Thread: ESCONDIDO CA : Back in Illegal Immigration Spotlight

ESCONDIDO: Two facing deportation after Saturday night police-ICE partnership

ESCONDIDO: Two facing deportation after Saturday night police-ICE partnership

By MORGAN COOK -North County Times - Californian | Posted: Sunday, October 31, 2010 9:47 pm | (13) Comments

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent works an incident Saturday evening in Escondido in conjunction with the Escondido Police Department's gang enforcement unit. The detainee, left, who was suspected of soliciting prostitution, was having his immigration status checked by the federal officers. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff Photographer) .
..Federal immigration agents working with police Saturday night in Escondido arrested two people authorities identified as illegal immigrants with past criminal convictions.

They released another person ---- who was also identified as an illegal immigrant ---- because he didn't meet the criteria for detention under the pilot program that has put U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the city's streets with police since May, police Lt. Craig Carter said.

The program is aimed at catching illegal immigrants who have criminal histories and deporting them, Carter said. He said the program benefits the community because it helps remove the city's criminal element.

ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said evaluation of the program is ongoing, but so far, it has been successful. As of Saturday, the program had yielded 193 arrests, she said.

Critics, including Escondido Councilwoman Olga Diaz and several North County civil rights groups, have said the partnership spreads fear in Escondido's Latino community, deterring people from reporting crime because they are afraid contact with police may lead to deportation.

A North County Times reporter rode along with police and a spokeswoman for ICE on Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m., and caught up with police when officers called for assistance from one of the station's two full-time ICE agents.

Carter said police called agents when they had probable cause to believe someone they had stopped for another offense was in the country illegally.

Police could have probable cause to call ICE if the subject they contact can't provide identification and spoke little or no English, he said.

An officer called for agents shortly after 7 p.m. on Centre City Parkway near the onramp to Highway 78 based on such probable cause, Carter said. He said an officer stopped the man, whom police did not identify, because the handle of a lawn mower was hanging about 2 1/2 feet over the side of the bed of a pickup the man was driving.

The man did not have a driver's license and did not speak much, if any, English, Carter said.

ICE agents determined the man was in the country illegally, but he had not been convicted of a crime and had not violated a standing deportation order, Carter said. He said police would ticket and release the man.

The next call for ICE agents came about 8 p.m. from an officer who stopped a car near the intersection of Kalmia Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

A man was driving, and a woman and toddler who police said appeared to be his family were passengers in the car.

Carter said police stopped the car because its tail light was out. The man did not have a driver's license and spoke little or no English, Carter said.

While the driver and his family waited in their compact sedan, the ICE agent, wearing a black vest marked with "Police" on the front and "Federal Agent" in smaller letters on the back, called what Mack said was ICE's 24-hour information center in Vermont.

As in the other stops, it took about 15 minutes for the agent to confirm the suspect's immigration status and criminal record.

ICE agents determined the man, Javier Barrera, 24, was in the country illegally and had been convicted in the past of drunken driving, Carter said.

Carter said police ticketed Barrera for violations that included driving without a license, and impounded his car.

ICE agents took the man into custody, Carter said. He said agents did not investigate the woman or child's immigration status because they had not violated any laws.

A police officer gave them a ride home.

"Without ICE, we'd probably ticket him and let him leave," Carter said. "But now, because of ICE, a prior DUI conviction means he gets deported and we might be able to avoid another DUI or other crimes in the future."

A man police identified as Antelmo Covarrubias, 24, was stopped about 9:50 p.m. in the 900 block of North Quince Street, Carter said.

He said officers contacted Covarrubias on suspicion of soliciting prostitution.

He said the man did not have identification or speak much English.

ICE agents determined Covarrubias was in the country illegally and was on probation, Carter said.

It wasn't immediately clear if police would take him into custody on suspicion of soliciting prostitution and violating his probation, or whether ICE would take him into custody, Carter said.

"He doesn't have identification, so we're not 100 percent sure he is who he says he is," Carter said. "So either we or ICE will take him into custody, get fingerprints, and ICE can use that information to help us figure out who he is, and then we'll go from there."

www.nctimes.com

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent works an incident Saturday evening in Escondido in conjunction with the Escondido Police Department's gang enforcement unit. The detainee, left, who was suspected of soliciting prostitution, was having his immigration status checked by the federal officers. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff Photographer)

They released another person ---- who was also identified as an illegal immigrant ---- because he didn't meet the criteria for detention under the pilot program that has put U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the city's streets with police since May, police Lt. Craig Carter said.

What do you mean he didn't meet the "criteria for detention" under the pilot program. He was illegal wasn't he, what more "criteria" do you need? So simply being illegal in this country is not enough to get someone deported any longer. They have to be committing additional crimes before we can detain and deport?

In any event, at least Escondido is doing all it can under this administration to rid itself of the illegal invaders in their midst. Great job!

Also here in NC they will get you for warning oncoming traffic of a speedtrap by flicking your brights at them!

They would in Penna also. My step father got stopped for the same thing and the police told him it was to his benefit that these checks are carried out to screen for drunk drivers and such

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They released another person ---- who was also identified as an illegal immigrant ---- because he didn't meet the criteria"

So they get a free pass until they do kill someone or get a dozen criminal charges?

drunk driving , no insurance , dealing drugs , forging docs etc is not enough to deport them under this administration

Originally Posted by Justthefacts

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They released another person ---- who was also identified as an illegal immigrant ---- because he didn't meet the criteria"

So they get a free pass until they do kill someone or get a dozen criminal charges?

drunk driving , no insurance , dealing drugs , forging docs etc is not enough to deport them under this administration

Didn't ICE add Drunk Driving to its Policy Rules after the bruhaha when the Nun was killed by an IA DD earlier this year?