Thread: OR-Oregon City: 'Where were you born?' Jail wants to know

Oregon City: 'Where were you born?' Jail wants to know
By Rick Bella
November 05, 2009, 6:10AM

Brent Wojahn, The OregonianFederal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say stricter reviews of immigration status also reveal a surprising number of people who don’t realize they are U.S. citizens.
Nobody ever confused the Clackamas County Jail with a country club.

It's old. It's packed to capacity. And the inmates are observed and supervised from the moment they're booked until the moment they're released.

But for nearly two years, the jail has become even more inhospitable -- for illegal immigrants, that is.

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents now work full-time at the jail, weeding out those in the country illegally. The result has been a steady flow of inmates into federal custody, many to be deported.

And Clackamas County isn't alone. ICE agents have close relationships with counties across Oregon. Three agents are assigned to Washington County, while six work in Multnomah County.

Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts cracked down on illegal immigrants in 2007 after The Oregonian reported that Alejandro Rivera Gamboa, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was not deported after he was first convicted of drunken driving, then later killed 15-year-old Dani Countryman in Milwaukie.

In response, Roberts referred 700 DUII cases to the county's probation officials. The search turned up 62 people who were not U.S. citizens and whose names were sent to federal authorities. ICE agents then determined that 10 were subject to deportation.

District Attorney John Foote enacted a similar policy for all Clackamas County cases.


Federal partners

At the same time, federal authorities began establishing partnerships with local law-enforcement and corrections authorities.

"After 9/11, ICE stepped up its efforts," said Bryan Wilcox, ICE deputy field office director for the Pacific Northwest. "We're scouring the jails nationwide, looking for ... foreign nationals arrested or convicted of a crime."

Roberts said the partnership is working well.

"Having ICE agents working in the jail really has improved communications between the two agencies," Roberts said. "They are really an asset for the sheriff's office."

Clackamas County's process starts at booking, when criminal suspects are brought in.

"One of the first things we ask is, 'Where were you born?'" said Undersheriff David Kirby, who oversees jail operations. "The answer they give can change everything."

Corrections deputies also are trained to spot potential problems where they may not be so obvious to others. Inconsistencies during questioning may warrant a second look. Same goes for an inability to speak English or failing to provide a Social Security number or a permanent address.

If a suspect raises red flags for a deputy, then he or she is referred to ICE agents, who begin an independent immigration-status investigation, which often runs parallel to the state's criminal justice process.

This year through September, in the last figures available, 587 inmates were referred to ICE for evaluation. After investigation, 319 of those were detained under federal supervision.

The number of foreign-born suspects arrested in Clackamas County isn't overwhelming, either by raw totals or percentages. Corrections staff members generally book in nearly 14,000 suspects a year. Of those, fewer than 800 raise immigration-status suspicion, and about 400 are later detained at ICE's direction.

That translates to about 3 percent.

But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, wants stricter border control for the sake of national security. And local officials don't want to miss a chance to put a criminal out of circulation.

"Jail beds are at a premium for us," said Sheriff Roberts. "The sooner we can get someone who doesn't belong here into immigration custody, the sooner we can put that jail bed to use and get the most out of taxpayers' dollars."

Inmates referred to ICE are brought to downtown Portland, where they are subjected to exhaustive interviews by agents. The agents speak Spanish -- by far the most common language of Clackamas County's illegal immigrants -- and use translators to question others in languages as diverse as Ukrainian, Arabic and Vietnamese.

"At this point, we're trying to determine if they're removable," said Wilcox. "It will depend on their status and the seriousness of the new accusations."


Detention in Seattle

If found "removable," the inmates are taken to the federal Northwest Detention Center in Seattle. They then can have a hearing on the merits of the immigration charges against them. Appeals can delay a case.

"We've seen some cases that dragged on for two years," Wilcox said. "But usually, these cases are decided quickly."

One odd twist is the number of suspicious subjects they question who don't realize they actually are U.S. citizens.

"They may not understand the law or realize that their parents were U.S. citizens when they were born," Wilcox said. "They're often surprised when they hear they're citizens. Of course, if they've been arrested and accused of a crime by local authorities, that doesn't mean their problems are over."


http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascoun ... u_bor.html

But for nearly two years, the jail has become even more inhospitable -- for illegal immigrants, that is

GOOD! If you don't like it stay out of jail. Better yet, stay out of this country!!

"At this point, we're trying to determine if they're removable," said Wilcox. "It will depend on their status and the seriousness of the new accusations."

Trying to determine if they're removable if they are illegal they are breaking the law and are removable, how hard is that to understand....or we have Open Borders, is this what you are telling American citizens?

Or are you to big of a coward to say it straight out to the America people because we are not blind, we are on too your game and it is called NAFTA!!