Federal idea gets a warm reception

A proposal to put a federal immigration agent in the Costa Mesa jail is a better idea than having city police handle immigration checks on arrestees, according to some observers of Costa Mesa’s turmoil over immigration issues.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Los Angeles field office director Jim Hayes proposed Thursday that an immigration agent be placed in the Costa Mesa city jail.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor spearheaded a proposal to give police training to check the immigration status of people arrested in the city, and the City Council approved it in a 3-2 vote in December.

But he said Thursday that he might support Hayes’ plan, depending on the details and if it would do what his proposal was intended to do. City leaders have not formally discussed the proposal with immigration officials.

Others in the community said Friday they think Hayes’ suggestion makes sense and would save Costa Mesa the cost of training officers, estimated to be about $200,000.

“Absolutely,” said Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who cast one of the two votes against the city enforcement plan. “This is how it’s intended to be done in the first place.”

Council-watcher and blogger Byron De Arakal agreed, saying illegal immigration needs to be addressed in Costa Mesa, though there’s no clear data on how big the problem is.

“My opposition to the mayor’s plan was that it took over a federal function at great cost to the city without any kind of indication of how successful it would be,” De Arakal said.

Some of the city’s Latino residents, who make up about 30% of the population, have said they’re reluctant to deal with police because of the immigration issue. Hayes’ proposal might ease their fears.

Paty Madueno, a community activist and apartment manager in Costa Mesa, said she gets about a phone call a day from people who want her to report something to police for them because they’re afraid to call themselves. That could change if a federal official handles immigration checks, she said.

“It’s a better idea,” she said. Federal officials have visited the city jail in the past for immigration checks, and it wasn’t an issue in the community, she said.

In fact, the idea isn’t new. Former Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave Snowden said he brought a federal immigration agent into the city jail starting in the early 1990s, but “their average number of prisoners isn’t high enough to have someone sitting there on his duff all day long.”

It’s not clear how many hours Hayes intends to dedicate an agent to the Costa Mesa jail. He said Thursday that his agency gets about five to seven immigration referrals a week from Costa Mesa police.

While Foley said she’d support the plan if it puts the immigration issue to rest, she was bothered that it was announced to the media before most city officials had discussed it or even heard about it.

“There seems to be a recurring theme of doing away with the public process, and everything gets vetted in the press and thrown out to the community without a proper public process, and that’s part of what I have trouble with,” she said.

The proposal may defuse a potential minefield for Mansoor, who would get what he’s always claimed to want — more immigration enforcement — without having to battle those in the community who opposed having city police doing the job. He also won a second term last week with a campaign centered on immigration enforcement.

“The mayor won this election, clearly, on the immigration issue,” De Arakal said. “In terms of [his] end politically, he’s gotten the solution he wants, so I think he wins politically.”

But having an immigration agent in Costa Mesa’s jail is perhaps most useful in helping people feel like a problem is being addressed, Snowden said.

“That’s why we did it,” he said. “We didn’t think we were going to accomplish much by it.”