In 2003, Orange County’s top cop Sheriff Mike Carona started to look at a piece of legislation
passed into law in the the 90’s by then-Congressman Christopher Cox (pictured to the right), who until his appointment by President Bush to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, had served as an Orange County Congressman since his election in 1988. Cox’s legislation allowed for local law enforcement officers, with proper training, to be cross-designated by the federal government with the authority to enforce national immigration laws.
Keeping in mind the days when authorities used federal tax code violations to go after mafia gangsters, Sheriff Carona (pictured to the left) wondered if there was not a way to use immigration laws to go after hard-core criminals. The Sheriff began meetings with Congressman Cox, and Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell, to look at whether this could work.
Nearly two years later, after drafting a proposal, and vetting it in the community in the form of a ‘white paper’ for the better part of a year, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is extremely close to rolling out a cross-designation program, based on an agreement with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
As a Public Information Officer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, I have spent quite a bit of time telling people about the plan, as there has been some confusion, as there can be with any kind of innovative, first-of-its-kind, rollout of a new policy. In a nutshell, the policy does this:
1) Cross-designation training will take place for a number of Deputy Sheriff’s who work in the Orange County Jail (roughly the 10th largest jail system in the United States). This will allow Deputies to screen all inmates, and release undocumented inmates directly to the federal government when their terms are completed (this step is not too controversial, as right now ICE officials come into the jail to do this – but now those federal agents would no longer be required).
2) This training will take place for a number of Sheriff’s Investigator, working in specialized enforcement units (such as homicide, sex crimes, vice, narcotics, gangs, etc.). These investigators will then have the ability access the federal immigration database. The policy is very strict in the following regard: any cross-designated investigator may only run someone through the database if they are the suspect in a felony investigation. This will allow investigators to see if the suspect of the non-related felony has committed the federal immigration felony of criminal re-entry into the United States (i.e…the suspect has been deported, and once again illegally entered this country). If they are in the database for that federal felony, then they would be arrested and taken to jail, getting them off of the streets. The idea is to provide investigators with another tool to use to go after hardcore criminals — perhaps before they commit another murder or rape, or sell drugs to another child.
3) Future plans include rolling this program out to include cross-designation of patrol deputies, but that will wait to see how the initial training works with Deputies in jail operations and investigations.
This proposal is now close to implementation, with a final Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and the County of Orange hopefully to be adopted in early 2006, with training to commence shortly thereafter.
So far, the plan has met with widespread support in the Orange County community. Notably, the only significant vocal opposition has come from some immigrant-rights groups who are concerned that this will begin a slippery-slope of local law enforcement agencies engaging in wholesale enforcement of immigration laws. Clearly that is not Sheriff Carona’s proposal – that is a debate for the United States Congress and the President.
(I should add that there has been criticism of the plan by an obscure Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant who is running against Sheriff Carona next year — who is probably opposing the plan simply because it is being promoted by Carona.)
We’ll see how this plan works when it goes into effect – the plan calls for periodic reviews (with citizen input) of every arrest made under this cross-designation proposal. Congressman Cox’s legacy from his original legislation may be that a new arrow is added to the quiver of law enforcement agencies around the country when going after hard-core criminals.
[OC Register reporter Martin Wisckol takes a look at the political implications of this proposal in an article today.]
