Thread: ESCONDIDO POLICY TARGETS CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS

Police policy targets criminal illegal immigrants, but could affect all


Escondido Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deliver a court gang injunction order to suspected gang members last week.


By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer

ESCONDIDO ---- At the age of 3, Eva was brought to the United States from Mexico, her family illegally crossing the border and settling in Escondido.

For Eva, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Escondido is all she has ever known. She grew up here, graduated from Escondido High School, got a job, and is now raising three children at a house she rents in the Mission Park neighborhood, she said last week.

But she isn't a U.S. citizen. She doesn't even have legal residency.

Yet she and other illegal immigrants like her ---- parents trying to raise families or immigrants who came to the U.S. as children ---- are among those who could face deportation under a new Escondido Police Department policy intended to target the criminal element among illegal immigrants.

Under the new policy, which police Chief Jim Maher presented Wednesday to the City Council, police are moving beyond felonies and serious misdemeanors as the main circumstances in which they always identify violators or check their immigration status.

One major change will be in the way the police handle anyone driving without a license, insurance or registration. Before, the car was impounded, then the violator was cited and released in most cases, Maher said.

Now, suspects without proper identification are detained so they can be identified. By coordinating with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who works out of the Escondido police station, violators who are illegal immigrants also are identified and then can be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation, Maher said.

But Eva said she has to drive to take her children to school and to get to her job at a mailing company. If California law didn't prohibit illegal residents from getting a driver's license, she would get one, she said.

"If I get stopped and they send me to Mexico, what am I going to do?" she said. "I don't know anybody over there. I have my kids here."

Council drawing attention

Some Escondido council members have said they would like to see more immigration enforcement addressed by local police in some form.

Councilman Sam Abed had said before Wednesday's meeting that immigration officers should work with police at traffic checkpoints. And during the meeting, Abed and other council members also discussed the possibility of training Escondido police officers to handle immigration issues under a federal policy called 287(g).

But the council backed away from these ideas under Maher's recommendation and said they were content with the city's current policy, at least for now.

The meeting was the latest in a series in recent months that attracted regional, and occasionally national, media attention.

In October, the council passed a controversial ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. But faced with potentially costly legal challenges to the ordinance, the council announced in December that the city wouldn't enforce the new law.

In January, the council passed a resolution against illegal immigration, although it didn't have the teeth of the rental ordinance in establishing any new law.

The three council members who have led the anti-illegal immigration charge ---- Abed, Marie Waldron and Ed Gallo ---- have been criticized by other council members and residents. However, some residents and anti-illegal immigration groups such as the San Diego Minutemen have supported their efforts.

At Wednesday's meeting, Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler, who voted against the previous two immigration-related actions, chastised Abed for giving the city a bad reputation in his description of the city's problems. And she said illegal immigrants aren't to blame for all of the city's crime.

"Immigration is an issue for this country, but it doesn't necessarily have to be 'the' issue for Escondido," Pfeiler said at the meeting that representatives from numerous TV stations and newspapers attended.

During his presentation, Maher noted that of 102 gang members recently cited under a court gang injunction, 22 are not citizens, nine of whom have legal residency.

He said he didn't want immigration officers working with his officers because it would affect the trust the police have built up with some communities.

Maher didn't return phone calls last week seeking clarification of the new policy.

Olga Diaz, owner of a local coffee shop who ran for City Council in November, told the council that its actions are dividing the city.

"Every time you dabble in this federal issue ... you create tension in the community," she said.

However, Escondido resident Tisha Bennett, who also spoke at Wednesday's meeting, said people would have more, not less, confidence in the police if they worked to arrest illegal immigrants.

"Not to do so is an act of betrayal to the citizens of this city and to America," Bennett said.

Mission Park reactions mixed

Residents of the Mission Park neighborhood in central Escondido, which police say has a high crime rate and is an area of concern, had mixed reactions last week to the crime and immigration issues.

The neighborhood is largely Latino and is known gang territory. On many walls and fences in the area, graffiti or the evidence of recently painted-over graffiti can be seen.

Antonio Gaspar, a Guatemalan immigrant who has lived in Escondido for 14 years and for five years at the house he owns on Fig Street, said he feels mostly safe where he lives. But in some of the apartment complexes in the area, crime and gangs are evident, he said.

"Here, I haven't seen anything," Gaspar said in Spanish. "But there, they're always causing problems."

He said he supports the police working with immigration officials to deport illegal immigrants who are gang members or criminals. But he said he wouldn't like to see hardworking families affected, even if they do drive without a license.

"If they take the parents, the children will stay here," he said.

Elwood Oslin, an 81-year-old retired Navy officer and longtime Mission Park resident, said crime has always been an issue in the neighborhood.

"I've been here 40 years," Oslin said. "There hasn't been a house here that hasn't been burglarized or broken into over the years."

He attributed the crime in part to illegal immigrants, and said he supports the police doing more to arrest and deport them.

"If there's any question (about a person's immigration status), I think it should be investigated," Oslin said. ... "I wish the police had more authority."

Jim Zahr, owner of the Korner Market at Pennsylvania Avenue and Hickory Street, said that although the area has some crime, it has improved in recent years. And while he supports the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants, he said, not all illegal immigrants are a threat to the community.

"Most of the people that live over here are very hardworking people," he said. "Most of them comply with the law."

Working with the feds

But as far as the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement is concerned, anyone living illegally in the United States could face deportation, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for the agency in San Diego.

First and foremost, though, the agency wants to deport criminals, which has been the focus of Escondido's council and police department as well.

While immigration agents work at the San Diego and Vista jails to identify and detain illegal immigrants among the offenders there, Escondido is the only city in the county with an immigration agent at its police headquarters, Mack said.

Immigration agents often work with cities in gang task forces or on large operations, such as prostitution sweeps.

"When we're there with them, if there is any kind of illegal immigration surrounding that activity, we're able to connect the dots immediately," Mack said.

The agency hasn't had any requests in San Diego County for its agents to work more regularly with police in operations such as traffic checkpoints, she said.

However, in California and nationally, more local law enforcement agencies want to train their officers to handle immigration issues, Mack said.

"We have seen an increasing interest from local and state law enforcement agencies around the country to sign up for training and authorities under 287(g)," she said.

If the Escondido police step up their efforts to identify illegal immigrants, the immigration agency will work with them, Mack said.

"Anybody who's an immigration violator, we want to hold," she said. "And if we can find out about them through the criminal arena, especially in the jails, we want to deport them."

Contact staff writer Paul Eakins at (760) 740-5420 or peakins@nctimes.com.

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Comments On This Story

Mod Edit

Illegals and their pro illegal support groups really need to re-study their history. Their ignorance shines through whenever they compare the US to Nazi Germany and Hitler.

Hitler tried to keep people in Germany, and the only reason he killed so many Jews was that he deemed people of the Jewish faith to be inferior human beings. Obviously he had some predjudice against Jews.
Also, the Berlin wall was built to keep people IN, not out.

Antonio Gaspar, a Guatemalan immigrant who has lived in Escondido for 14 years and for five years at the house he owns on Fig Street, said he feels mostly safe where he lives. But in some of the apartment complexes in the area, crime and gangs are evident, he said.

"Here, I haven't seen anything," Gaspar said in Spanish. "But there, they're always causing problems."

Gee, what a surpise, he's been here 14 years and can't even speak English.