SAN JOSE - Should Illegal Criminals Be Deported?

San Jose police must report illegal migrants, suit says
S.J. COPS' REFUSAL IS UNDER ATTACK
By Jessie Mangaliman
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:04/05/2007 01:32:41 AM PDT


Amid a national debate over whether local police departments should help enforce immigration rules, a new lawsuit is charging San Jose and Police Chief Rob Davis with failing to report "suspected" illegal immigrants to federal authorities - a practice the suit alleges is itself against the law.

The suit, filed by an Orange County attorney and activist, challenges a practice that San Jose and many other police departments openly acknowledge. If police were to pursue the immigration status of suspects, victims and witnesses, Davis has said, they would violate the trust of immigrant communities that they need to do their jobs.

But attorney David Klehm echoes the argument of federal officials who have asked police departments around the country to take a more active stance: Illegal immigrants who are arrested ought to be deported, rather than being "recycled" through the U.S. criminal justice system.

Klehm's suit, filed on behalf of Roberta Allen and Carol Joyal of San Jose, comes at a critical time. At least five Bay Area cities - San Jose, East Palo Alto, San Francisco, Richmond and San Rafael - have passed city resolutions in recent months denouncing federal agents' sweeps to round up illegal immigrants in Northern California. In those raids, agents are targeting immigrants who have separate criminal convictions that make them deportable, but undocumented immigrants without criminal records have also been caught in the effort.

Sweeps condemned

A chorus of government officials, police chiefs and religious leaders have condemned the sweeps, and restated their stance that they will refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that has conducted the sweeps. But other officials have offered at least some level of assistance, helping to screen immigrants with criminal convictions.

"Our department remains committed to our longstanding policy that we do not arrest people based solely upon their immigration status," said Davis in February when the San Jose City Council was considering a resolution on the ICE raids. "We need to maintain the cooperation and communication we have with San Jose's many immigrant communities in order to do our jobs effectively."

But Klehm and plaintiff Allen said police are compromising public safety by ignoring the issue.

"I'm a law abiding, tax-paying citizen concerned about multiple arrests of illegal aliens for drug offenses," said Allen, owner of a small business in San Jose. Allen has been active in organizing local protests of opponents of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"The police officers need to have their hands untied so they can do their jobs."

Klehm said he plans to file similar lawsuits against police departments in California. San Jose is the first.

A spokesman for Davis and SJPD referred calls to City Attorney Rick Doyle, who did not return telephone messages. San Jose Councilman Sam T. Liccardo, who co-sponsored the ICE resolution approved by the city council last month, said the larger issue is priority.

"We have less than 1,400 police officers and thousands of code violations," Liccardo said. "We can't possibly enforce them all. This department has placed violent crimes, sexual assaults and other crimes of predatory nature at the top of its list. I support that set of priorities."

Klehm first drew public notice on the immigration issue last year after he filed a lawsuit in Kern County on behalf of a business owner, accusing a competitor of unfair business practice by allegedly hiring illegal immigrants. That lawsuit is pending.

State law

In the wake of that suit, Klehm said, police officers called his attention to a state law that requires police who are making arrests for certain drug-related offenses to report any suspicion about citizenship status to federal authorities. But too often, the officers complained, they are blocked from filing such reports.

In a telephone interview arranged by Klehm, one unidentified San Jose police officer said "the reality is we're not allowed to call immigration.

"It's extremely discouraging when you're there in the streets trying to make a difference," the officer said.

The standard for deciding whether someone arrested on a drug offense "may not be a citizen" and therefore is deportable is a very low legal standard, Klehm argued.

But civil rights groups and immigrant advocates say it is potentially a dangerous standard.

"The last thing you want to do is tell your community that calling 911 will get you deported," said Philip Hwang, an attorney with Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco.

Klehm said he notified Doyle last year that SJPD was systematically ignoring the law.

For its part, ICE has taken a hands-off approach on the debate, while forging partnerships with local law enforcement agencies in California, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee. In these partnerships, local police help screen and identify immigrants with serious criminal convictions in their criminal justice system, and turn them over to federal immigration authorities for deportation.