Screening in jails unsettling to Latinos

Changes threaten community-police relations

Screening in jails unsettling to Latinos

image0-Screening in jails unsettling to Latinos

The message was clear and the people of Costa Mesa heard it over and over from Mayor Allan Mansoor.

Residents had many issues and concerns about the city's proposal to train certain police officers to check the immigration status of criminals arrested on suspicion of a serious felony.

But Mansoor assured them that enforcement would focus on people accused of serious crimes.

"The focus is on violent offenders," Mansoor said in a Dec. 8, 2005, Register news article.

"The focus of this (enforcement) is to remove violent, criminal offenders to make the streets safer. I don't see how anyone can protest against that. This will in no way, shape or form involve sweeps or focus on the victims of crime," Mansoor said in another Register article on Dec. 24, 2005.

None of the residents I've interviewed on this issue have a problem with removing felons off the street, documented or undocumented, and making sure those felons who are here illegally are deported.

What they were concerned about was that the program would be used to target all immigrants, would profile based on race, and would erode the trust built between the Latino community and the police department.

The plan to train officers was scrapped and instead the city accepted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's offer to send an agent to the city jail to screen arrestees. Last week, Register reporters Jeff Overley and Niyaz Pirani reported the results from the first month of screening.

So what of Mansoor's promise that only felons would be targeted?

Forty-six people were flagged, and Overley and Niyaz found that at least four of the cases involved felonies and eight involved misdemeanors, such as petty theft, driving under the influence and disorderly conduct. They also found that there were at least two cases where individuals were detained after traffic stops at which they couldn't produce a valid identification.

When I spoke to Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she confirmed that all of the detainees had been put in formal deportation hearings.

"We don't track cases based upon whether or not the deportable alien has a misdemeanor conviction or felony conviction," she said. "Our basis for lodging the detainer is the determination by ICE that this person is deportable whether it's based on their criminal record or whether they are in the country illegally."

If an undocumented immigrant undergoes formal deportation hearings and is then deported, it's considered a felony if they illegally re-enter the country. The maximum penalty for felony re-entry after deportation is 20 years, according to Kice.

I reached Mansoor by phone Friday and he agreed that yes, he voted for the proposal that would check the immigration status of criminals arrested on suspicion of a serious felony, but that originally he wanted something more encompassing.

His original proposal was to allow police officers to detain undocumented immigrants for even minor offenses such as jaywalking and soliciting work. Under the new ICE program, Mansoor says they are simply screening people who are arrested in the normal course of duty and who are brought into custody.

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