State sees jump in suspects' names referred to federal enforcement agency
By Burt Hubbard
The Denver Post
Posted: 03/07/2009 12:30:00 AM MST
Updated: 03/07/2009 02:05:14 AM MST


Police agencies in Colorado turned over to federal immigration agents the names of more than 20,000 suspected illegal immigrants they arrested or cited last year.

That's up about 11 percent from the previous year.

Some credit the rise to publicity over tragedies involving illegal immigrants, such as the death of a toddler at an ice-cream store last year, while others credit increased police awareness of the 2-year-old law requiring referrals of arrestees.

"We're doing a better job, and as a result we are going to see higher numbers," said Cmdr. Brad Shannon of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

However, the increase was not uniform. Denver, frequently criticized by immigration watchdogs as a "sanctuary city" because police do not actively try to identify illegal immigrants, registered an 11 percent drop in the number of referrals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jefferson County reported 22 percent fewer names to ICE than it did in 2007.

Officials in those two jurisdictions said they have done nothing different in enforcing the law and are not sure why the number of people they reported to ICE fell.

"I really don't have an explanation why our numbers would be down," Denver Undersheriff William Lovingier said.

A state law passed in 2006 requires all police agencies to report by March 1 how many people they referred to ICE for possible deportation during the previous year. It came at a time when immigration emerged as a top issue in Colorado and the rest of the U.S., with many states passing laws to crack down on illegal immigrants.

A Denver Post review of the reports submitted so far found that 21,816 names had been forwarded to ICE in 2008 compared with 19,633 in 2007 by the same agencies. Not all police agencies in Colorado had filed reports by the March deadline.

Aurora referrals highest

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said about two-thirds or more of the state-highest 3,143 referrals in his city come from the city's jail, which forwards the name of anyone arrested who was not born in the U.S., allowing ICE to sort out citizens and legal residents from those here illegally.

"It is impossible for a local police officer to determine the immigration status of someone," Oates said. "So if someone says they were born in a foreign country, the jail reports them."

The rest of the names come from police issuing summonses for misdemeanor offenses, he said.

Arapahoe County sheriff's Bureau Chief Phil Spence said publicity over the death of 3-year-old Marten Kudlis and two other women probably led to much of the county's 57 percent increase in reports to ICE last year. A sport utility vehicle driven by Francis Hernandez broadsided a pickup into a Baskin-Robbins store in Aurora, killing Marten as he sat with his mother. The two women in the second car also were killed. Hernandez, an illegal immigrant, had a record of nearly 20 arrests over the previous five years without being deported. He now faces vehicular-homicide charges.

"That was probably a turning point," Spence said. "About six weeks later (after the publicity), we started noticing a difference."

More inmates examined

ICE agents began scrutinizing more jail inmates serving time for lesser offenses and putting detainers on them, he said.

The rise in ICE holds, which required the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office to keep people in jail pending deportation rather than allowing their release, led the county to start a trusty program to relieve crowding by letting inmates work off their county time more quickly before they were turned over to ICE, Spence said.

Lovingier, who oversees Denver jails, said nothing has changed in whom and how they report to ICE. Like most jurisdictions, they refer the names of all inmates born outside of the U.S.

Other police officials felt the same.

"We just think it's an anomaly," said Lt. Pat McCosh with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, where the number of referrals dropped 16 percent.

Along with the rise in the number of referrals from local law enforcement agencies has come an even larger increase in the number of inmates ICE moved to deport.

ICE statistics show that the number of deportations initiated from the referrals in Colorado rose by almost a third to 6,019 in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2008, from the previous year. A detainer is the first step toward deportation.

The Post review also found that police agencies are interpreting the law differently, which Oates said could account for the fluctuation in the numbers across the state.

Arapahoe and El Paso counties, for example, tell the state only the number of times ICE placed a detainer on an inmate. The counties actually refer to ICE about three times more people than they report to the state. Most other jurisdictions tell the state about each name they reported to ICE, regardless of whether the federal agency takes action.

Add to that the different ways jurisdictions decide whom to report to ICE — most report the names of all foreign-born inmates or people who get citations.

But Larry Hank, division chief for the Boulder County sheriff, said the agency will even turn over names to ICE of inmates who don't know where they were born.

"A person can come in and be so intoxicated they don't list a place of birth," Hank said.

And then there is the city of Lone Tree in Douglas County.

The city of 9,000 reported 1,088 people on its form to the state, including everyone arrested for anything, U.S. citizens and foreign-born alike.

"That's one way to comply with the statute," Oates said. "It's safe."

Burt Hubbard: 303-954-5107 or bhubbard@denverpost.com

Agency launched "surge" on jails

Late last year, federal immigration officials descended on Denver's jails as part of a "surge" operation to ferret out illegal immigrants.

By the time they were done two weeks later, they had interviewed 2,946 inmates in the city and county jails. Here's what they found, according to Denver Undersheriff William Lovingier:

326, or slightly more than 10 percent, had detainers placed on them for future deportation after they served their Denver sentences.

91 of those were in jail for aggravated felonies.

8 faced homicide charges.

10 had previously been removed from the U.S. and had sneaked back into Colorado.

55 had deportation hearings scheduled.

"There's some serious stuff in there," Lovingier said.

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