ICE marks 422

An average of 11% of people booked at the Costa Mesa jail in 2007 had immigration detainers placed on them by federal officials, according to statistics from the Costa Mesa Police Department.

From January to September, a total of 422 people were flagged for suspected immigration violations, out of the 4,014 people booked at the jail. October statistics are not yet available.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent interviewed anywhere between 21 and 62% of people booked each month to determine their citizenship, and police noted everyone arrested is screened to see whether an interview is needed.

“We weren’t surprised by the numbers. The numbers reflect the community as a whole,” Costa Mesa Police Lt. Allen Huggins said. “We’ve never changed the way we do police work simply because we know have an ICE agent that’s stationed in our jail.”

Those flagged for possible immigration violations have initially been arrested on suspicion of other crimes.

Broken down by category, the police statistics showed 151 of the people with immigration detainers — nearly 36% — were arrested on suspicion of felony crimes, and the other 271 people — 64% — were suspected of misdemeanors.

Breaking down the alleged crimes by type, the most common felony was drug-related, of which there were 47; followed by assault, with 23 such crimes, according to the statistics.

The bulk of the misdemeanors were for DUI — 83 of the 271 misdemeanors — or various vehicle code violations, which accounted for 46 arrests.

Police don’t have statistics that break down total bookings into felony and misdemeanor arrests, Huggins said, but “I would imagine that the comparisons are pretty similar” to the breakdown for immigration detainees.

As to feedback from the community on having a federal agent in the city jail, Huggins said a lot of the furor that erupted in 2006 has quieted.

Members of Costa Mesa’s immigrant community had concerns that the city would unfairly target them, and activists opposing illegal immigration thought the city wasn’t doing enough, Huggins said. But that’s changed.

“I don’t think we’ve done anything other than solid police work like we always have, and for that reason I think both sides have accepted what we do and there hasn’t been any backlash,” he said.

ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.