Thread: Supervisors approve Carona's immigration plan

This is good news for this county but there should be more.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ho ... 315083.php


Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Supervisors approve Carona's immigration plan
In a last-minute change, Carona doubled the number of deputies to make federal immigration checks to 24.
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA Sheriff Mike Carona's plan to train local deputies to make federal immigration checks in local jails won approval from the Orange County Board of Supervisors today.

Despite several speakers who warned that the plan will lead to racial profiling, the board voted 3-1 in favor of the plan.

Lou Correa, the lone Democrat on the board who represents many minority communities in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove, voted against the plan.

Correa, who is locked in a tight race for a state Senate seat, echoed many of the plan's opponents, saying he feared the plan would dissolve the trust between minority communities and the local police who have spent years working together.

"My question is, how will this make our communities safer?" Correa said.

The plan, which was scaled back from Carona's original proposal, calls for training an initial 12 deputies to check the immigration status of those booked into the county jails. In a last-minute change before the meeting – and after the watered-down plan created controversy for Carona when it was revealed by The Orange County Register last week – the sheriff won approval from federal immigration authorities to train up to 24 deputies.

That's decidedly different than his plan, first floated more than two years ago, that would have trained up to 500 deputies to make federal immigration checks in the jails, while on patrol and in doing investigations.

Carona said the plan won't lead to racial profiling but instead take care of the "revolving door justice system" that allows many criminal foreign nationals to be released without getting their immigration status questioned. He said his proposal will help stem the number of crimes committed by illegal immigrant criminals upon innocent undocumented workers.

"Those individuals who are undocumented and are fearful of law enforcement don't report crimes," he said. "We're not going to create victims out of victims."

http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2006 ... tion18.txt

Sheriff's plan authorized by county leaders
Program similar to Costa Mesa proposal will train deputies to check immigration status at county jail.
By Alicia Robinson

Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to have up to two dozen sheriff's deputies trained to check the immigration status of people booked into the Orange County jail.

The cooperative program with Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one Costa Mesa council members have said they would copy with the city's Police Department, but Costa Mesa likely won't move forward until a new council is seated after Nov. 7.

The supervisors approved the immigration agreement in a 3-1 vote, with Supervisor Lou Correa dissenting. Supervisor Tom Wilson was not at the meeting.

Under the program, 24 deputies who work in the jail will receive federal training to check the immigration status of foreign nationals who are charged with crimes.

Supporters say the program will make the community safer by taking criminals off the streets and ensuring they get deported after serving jail time.

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona told supervisors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials now only work at the jail part-time, so only a small percentage of foreign nationals booked there have their legal status checked.

In 2005, Carona said, just 20% of the 15,274 foreign nationals booked in the Orange County jail were checked for immigration violations, and three-fourths of those checked — or 2,235 people — were found to be in the country illegally.

With the program in place, Carona said he'll be able to check the status of 100% foreign nationals booked at the county jail.

People arrested for felonies in Costa Mesa are taken to the county jail within 48 hours. But Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, who spearheaded the city's immigration proposal, would not say whether that renders immigration checks by city police unnecessary.

"Now that the sheriff's plan is finalized, I would like to take a look at it and then figure out what we need to do in Costa Mesa," he said.

At the supervisors' meeting, people who urged that the immigration agreement be rejected gave largely the same reasons that have been cited in Costa Mesa: They fear it will lead to abuses and racial profiling, and they think it will make legal and illegal immigrants stop cooperating with police — if they haven't already — because they fear deportation.

In a phone interview, Bob Schoch, special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in charge of the Los Angeles area, said any racial profiling complaints would be addressed by his agency, and no formal complaints have come from any of the seven existing programs with state and local law enforcement agencies.

Costa Mesa is believed to be the first city to propose local immigration enforcement.

Cities other than Costa Mesa have made some of the 12 pending requests for training from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said, but she would not say which cities.

Among the groups opposing the sheriff's agreement were the Orange County Congregation Community Organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. At least one group expects to continue to fight local immigration enforcement in Costa Mesa.

"If that shows up [on the agenda], we will be there," Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, said after the meeting. "Hopefully by then we will have a new council, which will make it moot."

This is hot news in CA

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 784041.htm

Orange County approves immigration enforcement plan at jails


Associated Press

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Orange County supervisors approved a program Tuesday to train 24 sheriff's deputies to conduct immigration checks at county jails under a tentative agreement with the federal government.

The board of supervisors voted 3-1 to allow the program, which will make the sheriff's department the 8th county law enforcement agency in the nation to implement it, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Orange County plan is significantly scaled back from Sheriff Mike Carona's original proposal, which called for 200 deputies trained in immigration law to check all inmates' immigration status and identify those who should be deported.

Supervisor Lou Correa, who voted against it, questioned whether the effort would make the county safer. He said that by giving deputies federal law enforcement responsibilities, immigrants may grow fearful of them and reluctant to report crimes.

Training will start soon, and the program could launch in late December, said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties already participate in the program. Since it started in Los Angeles County jails early this year, the deportation rate for arrested illegal immigrants soared to more than 65 percent, Kice said.