Immigration on council agenda

The mayor’s divisive plan to have police officers enforce immigration law faces vote tonight.Any of three Costa Mesa City Council members -- Linda Dixon, Katrina Foley or Gary Monahan -- could be the deciding vote needed to pass Mayor Allan Mansoor’s proposal to train city police officers to enforce immigration laws.

The council will vote tonight on the plan, which calls for city police to be trained and authorized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to investigate and detain immigration law violators during their normal policing duties. The mayor has said police would check the immigration status only of people already suspected of other crimes, and the program would involve close cooperation from immigration officials.

Mansoor can expect support from Councilman Eric Bever, but it’s unclear how other council members will lean, though Foley has said she has concerns about the potential cost and effectiveness of the proposal. Dixon has not responded to repeated calls for comment on the proposal.

Monahan said Monday he had only skimmed the proposal and still had questions about how other jurisdictions are handling the matter and how involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be if the city goes ahead with the plan.

“I don’t really have much to say. I really need to listen to what Allan’s going to present,” he said.

If the council supports the plan and the city can sign an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seven custody officers who work in the city jail would receive about 3 1/2 weeks of training. After that training is completed, officers investigating people suspected of other crimes could check their immigration status and, if warranted, turn them over to immigration officials.

The mayor also is interested in training officers who patrol the city, but he said it will depend on what Immigration and Customs Enforcement is willing to do.

As outlined in a report from the police department, the plan would cost $190,528. Most of that would pay for hiring two more custody officers so the city could add duties and still meet minimum staffing requirements.

Mansoor stressed that the focus would be on people suspected of other crimes. Some in the community are concerned that the plan would invite racial profiling, but Mansoor dismissed that idea.

“The prerequisite is either that they’ve committed a crime or they’re lawfully detained for a crime first. That’s the criteria, not race,” he said.

A 1996 law allows state and local jurisdictions to cooperate with federal officials to enforce immigration laws. Florida and Alabama state police and the Arizona Department of Corrections have programs in place, and the Los Angeles and San Bernardino county sheriffs’ departments are now having some officers trained.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is working on creating a program that ultimately would train more than 500 deputies. Most of the feedback has been positive, but concerns from some community groups have led Sheriff Mike Carona to consider revisions to the plan, spokesman Jon Fleischman said.

Similar concerns likely will be raised tonight. An e-mail sent to council members Monday by the Orange County Congregational Community Organization said as the group has worked to help shape Orange County’s policy, “what has been abundantly clear is the community fears such a policy, and it is [in] the best interest of solidarity, peace, justice and community to oppose such a policy in Costa Mesa.”

Representatives of Latino advocacy organizations such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the League of United Latin American Citizens are expected to attend the meeting to raise questions as well.

Foley and Monahan said they’ll have questions at the meeting. The biggest question, however, may be about the nature of the problem Mansoor wants to solve.

The focus of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been people who have previously been deported or have criminal histories that make them a threat to public safety, such as child sex predators, violent criminals and drug traffickers, spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement put its program in place to look for terrorism suspects, spokeswoman Sharon Gogerty said.

It’s not clear what the biggest threat illegal immigrants pose in Costa Mesa is, or even how big the problem is, since no statistics are available.

Asked how much of a problem illegal immigration is in Costa Mesa, Monahan said, “I don’t know. I just know that it seems to be a major issue at this time from the federal government all the way down to the local level.”