Los Angeles Times (California)
By Abby Sewell and Kate Linthicum
May 12, 2015
A
change in Los Angeles County elected leadership last year paved the way
for the end of a controversial collaboration between sheriff's deputies
and federal immigration
officials in the county jails.
The
replacement of termed-out Supervisor Gloria Molina with former U.S.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis appears to have provided the political
shift needed to end the 287(g)
program. Under the program, jail staff and immigration agents screen
inmates convicted of certain crimes to determine whether they are
eligible for deportation.
Molina
was the first Latina to sit on the county board and represented
downtown Los Angeles and the eastern stretches of the county for more
than 20 years. Although she
came in with left-leaning credentials, Molina proved hawkish on
criminal justice and fiscal issues, often allying with the two
Republicans on the board.
She
voted against implementing the 287(g) program in 2005 when the county
first adopted it. But she cast the swing vote in October to extend the
county's partnership with
federal immigration authorities in the jails.
Solis
took office in December, representing a Latino-majority Eastside
district, bringing with her a promise to be an advocate for immigrant
rights.
Then
last week, Solis, along with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, proposed to
immediately end the county's agreement with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. Newly
installed Supervisor Sheila Kuehl also said she supports the move,
providing the third vote needed for it to pass. A vote is expected
Tuesday.
The
three supervisors make up a new majority on a variety of issues that
are reshaping county government. They have united in a push to increase
the minimum wage in unincorporated
areas, restructure key county departments and beef up child welfare
services. Observers are also waiting to see whether they will be more
open to union demands than the old board was.
“It's
a more progressive board politically,” said Jaime Regalado, professor
emeritus of political science at Cal State L.A. “It's not the same board
that it had been for
years and years, which was dominated by conservative to moderate
political tendencies.”
Although
Molina was an advocate for immigrants on some issues, Regalado said she
was “all over the board ideologically.” He predicted Solis' voting
patterns will be more
predictable. “She will be kind of a bedrock for immigrants' rights,” he
said. “She has been throughout her political career.”
Molina
said in an interview Monday that she had been a “reluctant supporter”
of 287(g), but stands behind the program in its current form, under
which immigrants who have
been convicted only of felonies are supposed to be referred to
immigration officials. She said allegations from critics that the
program had ensnared people charged with only minor crimes were
overblown.
“It's
really actually not bad to have convicted felons who are undocumented
deported,” Molina said. “When we're fighting for the rights of
immigrants, that's not the kind
of immigrant we want to protect.”
Solis
said in a statement that the partnership with immigration officials
“has greatly eroded the community's trust in local law enforcement by
muddying the distinction
between the local police agencies and federal immigration enforcement
agencies.”
“Victims
or witnesses are less willing to come forward when they fear that any
contact with law enforcement could lead to deportation,” she said.
Solis,
the daughter of working-class immigrant parents in the San Gabriel
Valley, rose from local office to serve in the state Legislature and in
Congress. Immigration
has long been a key issue for Solis, ranging from farmworker rights to
the blight of Thai immigrants working in slave-like conditions in the
garment industry. As President Obama's secretary of labor, she became
the first Latina to serve in a Cabinet position.
Under
the 287(g) agreement, federal immigration agents work daily inside the
Twin Towers jail alongside jail employees trained by ICE. Each month,
they interview dozens
of inmates about their immigration status. Those who they determine to
be deportable may be apprehended by waiting ICE agents once they are
released from the jail.
Last
year, jail staff screened more than 13,000 inmates under the program
and about 300 were ultimately taken into custody by immigration agents,
according to sheriff's
officials.
While
the supervisors appear poised to end the 287(g) contract, a majority of
them also appear ready to back a new jail program being rolled out by
the immigration agency.
The
Priority Enforcement Program, which may be debuted as early as this
week, will probably allow federal agents to cross-check the fingerprints
of every person booked
into a local jail against an immigration database. ICE will flag those
it believes are deportable, and ask jail officials to notify the agency
when the inmate is being released.
A
proposal slated for a vote Tuesday would ask Sheriff Jim McDonnell to
cooperate with the program but create procedures to limit when jail
employees can notify immigration
officials about an inmate's release. Certain inmates in the country
illegally might be protected, including those who have past criminal
histories but who have not committed a serious crime in many years.
Immigrant
advocates have called on L.A. officials not to cooperate with the new
program. On Monday, demonstrators rallied outside of the county's
headquarters waving a
banner that said, “ICE Out of L.A.”
“What we want is no collaboration at all,” said protester Edna Monroy, 26.
Kuehl,
the one member of the board who said she opposes the new program, said
she believes “that local law enforcement needs to be divorced from
federal immigration enforcement.”
She
said that if her colleagues pass the motion to support the new program,
“it would be very difficult to say that there's some kind
of leftward bent” on the board.
The
two remaining conservative board members, Michael D. Antonovich and Don
Knabe, oppose rolling back the jails' involvement with immigration
officials.
Anna
Mouradian, justice deputy to Antonovich, noted that the number of
inmates referred to ICE under 287(g) had already decreased as a result
of changes in state law.
But she said it would be difficult to predict the public safety effects
of the program's end.
“When
you have individuals who are identified through the 287(g) program and
deported, then you have effectively prevented crimes from occurring that
you can't quantify,”
she said. “Is it going to make a big difference in public safety?
That's a gamble. That's a gamble that Supervisor Antonovich is not
willing to take.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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