Thread: San Diego: Sheriff candidates discuss immigration, crime

REGION: Sheriff candidates discuss immigration, crime

Three candidates spoke at Carlsbad luncheon

By TERI FIGUEROA
Posted: May 3, 2010 9:54 pm
The three men vying to be San Diego County's next sheriff addressed immigration and laid out some of their campaign platforms Monday afternoon during a panel discussion before the Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club.

Voters will have three candidates from which to choose: challengers Jay LaSuer and Jim Duffy, and incumbent Sheriff Bill Gore.

The three men tackled questions from moderator Brian J. Smith, and also took queries from the audience of Rotary members during a 45-minute program in Carlsbad.

The first battle at the polls will be the primary, set for June 8. If no one wins that election with more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two voter-getters will go head to head in the November election.

The sheriff serves a term of four years. Countywide, the department has a staff of about 4,000 people and a budget of about $500 million.

In North County, the Sheriff's Department provides law enforcement for the cities of Vista, San Marcos, Encinitas and Solana Beach, as well as all the unincorporated areas, including Fallbrook, Valley Center and Ramona. The department also runs the county jails and the regional crime lab.

First up at Monday's lunch meeting came the complicated issue of illegal immigration.

And if Arizona's controversial new law serves as a litmus test for some voters, here's the bottom line: LaSuer said he supports it; Gore said he is personally opposed to it but hopes it will force the federal government to address illegal immigration; Duffy didn't speak directly to the law.

Both Duffy and Gore said jail inmates should have their immigration status checked.

LaSuer, 70, said deputies must work with U.S. Border Patrol agents and "we must stop this invasion that is occurring in our country."

"We have become a sanctuary county," LaSuer said. "Some people will deny it, but that is exactly what we are. ... We cannot turn our backs on the problem anymore."

Duffy, 48, said he wants to have deputies in the jails given the federal authority to check the immigration status of arrestees and inmates.

"It's not even an immigration issue for me," Duffy said. "It's about a crime issue. I'm supposed to be protecting you. So what I want to do is to make sure that if I have a tool or resource to deal with someone who is exhibiting criminal behavior, I've got a way to get them out of this county."

Gore, 62, said the department should "work cooperatively with our federal partners. And we're doing that in a model for the entire Southwest border."

He said his department has more than $23 million in federal grants to work with federal agencies such as the Border Patrol and the FBI "to address what we call border crimes," such as cross-border kidnapping, drug and human smuggling and gangs that work in concert with drug cartels.

Gore said he wants to see immigration status checks run on inmates, and said his department provides office space in the county jails for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to do just that.

Duffy's campaign platforms include calling for a return to community-oriented policing, rethinking what he called a "legacy budget", and retraining and promoting jail guards to fully sworn and higher-paid deputies.

Duffy has spent 27 years in law enforcement, and rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Sheriff's Department. He most recently served as chief of staff for county Supervisor Ron Roberts. Duffy's late father is former Sheriff John Duffy, who led the department from 1971 to 1991.

LaSuer said he wants to scrap the budget and start fresh. He also wants to fully reconstitute specialty units such as those that handle special weapons and tactics, as well as domestic violence situations.

LaSuer spent more than 31 years in law enforcement, and retired from the Sheriff's Department in 1994 as an undersheriff. He also served 10 years on the La Mesa City Council and six years as a state assemblyman, representing the 77th Assembly District.

Gore has pledged to find ways to keep residents safe amid shrinking revenue, and to work with federal authorities to prevent crime in Mexico from spreading north.

Gore, who is the former undersheriff, was appointed to the top post in 2009 after Sheriff Bill Kolender retired midterm. His experience in federal and local law enforcement stretches more than four decades, including 32 years with the FBI. He spent six years in charge of the FBI's San Diego offices.

www.nctimes.com

Related

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-197565.html

GO LaSuer! Sounds like he's the man for San Diego County.