House Bill Calls for Wider INS Jail Role

WASHINGTON — Pushing to expand a program in Anaheim City Jail that identifies illegal immigrants accused of committing crimes, nine California House Republicans backed legislation Wednesday to permanently station Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in jails in 100 counties across the nation.

A bill introduced by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) calls for the INS to deploy additional agents full time at selected city and county jails. The legislation would also indefinitely extend similar programs at the Anaheim jail and in Ventura County.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who joined eight colleagues in announcing the legislation at a news conference Wednesday, said the deployments would make it easier for the INS to deport illegal immigrants.

“It is time for us to say that illegal immigrants should be sent back to their home countries,” Rohrabacher said. “And that is especially true of any immigrant who is here illegally who has been arrested for a crime. Their crime originally was to come here illegally in the first place.”

The INS reacted cautiously to Wednesday’s proposed legislation in part because it does not include a mechanism for supplying the funding to hire additional INS agents. INS officials also said that screening inmates at city jails wastes scarce resources by duplicating a similar screening process at county jails.

“We are not convinced that using INS on a regular basis at city jails is the best use of valuable resources. Ultimately, 90% of the serious criminals end up at the county jail,” said Virginia Kice, INS western regional spokeswoman.

Until now, the pilot programs in Anaheim and Ventura County have been the only INS efforts in the country to screen new inmates for their U.S. citizenship status before they go to court. INS agents at county jails in Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and other counties around the country scrutinize inmate background--but only after suspected illegal immigrants are about to be released from custody.

The Anaheim program has been in jeopardy for months. Originally slated to end March 30, it was extended to June 30 while the U.S. General Accounting Office studies its effectiveness.

Anaheim city officials said interviewing arrestees before their arraignment has proven critical, since it makes a judge aware of the defendant’s immigration status. Judges then have the option of refusing to release suspected illegal immigrants on bond before trial--which advocates of the program say prevents the defendants from committing new crimes.

In Anaheim, city officials also held a press conference Wednesday touting the success of the local INS program. According to the Anaheim Police Department (based on statistics through Monday), of 6,301 criminal suspects booked into the city jail since the program began, 665 were identified by INS agents at the jail as deportable.

“It’s necessary to do this, it’s vital, it’s going to change the way America deals with criminal aliens,” said Anaheim Councilman Bob Zemel. “We’ve got to shut the revolving door.”

INS officials say the Anaheim program has indeed been a success, but contend that without more funding, the program in a city jail is a waste of limited resources.

The Anaheim program alone has cost the agency more than $100,000 since it began in November 1996, said Richard Rogers, Los Angeles district director for the INS. The effort, he said, has been redundant.

Of those placed in deportation proceedings as a result of screenings at the Anaheim jail, 90% were rescreened at the county jail, Rogers said. As a result, Rogers said the INS is pushing for more such programs at the county level.

“Obviously, in an ideal world we’d be in the position to be everywhere,” Kice said. “But we’re not in a perfect world, so we are out to get the serious offenders before our money runs out.”

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Arrest Report

Anaheim police partticpated in a program in which the Immigration and Naturalization Service screened arrestees for illegal immigrant status. About one in 10 of those arrested and one in six of those screened were held for possible deportation because of illegal status:

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Program dates:

Nov. 1, 1996 to March 30, 1997.

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Arrests: 5,233

Interviewed by INS: 3,496

Held for possible deportation: 573

Source: City of Anaheim