Bill to check felons fails

Assemblyman Van Tran’s attempt to have the state screen and verify the immigration status of prisoners, just as authorities do in Costa Mesa, failed to make it out of an Assembly committee Wednesday.

Tran hoped identifying and then deporting such prisoners would cut state costs to house them, as well as address the problem with overcrowding in California prisons.

While the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is required to report any undocumented immigrants to the federal government as part of an administrative agreement, this bill would have required such checks under law, Tran said.

“There are well over 172,000 prisoners in the state, and there are talks of releasing at least 30,000 of them early [because of the budget deficits],” he said. “Data has shown, and repeatedly confirmed, that there is an approximately 70% recidivism rate among these prisoners.

“This bill would’ve solved that problem — not all of it, obviously, but at least the felonious illegal immigrant portion, which happens to be about 10% of the prison population.”

Critics of the bill said it would deputize state officers to enforce confusing and frequently changing federal immigration law, and that it was prone to abuse.

Joseph Villela, a state policy advocate with the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, invoked the case of a mentally ill American citizen who was falsely deported to Mexico.

“This man was not able to articulate he was a U.S. citizen because he doesn’t speak English fluently,” he said. “In this case, the officer perceived that the person was undocumented, and proceeded to process his deportation…We’d rather see this money go to the prevention of crime, instead of just breaking up families.”

Tran said, however, this bill would merely require state employees to check a prisoner’s status through a simple administrative process, and turn over any information they find to the federal government.

“It’s a real red herring to say that these officers are being trained to determine the immigration status of these convicted criminals, who will be handed over to the Department of Homeland Security,” he said. “They’re being trained to check, not for enforcement; they aren’t going onto streets, knocking on doors to check immigration status. No one is deputized.”

Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), who chairs the Public Safety Committee, was one of the four members voting against the measure Wednesday.

His legislative director, Erika Contreras, said the assemblyman thought the bill was too broad in its scope and that it would come at too great a cost to taxpayers.

“How do you justify training each corrections officer to identify immigrants, when all — tens of thousands of them — are not even required to be in contact with these individuals?” she said. “When Tran talks about savings, I don’t see where they come in.”

The bill was part of a GOP package unveiled in Sacramento last week, aimed at curbing excess costs sponsors said were imposed on the state due to illegal immigration.

Tran said he supported his proposal to stabilize the budget over those of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has proposed a 10% across-the-board cut to state services, including cuts in schools, state parks and the early release of prisoners.

Schwarzenegger has reportedly said it is a “big mistake” to blame illegal immigrants for the state’s fiscal woes.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at chris.caesar@latimes.com.