Felons found in police immigration screening...Part 2 of 3...

Monday, December 17, 2007
Felons found in police immigration screening
Two OC police agencies have become national leaders in deporting illegal immigrants. Petty offenders are swept up in the net.
By TONY SAAVEDRA and NORBERTO SANTANA Jr.
The Orange County Register

Social tolerance was once the hallmark of Costa Mesa, a place where bowls of free soup awaited the poor just as racks of designer shoes awaited the well-heeled.

The home of South Coast Plaza was also home to a city Human Relations Committee, a job center and a decades-long history of helping the poor, whether immigrant or native-born. The late county Supervisor Tom Riley dubbed Costa Mesa "the city with a heart."

The soup kitchen is still there. But the Human Relations Committee and the job center are gone, jettisoned by Mayor Allan Mansoor and his allies on the council after being too sympathetic to illegal immigrants.

The city's new legacy is its aggressive stance against illegal immigration, including the use of city police to identify undocumented immigrants among crime suspects.

Costa Mesa is not the first local agency to partner with immigration agents. Police in Florida and Alabama have been doing so since 2003. In California, jail-check programs vary from checking the status of convicted felons – that's what Los Angeles County does – to checking everyone in the jail – that's what Orange County started doing just one month after Costa Mesa.

Costa Mesa's program has brought more controversy than others because city police check not only jail inmates, but minor offenders on the street – like jaywalkers and disorderly drinkers – who are not able to provide identification.

"Disorderly conduct itself isn't necessarily the most dangerous crime, but nevertheless, it is a crime," Mansoor said. "It's really cut and dried – we're trying to uphold the law."

The Register analyzed jail records, Superior Court records and crime data to determine exactly what happened during the first months of both programs:

•The sheriff's program snared 2,874 illegal immigrants between April and October, 60 percent of them (1,717) accused of felonies. Among those tagged: 45 people accused of homicide, 66 accused of robbery and 64 accused of child molestation. One 22-year-old reputed gang member was accused of participating in the killing of two 14-year-old boys.

•Costa Mesa flagged 289 illegal immigrants between December 2006 and June, 11 percent of the total arrests. Thirty-nine percent of those on ICE hold (112) were accused of felonies. Costa Mesa didn't find any accused of homicide in that period, but one man was arrested on suspicion of child molestation and four were arrested on suspicion of strong-arm robbery. Police arrested 177 on misdemeanor or infraction charges, including 44 picked up on suspicion of driving under the influence, 32 on suspicion of being drunk in public and 29 on suspicion of driving without a valid license. On Thursday, Costa Mesa released figures showing 520 deportable immigrants were picked up during the full year.

•Many of those caught in Orange County's net were small-time offenders: drug abusers, drunk drivers, probation violators, people no more criminal than the celebrities festooning supermarket tabloids. Three-fourths of those nabbed in Costa Mesa during the first six months had never before been charged with a crime in Orange County. Twenty were arrested on cases so marginal that they were rejected by the District Attorney's Office or not even presented in the first place.

•The Register was unable to identify any effect on crime in Costa Mesa, despite supporters' firmly held belief that the city is safer now.

That may not matter to many county residents.

"If they've committed a crime, there should be no recourse, appeal or anything. They should be gone," said Barbara Coe, chairwoman of the Huntington Beach-based California Coalition for Immigration Reform.

"I think we have enough homegrown criminals. We need not import more."

DEPUTIZING LOCAL POLICE

The law that allows federal immigration officials to deputize local police as immigration officers dates to 1996, shortly after the first World Trade Center bombing. Under the program, known as 287g, the federal government also reimburses local agencies for most of the costs of jailing illegal immigrants.

Florida and Alabama were the first to sign up, in 2003. Today, more than 26 agencies in 12 states are participating.

Last December, after extensive lobbying by Mayor Mansoor, ICE stationed an immigration agent full time at the Costa Mesa jail. In January, sheriff's deputies trained by ICE began conducting checks on inmates at the county jail, the product of years of lobbying by Sheriff Mike Carona.

"We're now actively involved in screening 100 percent of the people that are coming through," Carona said. Federal officials confirm his claim that Orange County is turning over more inmates for deportation than any jail in the country.

In initial interviews, deputies ask about prior convictions, gang affiliations and citizenship, and decide which inmates merit a second check for immigration status. From there, inmates are referred to a deputy who has completed a four-week ICE training session.

The deputy asks about parents' surnames, place of birth and citizenship. He checks federal immigration and criminal databases. Depending on the answers, he generates an "ICE hold" that is sent to the federal immigration agency. Those with holds are picked up by ICE at the end of their sentences.

Costa Mesa's program is slightly different: An ICE agent is stationed full time at the Costa Mesa jail.

Carona said his program is catching "career criminals."

Mansoor said his is nabbing "major offenders."

That's true – to a point.

