County supervisors, law enforcement officials trade accusations over immigration hold policy

By Tracy Seipel

Posted: 10/25/2011 09:32:06 PM PDT
Updated: 10/25/2011 10:38:00 PM PDT

Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith is accusing District Attorney Jeff Rosen and Sheriff Laurie Smith of "grandstanding'' and using "scare tactics'' for blasting county supervisors for a new policy that will release immigrants with a serious criminal history onto the streets.

What's more, the county executive said, if Rosen and Laurie Smith don't like the decision, they're welcome to sue the county.

"If they really believe the community will be unsafe, then they should exercise their power to prevent it from happening and file suit,'' Smith said. "We will have a very vigorous debate in court."

The county executive -- and the three supervisors who voted in favor of the new policy -- said they were blindsided by the pair's comments in a Mercury News story Monday that highlighted serious concerns the two have with the new guideline, which takes effect immediately.

The policy stems from a federal program called Secure Communities meant to snare immigrants -- both legal and illegal -- with serious criminal histories. The program requires local jailers to share the fingerprints of everyone booked with U.S. Customs and Enforcement, better known as ICE.

Santa Clara County leaders tried to avoid complying with the program until they were forced to do so in May 2010. Since then, the county has sought ways to reduce its role.

The board voted Oct. 18 to keep jailed immigrants with serious or violent criminal records in custody
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for 24 hours after their scheduled release so that ICE can decide whether to deport them -- but only if ICE agrees to pay the county to detain them.

But ICE has said it won't do that, so those inmates will now be released once their sentences are up.

The new policy also shields illegal immigrants arrested for nonviolent and minor crimes. They will be let free after serving their jail sentences.

Both Rosen and Laurie Smith say releasing undocumented immigrants who are nonviolent offenders is fine with them. But they contend that the supervisors are playing Russian roulette with public safety by freeing the serious and violent offenders.

And so does Bob Dane, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group working to reduce both legal and illegal immigration.

"If this policy goes into effect and stays on the books, someone will have blood on their hands,'' Dane predicted.

He said the policy proves how special-interest groups and some politicians are "reprogramming'' the public into believing that immigration law violations are "inconsequential.''

On Tuesday, Rosen said he has no plans to spend taxpayer money on a lawsuit. He said he would prefer to discuss the issue with county officials once they have data showing whether the new policy is working.

Laurie Smith and Rosen believe that immigrants with a serious criminal history should be held for 24 hours for ICE, regardless of whether the feds pay the county $125 to hold an inmate an extra day.

Better safe than sorry, the two law enforcement officials argue.

Still, Jeff Smith contends the two officials are misrepresenting the new policy with "inflammatory statements'' to gain more power in deciding which immigrants get released and which don't.

The new policy, he said, is meant to ensure that illegal immigrants in the county's criminal justice system are treated the same way as legal residents and citizens.

"What the board is saying is that whether you are held in jail or not should only be a function of whether you committed a crime or not,'' he said. "It shouldn't be a function of whether you have legal or illegal status in the community.''

Especially irksome to the county executive and a majority of supervisors is that neither Rosen nor Laurie Smith bothered to attend last week's board meeting to voice their concerns before the vote.

"I was surprised to read their comments,'' said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who along with colleagues George Shirakawa Jr. and Dave Cortese endorsed the policy. Mike Wasserman, who shares the concerns of Rosen and Laurie Smith, dissented. Liz Kniss was out of town.

"My first thought was: Why weren't they at the meeting addressing those comments to us?'' Yeager said.

Laurie Smith did appear briefly at the start of the Oct. 18 meeting to witness an Employee of the Month award for a jail director but left before the detainer policy was brought up about 25 minutes later.

Laurie Smith told the Mercury News that she believed she had already made her concerns known during several meetings of the board's Public Safety and Justice Committee, on which both she and Rosen sit.

Rosen said he, too, thought his views were known by the supervisors.

On Sept. 7, the committee received a recommendation from the Civil Detainer Task Force saying the county should hold illegal immigrants with serious criminal histories for 24 hours for ICE. Both Laurie Smith and Rosen agreed with that proposal.

The meeting changed course, however, after Shirakawa announced he'd learned of a decision by Cook County, Ill., officials, who voted to refuse to detain any illegal immigrants unless the county is reimbursed by ICE.

On Oct. 5, the date of the next committee meeting, Shirakawa returned with an amended policy -- which Rosen says essentially eviscerated the policy recommended by the task force.

Yet from that day to the board vote on Oct. 18, none of the supervisors -- including Kniss -- said they heard a word from Rosen or Smith regarding their concerns.

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