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials offered to staff the city jail with a federal agent who interviews foreign-born inmates and has suspected illegal immigrants detained.

That approach, Huggins and Schennum write, "has withstood the critical eye of advocates on both sides of this issue, as well as the media. It has allowed (Costa Mesa police) officers to continue performing their duties in the most expeditious manner possible, and it allows ICE to focus on their primary responsibility, i.e., the detection and detention of subjects who may be in the country without proper documentation."

Roughly 35 percent of those detained for immigration violations first were arrested for felonies. While some are violent felonies, such as robbery and assault, arrests for possession of a controlled substance are by far the most common serious offense.

About 65 percent of the cases involve misdemeanors, most often DUI or vehicle code violations.

And in an handful of cases, people have been arrested for infractions, such as failing to observe a stop sign or jaywalking.

Such instances have spurred outcry, as activists and residents denounce possible deportations resulting from innocuous offenses.

Police, however, insist they apply the law evenly – people who can't prove their identity are taken to jail, regardless of what their race is or how minor their alleged offense might be.

The report by Huggins and Schennum also includes figures from May through September showing the city of residence and native countries of those arrested and facing deportation. Sixty-six percent are Costa Mesa residents, about 12 percent are from Santa Ana and the rest are from miscellaneous towns.

About 86 percent of those arrested are Mexican, with most of the remainder coming from central America.

The report will be issued formally during a City Council study session at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in Conference Room 1A of City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

www.ocregister.com

[miguelina]

An immigration officer in every town in America, that should be the goal for the coming year.