Immigration plan still unclear

Ever since Costa Mesa City Council members voted in December to train police for immigration enforcement, people have been asking exactly what that will entail and how many people it will affect.

Nobody knows yet, Costa Mesa Police Chief John Hensley said in an interview this week.

But a few things have become clear: if the plan is put into place, officials expect only a handful of suspects to be arrested in Costa Mesa for immigration violations; and suspects of felony crimes would likely be questioned about their immigration status at the Orange County jail regardless of what Costa Mesa does.

The City Council in December voted, 3-2, to have some city police employees trained to check the immigration status of people suspected of aggravated felonies and gang activity. Officials have said about 30 to 40 employees would receive federal training.

The immigration plan has polarized the community. While some residents have backed the council’s decision, the plan has raised vehement opposition from others, sparking protests and a threatened boycott of city businesses. Councilwoman Linda Dixon, who voted against the plan, said there are still questions about what the plan will do that law enforcement officials can’t do now. She intends to raise those issues at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Mayor Allan Mansoor ? the plan’s leading proponent ? and other supporters have said it will make the city safer by removing dangerous criminals. Opponents argue it would unfairly target the city’s Latino residents and that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.

Earlier this week, Hensley said Costa Mesa doesn’t have a written plan yet because the council told him to tailor the city’s plan to one being created by Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona.

County officials have been working on their proposal for more than a year and are now awaiting a response from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who offer the training to local agencies and oversee local programs.

“Our direction is to follow very closely what the sheriff requested,” Hensley said. “As soon as I see that, then we’ll draft our own to make sure it mirrors that.”

Under the sheriff’s proposal, about 200 of his employees would get federal training, said Carona spokesman Jon Fleischman. Once trained, they would use a federal immigration database to check the status of all felony suspects. If the suspects have been deported and reentered the country illegally ? which is itself a felony ? they’ll be arrested and turned over to federal authorities, Fleischman said.

“If you’re a suspect in a felony but you haven’t illegally reentered the country, they would be treated like any other suspect in any felony, which is you can’t arrest them unless you have probable cause,” he said.

That means just being here illegally isn’t, by itself, grounds for arrest.

Federal immigration officials already visit Costa Mesa’s jail and the county jail to run immigration checks on suspects, but Hensley and Fleischman said federal agents don’t have the resources to come as often as they are needed. There’s no database of immigration information that city and county officials have access to now, they said.

The county jail holds an average of 6,000 people per day, and the sheriff’s department estimates about 10% of those are foreign nationals who have violated immigration laws.

Costa Mesa’s jail averages 400 bookings a month, Hensley said. He doesn’t know how many of those might be immigration violators, but he doesn’t estimate the city will make many such arrests if the city begins immigration checks.

“I don’t suspect we’re going to have all that many. At this point our estimates are four to six [immigration arrests] a month,” Hensley said.

And if they’re only looking for career criminals who have committed the felony of reentry after deportation, he said, “that number could be maybe only a handful a year.”

Dixon questioned how the city’s law enforcement capabilities will be changed or improved by training city employees for immigration checks. Hensley said the main difference is the immigration check would happen up front, during the booking process, instead of later at the county jail.

Most felony suspects are taken to the county jail after being held in Costa Mesa for 96 hours. Sheriff’s officials have said any county jail inmates without documents will have their immigration status checked, according to Hensley.

“They’re going to be screened whether Costa Mesa is involved in it or not,” Hensley said.

Hensley has said he expects the training will cost at least $200,000 and other costs could run as high as $28,000 in overtime for each officer trained. Few suspects are likely to be netted by the city that wouldn’t already be checked. So the question becomes how the plan really benefits Costa Mesa.

“I suspect we’re getting local control,” Hensley said. “We won’t have to rely on ICE stopping by or the sheriff doing screening. We will do it here and then transport to the county.”

Dixon said the community needs to hear more explanations about what the program will do, where the funding will come from, how the city will ensure there will be no racial profiling, and other issues.

“Why should my community spend the money when it’s a federal problem, and what impact is one little city of Costa Mesa going to make on the rest of the United States?” she said.

“Is it really worth it, or are there egos that have gotten carried away with this and can’t see the forest for the trees?”