AP (California)
By Ian Lovett
September 23, 2015
Federal
immigration officials, who had been banished from Los Angeles County
jails earlier this year at a time when many cities here were working to
protect immigrants
from deportation, will be invited back in — with some limits — under a
new a policy that will allow them to interview and identify some inmates
for deportation.
The
change may reflect a broader shift in California, which has been at the
forefront of efforts to protect immigrants — even those convicted of
minor crimes — from deportation.
A 2013 state law called the Trust Act prohibits local governments from
turning immigrants who have committed petty crimes over to federal
immigration officials, a policy that was seen as a rebuke to the Obama
administration’s deportation efforts. Major cities
like Los Angeles and San Francisco have largely stopped cooperating
with federal immigration officials in jails, and opposition in the state
to the Secure Communities program — an Obama administration initiative
that relied on local law enforcement to help
with deportment efforts — contributed to that program’s end last year.
But
sentiments have been shifting toward stricter enforcement, after two
high-profile murders in the state this year for which illegal immigrants
with criminal records
face charges. One was the gunshot death of Kathryn Steinle at a tourist
pier in San Francisco, said to have been committed by an undocumented
immigrant who was released from county jail days earlier. The other was
the rape and murder of Marilyn Pharis during
a housebreak in Santa Maria, a city on the central California coast,
for which two men are charged, one of them an illegal immigrant with an
arrest record in this country but no felony convictions.
As
recently as four months ago, the Los Angeles County government voted to
end a plan that offered immigration officials a permanent place in its
jails. But that will
not end their presence in the jail system: Under the new policy,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will be permitted to
interview inmates who have committed serious crimes, as well as all
inmates who are being processed for release. In addition, the
sheriff’s department will give immigration officials a seven-day notice
before some inmates are released.
In
a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors outlining the
program, Jim McDonnell, the county sheriff, noted the need to balance
public safety with maintaining
the trust of one of the most “immigrant-rich communities in the world.”
The
letter said, “Serving the community, reducing crime, and promoting
public safety is immeasurably harder if law enforcement fails to
maintain relationships with — and
the trust of — our community.”
Still, immigrant rights advocates responded in anger Wednesday at what they considered a reversal of course.
“In
order for there to be trust, there has to be a firewall between the
federal immigration agents and the sheriff’s department,” said Angelica
Salas, the executive director
of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “Does the
sheriff run the jails or does I.C.E.? He’s saying they both do. He’s
giving them full access to the jails.”
Ms.
Salas said that in some cases, Sheriff McDonnell has constructed a
policy that is even more generous than what Immigration and Customs
Enforcement requested. For instance,
instead of 48-hour notifications before certain inmates are released
from custody, the sheriff’s department will give immigration officials a
week’s notice.
But
the sheriff’s department will also advise inmates who are flagged for
the federal agency of their right to legal counsel, something advocacy
groups had requested.
And federal agents will be able to use the county’s databases.
Ms.
Salas and other immigrant rights advocates accused the sheriff of
bowing to political pressure from Donald J. Trump and others, who have
put a spotlight on immigration
this summer. But the murders of Ms. Steinle and Ms. Pharis have helped
raise new voices in California — including prominent Democrats like
Senator Dianne Feinstein and law enforcement officials like the Santa
Maria police chief — in favor of more cooperation
with immigration officials to help keep dangerous criminals off the
streets.
Los
Angeles County supervisors offered mixed responses to the sheriff’s
policy. Michael Antonovich, one of the board’s most conservative
members, expressed support, while
Hilda Solis, who voted in May to remove the federal agency’s office
from the jails, said that the plan was cause for concern.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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