Records indicate that Costa Mesa officers are mostly bringing in minor offenders, many of whom are simply unable to provide identification – such as Abimael Ludin Sanchez, caught sleeping in his car, and Marcelino Tzir, caught riding his bicycle on the wrong side of the street.

Both were turned over for deportation.

Costa Mesa Police Chief Christopher Shawkey defended the policing efforts, saying the city program treats all offenders equally, regardless if they are petty criminals or dangerous felons. To do otherwise would be biased, Shawkey said.

"I'm not making any claim it will reduce crime. It is what it is," he said. "Can they come back? Sure, they can get back here."

Some feel the program is inherently destructive and divisive, with no real value if deportees can return.

"It's fracturing the community," said Jean Forbath, a social activist who founded the Costa Mesa charity Share Our Selves. "The future of Costa Mesa and Orange County and all America is to accept each other. This program does not create communities."

But many voters sided with Mansoor during the 2006 election. He received 26 percent of the council vote, highest of any candidate, and his ally, Wendy Leece, got 24 percent.

"To me, there is no excuse for breaking the law," said Ernie Feeney, a grandmother who lives in north Costa Mesa. "If you break the law and an officer stops you, you've got to produce identification."

A question of tactics

Mansoor, an Orange County sheriff's deputy, was first elected to the Costa Mesa council in 2002. He soon collected the support of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, a civilian border watch group. In addition to the council seat, Mansoor's campaign to crack down on illegal immigrants propelled the Costa Mesa debate onto the national airwaves. Gilchrist made Mansoor an honorary Minuteman.

The Register's analysis of those roped in by the Orange County and Costa Mesa jail checks quickly became a litmus test for law enforcement experts on both sides of the issue.

Orange County sheriff's officials agreed they caught a lot of folks who weren't necessarily dangerous. One Costa Mesa police official confirmed that they probably weren't changing crime statistics. But both agencies say those are the realities of law enforcement.

"It isn't fair to categorize criminals," said Lt. Roland Chacon, who supervises the sheriff's jail-check program. "A petty thief may just be a petty thief to some. But if he's stealing my stereo or is a petty drug dealer, I don't want (him) in my neighborhood. Would you want him in your neighborhood?"

James Hayes, Los Angeles director of Detention and Removal for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agreed, saying small offenses, such as driving without a license, can be the first step toward major crime.

"They're going to go from not being licensed to not having insurance, to getting into accidents, to not being able to find a job, because of all those factors combined, because they're dependent on drugs, they're dependent on alcohol, and they're going to be thieves, then they're going to be rapists, then they're going to be murderers. That's the progression," Hayes said.

"I'd rather get them immediately and get them out of the country."

On the other side are law enforcers who see snaring immigrants for low-level crimes as costly and counterproductive.

"If you're deporting and removing everybody from a shoplifter to a murderer, you're creating a situation where it's much more difficult for law enforcement to focus on the serious cases," said Doris Meisner, who ran the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Clinton administration.

The police chiefs in Huntington Beach and Santa Ana, the cities on either side of Costa Mesa, say local police should only be questioning dangerous criminals about their immigration status.

Anything else could result in immigrants becoming afraid to call police when a crime occurs or afraid to testify when they see a crime.

"There's millions of undocumented people in California; I've met many of them," said Huntington Beach Police Chief Ken Small.

"Most of them are good, hard-working people."

A safer city?

Nearly all the people placed on ICE hold in Costa Mesa were arrested in the same Westside neighborhood. Police logs indicate that 362 major crimes were reported in that neighborhood during the first six months of the immigration program. The same number was reported during the same period the previous year.

Citywide crime had fallen by 11 percent the year before the immigration program began Dec. 5, 2006. The crime stats fell another 4.7 percent citywide during the first six months of the program.

Costa Mesa Capt. Ron Smith said the number of people flagged for deportation in his city was probably too small to statistically affect crime.

"It's a little drop in a bigger bucket," he said.

Former Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave Snowden said the city never had a big problem with immigrant criminals in the first place.

"The argument was there were all these hard-core felons," said Snowden, who now heads the Beverly Hills Police Department. "Where are the hard-core felons?"

Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who voted against the immigration checks in her city, isn't sure that anti-immigration folks are necessarily focused on making the streets safer.

"At the end of the day, we should just be honest on it," Foley said. "If the crime is just being here, then the program is having an impact on crime. But I think many of our violent crimes are by citizens."

Even Carona, who sometimes brags about the success of his jail-check program, expresses some doubt that local agencies can make much of a difference on such a complex problem.

Questioned at a citizens forum in June, Carona surprised some of his supporters.

"In my opinion, it's an absolute waste of taxpayers' dollars the way we're going about it right now," he said. "I wouldn't talk about (catching) illegals; I'd talk about creating guest workers … and then I'm not getting into somebody else's life about why they're in this country."



Register reporters Jeff Overley and Niyaz Pirani contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: 714-796-6930 or tsaavedra@ocregister.coM

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