Published: Sept. 15, 2010
Updated: 3:36 p.m.

Orange jail to house suspected illegal immigrants

By EUGENE W. FIELDS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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•No more than 700 ICE detainees at the jail at any time.
•None of the ICE detainees will be released into the city.
•None of the regular inmates will be released early to make room for ICE detainees.

Such federal detainees are held in custody while a determination for possible deportation is made by the federal government. Most are former federal, state or local inmates who did not prove U.S. citizenship.

City Attorney David DeBerry said the financial agreement is based on a percentage of what the county will receive from ICE, up to $340,000 a year for the city.

"We're anticipating $200,000 the first year," DeBerry said.
Sheriff Sandra Hutchens made a presentation about the program before the City Council in March, which drew comments of concern from Mayor Carolyn Cavecche and Councilman Jon Dumitru.

Both voted in favor of the agreement at Tuesday's council meeting, as did Mark Murphy. Tita Smith and Denis Bilodeau, citing potential conflicts of interest, abstained.

"My concerns are much less now that we have an actual plan of how it's going to be implemented," Dumitru said. "We're not going to be bringing in axe murderers."

Dumitru said the first $200,000 has been earmarked for police services: "That money will be budgeted for law enforcement in and around The Block at Orange and Theo Lacy jail."

The agreement also calls for the population of the jail to remain capped at 2,986.

"The only thing that changes is that we're lending a hand to the county to expedite the deportation of illegal aliens," Dumitru said.

The ICE detainees, who did not prove citizenship at the time of their arrests, after serving their original criminal sentences, are turned over to ICE to begin the hearing process to determine whether they should be deported.

Under the terms of her department's proposal, Hutchens said in March, 99.9 percent of the detainees would be deported and the remaining detainees would be released from the ICE office in Los Angeles.
Contact the writer: 714-900-2048 or efields@ocregister.com

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