November 14, 2009


Illegal immigrants, unlawful activities
By MELISSA SáNCHEZ
Yakima Herald-Republic
18 comments

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima County jail echoes with slamming steel doors and yelling prisoners as a federal agent sits down behind a computer with a list of inmates to interview.

Across the table is Julio Laguna Mendoza, a quiet 54-year-old arrested for drunken driving several days earlier. The computer shows he's no stranger to the system.

Laguna's been arrested a half-dozen times for illegally entering the country. Mug shots provide a time-sequence of Laguna aging after each arrest.

This time, he made it as far as Yakima. But it won't be long before he's deported again.

Few issues are more controversial or emotional than the impact illegal immigrants have on crime -- or how local law enforcement officers deal with illegal immigrants.

Immigrant-rights advocates insist that most are hard workers no more likely to commit crimes than citizens. Others blame illegal immigrants for a large share of the Yakima Valley's serious crime.

But getting an accurate picture has never been easy. To date, authorities say no specific research has been done on the impact of illegal immigration on the criminal justice system in Yakima County.

Local police, deputies and prosecutors say they don't know what percentage of crime immigrants commit because they don't ask suspects about their immigration status. Jailers don't keep statistics on whether inmates are here legally. And to some degree, federal agents seeking to identify immigration violators among the jail population must rely on what suspects say.

But a Yakima Herald-Republic analysis of county jail booking records for the month of October sheds some light on how many in the facility are suspected of violating immigration law and what local charges they face:

* Six percent of the more than 630 people booked into the jail on local charges in October were suspected of breaking immigration law and placed on federal hold.

(Immigrants who are not U.S. citizens account for just under 13 percent of Yakima County residents, according to a 2008 U.S. Census estimate. The census report did not distinguish between illegal immigrants and those here on visas.)

* Citizens and those placed on immigration holds were booked on felony charges at roughly equal rates, 28 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

* More than 60 percent of inmates with immigration holds were booked on traffic violations, such as driving without a license and negligent driving.

* Drunken driving, a gross misdemeanor, was the No. 1 charge against noncitizens.

Without extensive study, it's difficult to tell whether October was a statistically average month at the jail.

But local police officials, while repeatedly emphasizing they don't ask suspects about their immigration status, said the numbers weren't unexpected.

"It's not surprising at all," said Sunnyside deputy police chief Phil Schenck.

Authorities also agreed that jail bookings in October provide a fair snapshot of the Yakima Valley's demographics, which change with the agricultural calendar.

Exact comparisons are difficult, but the local rates are similar to those found in at least one study elsewhere on immigrants and criminality. A 2008 analysis by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California showed that while immigrants make up about 35 percent of that state's population, they account for 17 percent of the adult prison population.



Federal agents have been pulling illegal immigrants from local jails for years.

"We're focusing on the most egregious criminals or threats to the public," said Bryan Wilcox, deputy field office director with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Seattle.

"Anyone we encounter in the jail, regardless of the circumstances of how they got to jail, if they're not a U.S. citizen then were going to look at them."

The federal actions, however, are not without controversy.

Ann Benson, director of the Washington Defenders Association Immigration Project, said the federal program targeting inmates in local jails doesn't seek out the most serious criminal aliens.

It's an indiscriminate dragnet that rounds up as many immigrants as possible, she said.

"The overwhelming majority of the people being rounded up are fathers, sons and brothers who have families that rely on them and who are members of our communities," she said.

Others, however, want to see far more aggressive enforcement.

Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin regularly gets asked why immigration status isn't questioned when deputies are investigating a crime.

"We concentrate on the criminals committing crimes, not those people violating immigration law, because effective law enforcement is based on trust of the community," he said. "And if we have a large segment of the community that does not trust law enforcement, then the community as a whole is less safe because crime is not being reported."

Besides, police agencies have enough trouble keeping up with drug crimes and car thefts, he said.

"I've told so many groups I've talked to that if I could get rid of the stupid white people who are heavily involved in ... methamphetamine -- wow, that's where we'd really see the reduction in crime," he said.

"But the illegal immigrant is an easy target and a little too easy to blame for the ills that we have."

His stance -- echoed by other Yakima Valley law enforcement leaders, including Yakima police Chief Sam Granato -- frustrates people like Bob West.

West is the president of Grassroots of Yakima Valley, an organization that wants local law enforcement agencies to verify the legal status of everybody they encounter -- and to alert federal immigration authorities of possible illegal immigrants.

"Nobody checks up on it because it's not the politically correct thing to do," West said. "I'm not saying all illegal immigrants are criminals. But the illegals have broken at least one law. Who knows what percentage of illegal immigrants break other laws?"

Some of the Valley's most vocal opponents of illegal immigration recognize that immigrants don't commit a disproportionate amount of crime here.

But their U.S.-born children do, said Nick Hughes, a retired hops seller who has stood in front of Yakima City Council meetings to blame Hispanic immigrants for gang violence.

"Most of the gang members are (children of illegal immigrants)," he said. "If we hadn't allowed the illegal parents here, we wouldn't have the children here causing the gang problems."

Few -- including those in law enforcement -- will disagree with Hughes' assessment. Irwin called the trend a breakdown in immigrant families.

"They're hardworking people, for the most part, but the children ... are not being disciplined and parented as they should be," Irwin said.

Illegal immigration brings its share of problems, even if crime is not a major one, Irwin said.

Overburdened schools, social services and hospitals are among reasons why the federal government should find a solution to the nation's immigration problem -- whether it's a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants or mass deportation, he added.

"We've all been a part of this problem," Irwin said. "We're used to the services -- landscapers, construction, hotels, all of that, especially our agriculture industry has benefited from illegal immigration to a certain extent.

"We all need to be a part of a solution, whatever it may be."

www.yakima-herald.com