Thread: Escondido CA. Profits From Undocumented Immigrants

Escondido Profits From Undocumented Immigrants

Posted: 03/12/2012 6:27 pm

On a spring morning in 2010, Leticia dropped two of her children at school, and continued on to run errands with her 4-year-old daughter. Then, she was stopped at a checkpoint. According to retired San Diego police officer, Carlos Ronquillo, who was a witness, Escondido was conducting a DUI checkpoint at 9:30 in the morning. Because she did not have a driver's license, Leticia was suspected of being an undocumented immigrant and ICE officials were notified. Ronquillo watched as Leticia was handcuffed and separated from her U.S. citizen daughter. Within hours, she had been taken to an immigration holding facility, processed, and was then deported to Tijuana, Mexico. After living in Escondido for over 10 years, Leticia was separated from her four children.

Located in northeast San Diego County, the city of Escondido has a population of 145,000 and is 49 percent Latino and growing. In the past several years, the city council has enacted ordinances and legislation directly targeting the growing Latino and undocumented immigrant population. In 2006, a ban to rent apartments to anyone without proof of legal residency was implemented but quickly struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Soon after, bans to prohibit food carts and impose parking restrictions in Latino neighborhoods were proposed. Tensions between the city and the Latino and immigrant population were growing.

Then, in 2010, the Escondido police began working side-by-side with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to orchestrate their most brazen attack on undocumented immigrants yet. Called "Operation Join Effort," ICE agents and the Escondido police department began conducting DUI checkpoints that operate as immigration checkpoints. The checkpoints net about 10 unlicensed drivers for every drunk driver and the vast majority of unlicensed drivers are undocumented immigrants. A disproportionate number of undocumented immigrants are deported and have their vehicles impounded and sold while Escondido illegally profits from revenue generated by the checkpoints. In the past three years Escondido and tow companies with city contracts, have pulled in $11 million in fees, citations and auctioned vehicles.

Escondido is believed to be the only city in the country to have a special agreement with ICE agents who have their offices within the Escondido police department and are on standby during sobriety checkpoints.

The State of California's Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) provides grants to fund DUI checkpoints in Escondido as well as other cities throughout California. And while the Escondido police department insists that checking a driver's license at DUI checkpoints is mandatory in order to qualify for state grants, OTS states that they "do not penalize a grantee for not checking [a driver's license]." According to Bill Flores, a retired Assistant Sheriff for San Diego County and Escondido resident, the checkpoints unfairly target immigrants and brown people: "It is a way for the police department to make it so hard for them to live here that they will move somewhere else."

One of the conditions of the OTS grant program--which forks over $350,000 per year to Escondido--is that profits cannot be generated from checkpoints. Also, by law, the state of California does not allow police agencies to make a profit from towing cars. Yet an extensive review of city and police documents reveals that Escondido has been profiting immensely from both state-funded DUI checkpoints and towing of cars.

In order to be able to tow cars for the city of Escondido, a tow company had to pay the city $25,000 in 2004; in 2007, it was up to $50,000; and by 2011, that figure reached a staggering $100,000. After the tow companies demanded a justification for the steep increase, the city reduced the fees. Each of the six tow companies now pay the city $75,000 for a grand total of $450,000 per year.

There's a reason that tow companies are willing to pay so much to be included. During the past eight years of state-funded DUI checkpoints, they made millions of dollars. On average, from 2004 - 2011, 5,000 vehicles were towed each year. Unlicensed drivers in Escondido were being caught by the thousands and each one represented an impound fee, a tow hitch fee, and a 30-day impound storage fee totaling about $2,000 per vehicle. In 2007 according to Escondido police documents, the department considered starting their own city-run tow yard so that they could keep most of the revenue. Escondido abandoned the venture but it was clear that the city was interested in increasing profits from state-funded checkpoints and the towing of cars - both illegal practices.

State law requires that Escondido police justify tow fees and bill the tow companies only for the direct costs of towing cars. In order to substantiate the $450,000 they receive from the tow companies, the Escondido police department has had to employ some very creative accounting. A 2011 police tow program report shows the Escondido police listing tow expenses for items such as bulletproof vests, weapons and wear and tear on police radios, cell phones and vehicles. These bogus line items pad expenses by at least 60 percent.

