ESCONDIDO: ICE extends partnership with police
Week's arrests offer snapshot of program's effectiveness

By SARAH GORDON
Posted: Thursday, September 16, 2010 9:26 pm | (6) Comments

A pilot program that puts two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on patrol with Escondido gang officers has been extended at least five months because it seems to be working, Escondido police and ICE officials said this week.

ICE is evaluating the 4-month-old program periodically to determine whether it is efficient to have two full-time federal agents working in Escondido looking for illegal immigrants with criminal records, ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said.

So far, their work has been fruitful, she said.

"Patrolling with police is a smart way for us to be able to identify and arrest individuals who have criminal convictions and are deportable," Mack said.

Since the partnership was launched in May, it has yielded 146 arrests, Escondido police Lt. Craig Carter said.

Mack said the program has no scheduled end date, but it will be evaluated again in five months.

If it's deemed a success, ICE may approach other local police departments, Mack said. In Escondido, ICE proposed the pilot program to police Chief Jim Maher, who accepted.

Critics, including Escondido Councilwoman Olga Diaz and several North County civil rights groups, have said the partnership spreads fear in Escondido's immigrant community, deterring people from reporting crime because they are afraid of being scrutinized for an immigration violation.

Carter this week reiterated a position that Chief Maher has often stated: Law-abiding people whose only violation is being in the country illegally have nothing to fear from Escondido police.

"If you're not doing anything illegal, you don't have anything to worry about," Carter said.

The North County Times examined five cases from one week this month to illustrate some of the arrests that Escondido police and ICE have been making together.

Court records and police accounts show that some of those arrested and held for deportation have extensive criminal histories and were in Escondido in violation of a standing deportation order.

Others were low-level offenders accused of misdemeanors, or not charged with anything, who had never been deported before coming into contact with police and ICE this month.

The previously deported

On Sept. 4, an Escondido police gang detective and an ICE agent pulled into the drive-through at a Carl's Jr. on East Valley Parkway, Carter said.

The young man behind the counter looked familiar to the detective, Carter said. Then he remembered: The worker was a documented gang member previously arrested in the city.

The employee, Gustavo Milian Cruz, 23, was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of auto theft. In 2006, he was sentenced to two years in state prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a victim with a tire iron as part of a gang-motivated attack, according to court records.

After serving his time, he was ordered out of the country, Mack said.

The ICE agent confirmed Cruz was here in defiance of a deportation order and had been deported three times before, Carter said. Cruz was pulled off his shift and arrested.

The same day, an Escondido officer pulled over a car reportedly being driven recklessly in east Escondido, Carter said.

When the officer ran the driver's name, he discovered a criminal record, Carter said.

Jaime Ruiz Carreno's crimes in this county date to 1996, according to court records. He was convicted of violating a restraining order, drug possession, being in contempt of court and evading police while driving drunk.

The Escondido officer contacted ICE and learned Carreno, 33, previously had been deported, and arrested him, Carter said.

'The poster child'

The same day, an officer ran the name of a driver stopped on Bear Valley Parkway near East Valley Parkway, Carter said. The suspect, Juan Aguilar Guerrero, 51, had a 1992 conviction for multiple counts of child molestation, domestic battery and brandishing a weapon, according to Carter and court records.

The officer checked with a local ICE agent; Aguilar was here in violation of a previous deportation order, Carter said.

Cruz, Carreno and Aguilar all have since been deported, Mack said.

Carter said the arrests show the benefits of working with ICE. Though none of the three suspects was charged with a new crime, police who ran their criminal records used immigration violations to put them in jail and banish them from Escondido.

"The poster child for what we're doing is Guerrero," said Carter, pointing to the arrested man's violent history and sex crimes against children.

First time in federal custody

But not everyone ICE helps Escondido police arrest is a serious criminal, and some have never violated a deportation order.

On Sept. 7, Byron Martinez, 25, who has no known criminal history, ended up in federal custody facing deportation after Escondido police said they found him falling-down badly drunk at the transit center on West Valley Parkway at about 12:30 a.m.

According to the arrest report, Martinez had urinated on himself, was slurring his speech and had been wandering in the street, Carter said.

While Martinez was in the police station jail, awaiting transport to Vista jail, an ICE agent checked his immigration status, Carter said. Martinez had never been deported before and had no criminal history, but he appeared to be in the country illegally, Carter said.

His immigration status was checked because he had committed a crime, Carter said.

Police booked him into Vista jail on a charge of public drunkenness. He was then transferred to federal custody, and this week, he was still awaiting immigration court proceedings, Mack said.

The ICE spokeswoman said Martinez's undocumented status would have been discovered at the Vista jail, even without Escondido police making the first inquiry, because immigration status is routinely checked during the intake process in all county jails.

On the evening of Sept. 7, an officer pulled over Hualberto Lopez, 29, in downtown Escondido, Carter said. At some point, Lopez ran away, but an officer caught up with him on Broadway and handcuffed him, Carter said.

The officer had ICE check his immigration status; Lopez was in the country illegally, Carter said.

Carter said he doesn't know why Lopez ran, but court records show he was cited in San Marcos in 2009 for driving without a valid license. He never paid the ticket, and he had an unresolved charge of failing to appear in court.

Lopez was arrested one other time, in 2003, and convicted of misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol, court records show. He had never been deported before.

If Lopez hadn't run, he probably would have been cited and released for a traffic infraction, and the officer might not have checked his immigration status, Carter said. Though Lopez was not accused of a new crime, he was turned over to federal agents.

He is free on bail with a GPS monitor, awaiting a federal immigration hearing, Mack said.

ICE and public trust

Critics of the Escondido Police Department's partnership with ICE include Councilwoman Diaz. She said Maher's assurances that the operation doesn't target otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants is not enough to overcome the perception that contact with local police puts them at risk of becoming an ICE target.

"If you are part of the law enforcement community, you know there's a hesitancy (by regional law enforcement) to work with federal agencies like ICE, because there's a very critical component of crime-solving that involves public trust," Diaz said.

But Carter said the vast majority of people here illegally who are questioned by an ICE agent and an Escondido gang officer are released immediately.

"Let's say we come across four people that are out past curfew; all look young," Carter said. "One person has Guerrero's history (referring to the convicted sex offender). The other three are here illegally. Those three walk, and the one with the history is the one who is taken with the ICE hold."

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