Sheriff’s plan authorized by county leaders

Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to have up to two dozen sheriff’s deputies trained to check the immigration status of people booked into the Orange County jail.

The cooperative program with Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one Costa Mesa council members have said they would copy with the city’s Police Department, but Costa Mesa likely won’t move forward until a new council is seated after Nov. 7.

The supervisors approved the immigration agreement in a 3-1 vote, with Supervisor Lou Correa dissenting. Supervisor Tom Wilson was not at the meeting.

Under the program, 24 deputies who work in the jail will receive federal training to check the immigration status of foreign nationals who are charged with crimes.

Supporters say the program will make the community safer by taking criminals off the streets and ensuring they get deported after serving jail time.

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona told supervisors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials now only work at the jail part-time, so only a small percentage of foreign nationals booked there have their legal status checked.

In 2005, Carona said, just 20% of the 15,274 foreign nationals booked in the Orange County jail were checked for immigration violations, and three-fourths of those checked — or 2,235 people — were found to be in the country illegally.

With the program in place, Carona said he’ll be able to check the status of 100% foreign nationals booked at the county jail.

People arrested for felonies in Costa Mesa are taken to the county jail within 48 hours. But Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, who spearheaded the city’s immigration proposal, would not say whether that renders immigration checks by city police unnecessary.

“Now that the sheriff’s plan is finalized, I would like to take a look at it and then figure out what we need to do in Costa Mesa,” he said.

At the supervisors’ meeting, people who urged that the immigration agreement be rejected gave largely the same reasons that have been cited in Costa Mesa: They fear it will lead to abuses and racial profiling, and they think it will make legal and illegal immigrants stop cooperating with police — if they haven’t already — because they fear deportation.

In a phone interview, Bob Schoch, special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in charge of the Los Angeles area, said any racial profiling complaints would be addressed by his agency, and no formal complaints have come from any of the seven existing programs with state and local law enforcement agencies.

Costa Mesa is believed to be the first city to propose local immigration enforcement.

Cities other than Costa Mesa have made some of the 12 pending requests for training from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said, but she would not say which cities.

Among the groups opposing the sheriff’s agreement were the Orange County Congregation Community Organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. At least one group expects to continue to fight local immigration enforcement in Costa Mesa.

“If that shows up [on the agenda], we will be there,” Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, said after the meeting. “Hopefully by then we will have a new council, which will make it moot.”