To justify raising tow contract fees, the Escondido police dept has also inflated the amount of labor involved in a tow. According to 2004 and 2007 police tow program reports, the Escondido police department claimed it would take a total of 33 minutes of labor to tow a vehicle, including paperwork. By 2011, the police department was claiming that it took 187.5 minutes. Marcos Ramirez, a retired sergeant who handled traffic safety for the San Diego County Sheriff's department, says this doesn't add up. "There is no need to bill for so much time to tow a vehicle," says Ramirez. "Either Escondido is looking to pad their books or they don't know how to tow a car. If it took my officers that long to tow a vehicle, they would be fired."

In addition to collecting $450,000 a year from tow companies as well as the $350,000 in grant money from the OTS, Escondido also collects an $180 impound fee from the owner of each car which amounts to an average of $500,000 a year. Yet, the state grant for DUI checkpoints is all-inclusive -- intended to cover officer labor time and equipment. This past year, Escondido reduced their tow fees from $180.00 to $100.00 for cars that were towed during OTS-funded checkpoints. After repeated requests for documents that justify the reduction in fees and why the fees were not reduced for previous years, the city of Escondido stated that no documents exist to justify the recently lowered impound fee -- which is still questionably legal.

All residents of Escondido want safer streets and fewer drunk drivers on the road, but with ICE agents on standby, and checkpoints being conducted even in the mornings, it's clear that the intent of these checkpoints are being perverted by the police department. While the Latino population is being unfairly targeted, the city government continues to rake in the profits.

KPBS Evening Edition in San Diego will air a report related to the information in this article and interview John Carlos Frey about his investigation on Monday, March 12 at 6:30 PST. Click here for more information.

Crossposted from KPBS.

John Carlos Frey: Escondido Profits From Undocumented Immigrants

Escondido was conducting a DUI checkpoint at 9:30 in the morning.

And? What's your point?

How often do we read about illegals drunk in the morning?

Escondido is believed to be the only city in the country to have a special agreement with ICE agents who have their offices within the Escondido police department and are on standby during sobriety checkpoints.

More cities need I.C.E. Agents at D.U.I. Checkpoints.
ALL cities need I.C.E. Agents at every D.U.I. checkpoint.

RELATED

http://www.alipac.us/f12/escondido-a...rogram-252804/

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/california-...grants-252891/

Report: Escondido Illegally Profits From DUI Checkpoints

By Jill Replogle
Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Escondido City Manager Clay Phillips issued a statement on March 13: “The City made every effort to ensure the towing fees we established reflect our costs. However, to address questions raised by the media, I have asked the Finance Department to conduct a review of our towing fees. I expect I will have that review by March 29th.”

SAN DIEGO — A report by an investigative journalist found that the City of Escondido, in Southern California, could be illegally profiting off of its DUI checkpoints.

In recent years, Escondido may have made several million dollars in annual profit from towing and impounding cars confiscated at DUI checkpoints, according to an investigation by Los Angeles-based independent journalist John Carlos Frey.

Undocumented immigrants without driver's licenses make up the bulk of those whose cars have been impounded at the checkpoints. Many have subsequently been deported.

Frey’s investigation found that the city increased the yearly contract fee for tow companies from $25,000 in 2004 to $100,000 in 2011. To justify that increase, Frey alleges, the city dramatically inflated its stated costs of towing cars from checkpoints.

According to city documents obtained by Frey, the city increased the stated amount of time spent by officers to tow a car from 30 minutes in 2007 to more than three hours in 2012.

Increasing program costs would allow the city to charge more for both tow contracts and for releasing a car that’s been impounded. In both cases, state law prohibits the city from charging more than their expenses for administering the program.

“We could clearly see by the way they did their own accounting that they were making money hand over fist,” Frey said.

Escondido’s DUI checkpoints are funded largely through state grants.

Speaking on KPBS Midday Edition, the chief of the Escondido Police Department, Jim Maher, denied the allegations, but also said he knew little about the bookkeeping of the program.

