Immigration 'holds' down in Monterey County

Drop seen in wake of state prisoner realignment

By JULIA REYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer
Posted: 08/07/2013 07:11:12 PM PDT
Updated: 08/07/2013 10:51:12 PM PDT

The number of immigration "holds" in Monterey County Jail has dropped dramatically since state prisoner realignment took effect, newly released data show.

And while some California counties appear to be deliberately reducing federal immigration detentions to free up jail beds in the wake of realignment, it's still unclear why Monterey County's numbers have dropped in half.

The detentions, requested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — part of the Department of Homeland Security — are known as ICE holds, and many involve non-criminals who face only civil violations and are awaiting immigration hearings.

Being in the U.S. without a visa or green card is not considered a crime, though it is a civil violation that can result in deportation.

The jail's ICE holds fall under a program called Secure Communities, promoted as a way to more easily deport immigrants convicted of serious and violent crimes.

In past Monterey County raids, ICE officials have said dozens of violent gang members were rounded up under the program.

Critics say Secure Communities casts too wide a net and doesn't live up to its promise of focusing on serious crimes.

Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller says it's quite common for minor criminal charges to be dropped against a jail inmate after arrest. Even without a conviction, ICE will quickly request a voluntary 48-hour hold before the inmate is released so federal authorities can take him or her into custody.

Miller said the Secure Communities program is "supposed to be for violent and dangerous criminals, but everybody who goes through the front door, even if the charges are dropped, gets banged," he said. "ICE used to show up every week and run through the jail and see who they wanted to talk to."

Although counties are not required to honor ICE's hold requests, many do.
In Monterey County, there were 284 "non-criminal" ICE holds per quarter before realignment took effect Oct. 1, 2011. After realignment, the number dropped to 134.

The quarterly total of ICE hold "bed days" in the jail was 568 before realignment, and 269 after.

Although that accounts for a small percentage of total bed days, across the state the numbers and costs are significant.

According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, ICE holds in California were reduced from 42,078 in the 15 months before realignment to 29,703 in the 15-month period after.

Enforcement of these voluntary holds cost taxpayers an estimated $9.5 million during the 15 months before realignment and $6.8 million for the same time period after.

"The cost of holding suspected undocumented immigrants in correctional facilities remains a dubious use of strained law enforcement, incarceration, and fiscal resources," reads a report released this week by the San Francisco-based center.

"In particular, non-criminal undocumented persons, aside from being a remarkably law-abiding population with no record of criminal convictions over decades, generate economic and tax revenues that benefit the state."

It's hard to know why Monterey County's hold numbers have dropped so significantly, but it wasn't because of a deliberate local policy change, Miller said.

"For a shift that big, something's going on. Our arrest totals haven't gone down."

He said one theory is there seems to be a drop in the number of undocumented immigrants in the county, as reflected in current agricultural labor shortages.
Data on recent ICE requests to the jail were not immediately available Wednesday, but Miller said he could recall a time when up to one-third of the jail's population was on an immigration hold.

Whatever the cause of the decline, criminal justice activists say it's a good thing. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union argue that fewer non-criminal immigration holds mean cost savings and freeing up critical bed space in counties like Monterey, where jail crowding was a problem long before realignment.

Another factor that may have influenced the statewide reduction in holds was a December memo from California Attorney General Kamala Harris to law enforcement agencies reminding them that granting Secure Communities detainer requests is not mandatory.

"In a time of shrinking financial resources, a growing range of critical public-safety priorities, limited space for housing prisoners, and layoffs of police officers and sheriffs deputies, it is appropriate that California law enforcement agencies that receive immigration detainer requests consider them carefully," she wrote.

She added, however, that "all efforts must be made to identify, detain, and remove from the United States unlawfully present immigrants who may be dangerous, pose a public-safety risk, or have been convicted of offenses of a serious or violent nature."

In addition to pushing counties to stop holding non-criminals for ICE, a movement is underfoot to reduce the scope of the agency's Secure Communities detentions to exclude certain misdemeanor and other non-violent, non-serious convictions from the hold category.

In a current case, a Monterey County man who was considered one of the best custodians at a local hospital was charged with a misdemeanor of using false identification. Although he has not gone to trial or been convicted, he's already on an immigration detainer, Miller said.

"It seems to be the kind of case screaming for not being held on ICE hold," he said.

In June, the ACLU in Southern California and the National Day Laborers Organizing Network filed a class-action lawsuit alleging ICE holds that are issued before a conviction are without probable cause and therefore violate the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure. In some cases, U.S. citizens were placed under ICE holds before their cases were investigated.

Now AB 4, a bill passed by the state Assembly and up for a vote in the Senate, would continue to give local law enforcement the discretion to cooperate with ICE on holds, but only under certain conditions: if the immigrant was convicted of a serious or violent felony punishable by a state prison sentence; was convicted in the last five years of a misdemeanor that could also have been charged as a felony; has been convicted at any time of any of a list of certain felonies; is a registered sex offender or arsonist; or a magistrate judge has determined there is probable cause for the person to face charges for certain felonies.

If none of those conditions applies, authorities would have to release the would-be detainee.

Julia Reynolds can be reached at 648-1187 or jreynolds@montereyherald.com.

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