Violators May Have a Loophole

Among its many provisions to discourage illegal immigration, Proposition 187 included what its sponsors have billed as tough new sanctions against the manufacture and use of fraudulent citizenship documents.

However, as the first person charged under the initiative was ordered to stand trial Thursday, law enforcement officials say the ballot measure’s wording leaves it doubtful whether many lawbreakers will receive stiffer penalties than in the past.

Proposition 187 calls for a sentence of five years in state prison or a fine of $75,000 for manufacturing, distributing or selling false documents. But because crimes punishable by fines can normally be treated as either felonies or misdemeanors, the authors of Proposition 187 appear to have given judges and prosecutors the leeway to provide misdemeanor sentences--which carry a maximum one-year county jail term--as well as five-year sentences, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“It’s clear (the initiative’s sponsors) wanted this to be a straight felony, but when they put in a fine, they really complicated (things),” said Los Angeles County Assistant Dist. Atty. Frank Sundstedt.

In the cases filed last week under the fraudulent documents section--the only key provision of Proposition 187 not now blocked from taking effect by state and federal judges--the district attorney’s office charged three Huntington Park-area men with felonies.

And after a three-hour preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon, the first of the Proposition 187 defendants, Jose Hernandez Sanchez, 24, was ordered to stand trial by a South Gate Municipal Court judge on felony charges of manufacturing fake citizenship documents and additional charges of forgery and possessing cocaine for sale. Two alleged accomplices, who were also arrested at a motel room where authorities found several sheets of unfinished fake Social Security cards, were held over for trial on non-Proposition 187 forgery charges.

The prosecutor’s office will continue to file all future Proposition 187 cases as felonies, according to office policy guidelines issued in late November.

However, in many cases, defendants will probably receive a few months in jail, Sundstedt said.

“It would be foolish to say we’d urge the court in all circumstances to impose five years in prison without analyzing the previous criminal history of the defendant and the facts of the case,” Sundstedt said.

Many first-time offenders in Los Angeles charged with nonviolent crimes receive sentences of about six months in County Jail and face three additional years in state prison if they violate the terms of their probation, county prosecutors said.

Before Proposition 187 became law, manufacturers of fake citizenship documents faced up to three years in prison under the state’s forgery statute. But when charged with multiple counts for each fake document, they faced maximum sentences of more than six years in prison. Proposition 187, on the other hand, calls for punishment of five years in state prison no matter how many documents are printed or sold.

Another point that Proposition 187 does not directly address is the possession of fake citizenship documents, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, who opposed the initiative during the election campaign, in part because he believed it was poorly written. The sheriff said that, based on the measure’s wording, “you must use that document” to be arrested.

Proposition 187 campaign head Ron Prince, who takes credit for writing the sections on fraudulent documents, disagrees with the interpretations by Los Angeles law enforcement officials. Prince said the initiative clearly states that those manufacturing false documents are “guilty of a felony.”

“There’s no way anyone could possibly construe that as being unclear,” Prince said. “If anyone in law enforcement needs a clarification of the word felony , perhaps we should reconsider the way in which our law enforcement personnel are trained.”

Prince also contends that illegal immigrants carrying fake identifications are subject to prosecution--despite the fact the word possession was not included in the ballot measure. “I am sorry,” he said. “But if they are in possession of a fraudulent green card, they’ve committed a felony in the state of California, and we expect the law will be enforced.”