Riverside Border Patrol shifts focus, union and community activists say

10:00 PM PST on Thursday, January 28, 2010

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

A year after a U.S. Border Patrol sweep of a Riverside day-labor site unleashed street protests and condemnations by immigrant-rights groups, the Riverside Border Patrol office may have shifted tactics.

The patrol agent in charge of the Riverside office, Ramon Chavez, was transferred several months ago to a lower-ranking position in the Border Patrol's Murrieta office. The Border Patrol visits to Inland day-labor sites stopped over the summer, community activists said.

At least 25 day laborers were arrested on immigration charges Jan. 29, 2009, outside a Home Depot in Riverside's Casa Blanca neighborhood, and other day laborers were arrested in subsequent sweeps at several sites. The Border Patrol does not release station-specific arrest statistics.

Agents now focus more on apprehending illegal immigrants who are criminals, rather than trying to pump up arrest numbers, said Lombardo Amaya, president of Local 2554 of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents.

Agent Adrian Corona, a supervisory agent in the Border Patrol's El Centro sector headquarters, which oversees Riverside, insisted that "the Riverside station's focus has not changed. The strategy has not changed."

The Riverside office has always focused primarily on highways and transportation hubs, such as bus stations, although agents sometimes visit other locations, he said.

Corona said Chavez requested his transfer. Pressure by Amaya and immigrant-rights activists to remove Chavez from his Riverside position was unrelated to the transfer, he said.

"It was entirely his decision," Corona said.

Chavez declined to comment.

Amaya said Chavez's last day in Riverside was Sept. 12. He said it is unusual that an agent ask to transfer from the top position in a field office to a lower-ranking post. Chavez is now field operations supervisor, the third-ranking position in the field-office hierarchy.

Amaya said that Chavez instituted arrest quotas in the Riverside office and punished agents who did not meet those quotas. The allegations are part of a federal probe. The El Centro sector chief, Jeffrey Calhoon, has said he expects Chavez will be exonerated.

Amaya said there have not been quotas in Riverside for months. He welcomed what he said was a return to emphasizing arrests of illegal immigrants who are criminals, which gets the most dangerous illegal immigrants off the streets.

Freddie Reynaldo, 34, who regularly waits for work in front of the San Bernardino Home Depot, said in Spanish that Border Patrol agents had regularly made arrests there in late 2008 and the first few months of 2009 but haven't been back since.

Jennaya Dunlap, of Rapid Response Network, which monitors immigration arrests in the Inland area, said community pressure may have led to a shift away from day-labor sites.

Corona said the protests have not affected Border Patrol strategy.

Daniel Guzmán, a lay preacher with Central City Lutheran Mission in San Bernardino and an immigrant-rights activist, said the Border Patrol has stepped up arrests at the San Bernardino Greyhound station and, to a lesser extent, at other Inland bus stations.

The Jan. 29 sweep also led to criticism by some community activists of Riverside police cooperation with the Border Patrol. Eleven of the immigration arrests came after police called the Border Patrol for help in identifying day laborers apprehended on minor offenses such as trespassing. Police Lt. Bruce Loftus said police haven't had a reason to call Border Patrol for months but could do so in the future.

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