“We’re not trying to create money. In fact, the police don’t even want to be involved in the revenue sources," Maher said. "I don’t want my officers to be at all interested in whether or not a tow is going to generate revenue for the city. The whole point is the safety.”

In a report released on Tuesday — and based in part on Frey’s reporting — the ACLU called for an independent audit of the city’s DUI checkpoint program.

Report: Escondido Illegally Profits From DUI Checkpoints | Fronteras Desk

ESCONDIDO: Checkpoint critics say internal audit is not good enough

By EDWARD SIFUENTES [email]esifuentes@nctimes.com
Thursday, March 15, 2012 5:00 am

In response to criticism that the city is illegally profiting from its police checkpoints, the Escondido city manager announced he ordered an in-house audit of the program ---- but the move failed to satisfy critics, including the San Diego office of American Civil Liberties Union.

Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU in San Diego, said the civil rights organization wants an independent audit.

"We are glad to hear that Escondido's City Manager Clay Phillips is taking seriously the concerns about potential financial impropriety in the city's checkpoint and impound program," Keenan said. "However, the review should be conducted by an outside agency with meaningful independence. A review by city staff whose colleagues played a role in the original figures won't be seen as 'independent' in anyone's books."

The ACLU released a report Monday that raised questions about the city's checkpoints and towing costs. The report said the city may be inflating its costs while generating $800,000 a year in state grants, fees from drivers and contracts with towing companies.

In its report, the ACLU called for the city to conduct an independent audit.

Phillips said in a statement Tuesday that he would conduct an internal review of the program. He said the audit would be completed by March 29.

"The city made every effort to ensure that towing fees we established reflect our costs," Phillips said. "However, to address questions raised by the media, I have asked the finance department to conduct a review of our towing fees."

Phillips could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The ACLU's report was based on a six-month investigation, and resulting six-minute video about Escondido's checkpoints, conducted by documentary filmmaker John Carlos Frey. His investigation was funded through donations to his nonprofit, called the Gatekeeper Foundation, Frey said.

According to the group's website, Gatekeeper is funded primarily by contributions from pro-immigrant and civil rights groups, including the ACLU.

Sobriety and driver's license checkpoints have long been opposed by some Latino and immigrant rights activists in the city. Activists say the checkpoints appear to target primarily Latinos and illegal immigrant drivers.

The Police Department holds about two checkpoints a month, funded by grants from the state Office of Traffic Safety. The department also conducted driver's-license-only checkpoints until the ACLU threatened to sue the department in 2010, calling those operations illegal.

Escondido no longer conducts driver's-license-only checkpoints.

According to the ACLU's report, the city generated more than $765,000 in 2011 from towing contracts and impound processing fees. It generated $839,000 in 2010 and $909,000 in 2009. Those figures do not include the state grants the city received each year, about $260,000 in 2011, $268,000 in 2010 and $300,000 in 2009.

Police Chief Jim Maher called Frey's investigation biased and aimed at getting rid of the checkpoint operations. He said his department was being unfairly singled out even though other cities in the county conduct similar operations.

Maher said Escondido conducted fewer checkpoints than Chula Vista and the city of San Diego. It conducted 15 in fiscal year 2010-11 and is expected to hold 12 this year. By comparison, Chula Vista held 24 in 2010-11 and is scheduled to hold 14 this fiscal year.

Frey said Wednesday that he did not believe the city could conduct an impartial review of the towing costs.

"It's ridiculous," Frey said. "The city manager approved the towing contracts, and his office is going to investigate itself?"

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511.

ESCONDIDO: Checkpoint critics say internal audit is not good enough

"After living in Escondido for over 10 years, Leticia was separated from her four children."

So in ten years she didn't try to become legal??? That's a lot of years of taking the risk of being seperated from her kids! She got away with it for some time but in the end she lost.

And why was she even driving? Nothing like pushing your luck, lady. I am sad that she didnt take her 4 anchors with her tho.

RELATED

http://www.alipac.us/f12/escondido-i...tified-254081/