City backs altered immigration plan

By a 3-2 vote, Costa Mesa City Council decides to coordinate in part with Sheriff’s Department to enforce immigration laws.Costa Mesa police officers could become the first in the nation to enforce immigration laws under a plan the City Council approved early Wednesday.

The council voted, 3-2, to pursue a two-pronged plan to have some city police employees trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Councilwomen Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley voted against the plan. Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilmen Eric Bever and Gary Monahan voted in favor.

One part of the plan, which was suggested by Councilman Gary Monahan, would piggyback on the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s plan to give immigration training to sheriff’s employees. The request would cover the city’s 20 detectives and four officers on gang detail.

Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell said he’ll be happy to work with the city, but the Sheriff’s Department proposal is nearly done and could come to the supervisors in January.

“We are very close, so I honestly don’t know if it can be amended at this point, but whatever we can do to help,” he said.

The city also would make its own request to immigration officials to have the city’s jail custody personnel trained. Eight employees now work at the jail, with two to be added in 2006.

A report to the council said police employees would receive about 3 1/2 weeks of training, though information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement notes typical programs are five weeks long. The course includes immigration law, civil rights, intercultural relations and issues regarding racial profiling.

After training, city police employees could check the immigration status of people who are being detained or investigated for some other crime and, if warranted, turn them over to immigration officials. Mayor Allan Mansoor, whose slightly broader proposal provoked the discussion, has stressed that the target of enforcement would be people who have committed serious crimes and also are in the country illegally.

The mention of illegal immigration often leads to statistics, with different studies estimating 2- to 3-million illegal immigrants in California; and the $10 billion they may cost the state annually, according to a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. But no statistics are available for the size or cost of the illegal immigrant population in Costa Mesa.

That means it’s not clear how effective the city’s proposed program may be. Supporters say it will be another tool to fight serious crimes in Costa Mesa.

Immigration officials have routinely visited the city jail for years, and many cities already have access to databases to check on the immigration status of people they’ve detained, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

But some county officials want to train their own employees because they don’t think immigration officials are able to do enough, she said.

“Because of the turnover there [in county jails], the county authorities believe we probably aren’t identifying all of the deportable criminal aliens who are in those facilities,” she said.

Some council members worried about liability because the federal government apparently doesn’t offer any immunity to local agencies that enforce immigration.

But immigration officials said no legal issues have been reported with existing programs. Alabama and Florida state police and the Arizona Department of Corrections have trained some employees to enforce immigration laws.

“We’ve had zero complaints from any of the programs that are working,” said Robert Hines, the national director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s cross-designation program.

People on both sides of the issue in Costa Mesa saw Monahan’s proposal as a compromise.

Mansoor initially wanted to look at including field officers in immigration training. Though they weren’t included in the plan the council approved, “I’m very happy with the motion that was passed last night. I believe it’s going to make the community safer,” Mansoor said Wednesday.

Jim Fisler, a city planning commissioner, said the plan is a good start.

“I think it speaks to our community values as a whole that we’re not really tolerant of those that are here illegally,” he said, but “I just hope [the plan] doesn’t get weakened any more.”

Others said the plan is a step in the wrong direction but could have been worse.

“I think it was an improvement from the original proposal,” said Omar Olmedo, a teacher and resident of Costa Mesa.

However, he added, “I think more crimes will be unreported. Unless they completely close off the borders -- and that’s not our duty -- the crime is not going to be mitigated.”

QUESTION

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