--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



From the Los Angeles Times
Expanded jail immigration checks urged
O.C. Grand Jury suggests county's bigger cities work more closely with federal agencies. Some police chiefs reject the idea.
By Jennifer Delson
Times Staff Writer

May 22, 2007

An Orange County Grand Jury report issued Monday recommends that Santa Ana, Anaheim and other large cities check the immigration status of their jail inmates.

The grand jury proposed that cities consider having their officers trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct the checks or arrange for the Orange County Sheriff's Department to do them. Local departments should turn over illegal immigrants to federal authorities, the report says.

The recommendation for Anaheim, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Orange, Fullerton and Garden Grove is expected to heighten debate about the role of local police in immigration enforcement. But some city police chiefs say they were unlikely to implement the recommendations and that checking immigration status would duplicate work done at the county jail, where most of their prisoners are transferred.

Immigration status of every inmate is checked in the county jail and in Costa Mesa, but in other facilities every case is not reviewed.

County jails in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties also have formal agreements with ICE that allow local sheriff's departments to check the immigration status of all inmates, although no city other than Costa Mesa has a full-time ICE agent.

Anti-illegal-immigration advocates say extra checks are worthwhile.

"It's a great way to cross-check what cities are doing," said Eileen Garcia, a Laguna Beach activist. "It's obviously working in Costa Mesa."

But Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters dismissed the grand jury recommendation as unnecessary, saying most of the city's inmates "will end up in the county" jail, where their immigration status will be checked.

And those who are not sent to the county jail are referred to federal authorities for immigration checks if there "is a suspicion of an immigration violation," Walters said.

Garden Grove Police Chief Joe Polisar has opposed the idea of police departments doing immigration checks, and the report is unlikely to change his mind, Capt. Mike Handfield said.

"The chief's position has been that local departments do not have the resources to train their people in federal immigration law," Handfield said.

Huntington Beach Police Chief Kenneth W. Small said his department also didn't have the manpower to check the immigration status of those apprehended for lesser crimes.

Immigration enforcement "is not our job," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said. He said frequent visits to the city's jail by federal authorities through an informal agreement already ensure that most inmates who are in the country illegally are handed over to federal authorities.

In Fullerton, Capt. Greg Mayes said the report "does open up a lot of dialogue about the issue," but his department hasn't made a decision about immigration enforcement.

In December, 14 Orange County sheriff's deputies were sworn in by ICE to assume duties of federal officers, including immigration checks. As a result, the number of inmates detained by Orange County for immigration violations each month has about doubled. In March, 575 inmates voluntarily left the country or were deported by federal authorities.

The training alarmed immigrants' advocates, who feared checks by police might increase racial profiling and make immigrants less likely to report crimes. And those advocates have been concerned that in Costa Mesa, where an ICE agent has been stationed permanently in the city jail since December, some immigrants have been deported for minor offenses, such as traveling in a car with a broken taillight.

In that city, 173 inmates have been referred to federal authorities for possible removal from the country since December. Between 30 and 50 immigrants were detained each month, statistics show.

Amin David, who heads the civic group Los Amigos of Orange County, disagreed with the grand jury's recommendation. "There's no reason to expand the county plan at all, particularly because we have federal immigration reform looming that will make many [immigrants] apply for legal status," he said. More checks "add to the workloads of the city jails and can increase racial profiling," he said.

The report also recommends that the sheriff continue collecting input from the community while posting on a website an arrest log that includes information on whether a booked inmate has been referred for federal immigration review.

Grand jury foreman Mike Penn did not return calls seeking comment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jennifer.delson@latimes.com



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... california
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------