A Bid to Cross Enforcement Borders

In an emerging trend, Costa Mesa leaders agreed Wednesday to clear the way for police officers to enforce federal immigration laws -- a move some fear will having a chilling effect in the city’s Latino community.

The City Council voted to negotiate an agreement with federal immigration officials that would allow city police to check some criminal suspects to see if they are in the country illegally, a job now reserved for federal immigration officials.

Costa Mesa would be the first city in the nation to seek permission to enforce immigration law, though several counties -- including Orange and Los Angeles -- have agreements or plan to seek accords with the federal government to check suspects’ immigration status.

Officials in Costa Mesa said they would only check the status of people arrested on suspicion of felonies or criminal gang activity.

Still, the vote reverberated in the city’s Latino community, where residents worried that the measure would lead to widespread deportations or random arrests and that it runs contrary to the Costa Mesa’s past outreach efforts.

“We are very concerned. This is an opportunity for an abuse of authority,” said Costa Mesa resident Paty Madueno, a community leader for the Orange County Congregation Community Organization, an umbrella group of churches that works with residents. “This could create a lot of fear, even for me. Should I carry my papers with me all the time?”

Many of the immigrants live in Costa Mesa’s Westside, an enclave of older tract homes and apartment buildings, markets and ethnic restaurants. The 2000 census showed that 29% of the people who lived in the city of 108,000 were foreign born. Of those, 66% were from Latin America.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor said he proposed the measure because he believed federal officials do not always check suspects’ immigration status.

“The public has been demanding this. This is the very least the public expects from us,” said Mansoor, who is also an Orange County sheriff’s deputy. “The federal government has certainly dropped the ball.... This will improve the safety of the community.”

City officials estimate they could begin questioning suspects about immigration status within the next year. The City Council would review the plan one year after its implementation. The cost of the project is not yet known.

Lori Haley, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said no other city has such an agreement with her agency.

Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, as well as counties in Florida, Alabama and Arizona have signed memorandums of understanding with the bureau to conduct federal immigration investigations.

And Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona is planning to have his deputies begin questioning felony suspects in January about immigration status.

Carona has spent a year talking with community groups, explaining how he intends to train his officers to do checks.

Costa Mesa plans to ask the county Board of Supervisors to include the city’s police officers in the county’s application to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the training necessary to enforce immigration law.

Mansoor had proposed checking the immigration status of any suspect, but Councilman Gary Monahan suggested he settle for having police focus solely on hard-core criminals, as Carona plans to do.

“The sheriff has put a lot of work into this,” Monahan said. “Our gang officers and sheriff’s officers do a lot of work together. It makes sense to me that we be on the same page with the same authority.

But some Latino residents said the city risks alienating immigrants, some of whom already are suspicious and fearful because police in their native countries are sometimes abusive or corrupt.

Monahan said the tight focus on serious criminals should allay fears among immigrants, and even increase their support of the Police Department, which would help drive criminals from their neighborhoods.

At the Westside’s El Metate Market, named after the stone instrument once used to flatten tortilla dough, shoppers had learned about the vote on Spanish-language television.

Hilda Quinones, 37, a mother of four, said she has legal immigration status but is still afraid. She could be confused with an undocumented immigrant, she worries.

“It’s unfair to people who live in this city,” she said. “This situation exists everywhere. Why pick on the undocumented immigrants here?”

Other shoppers agreed.

“We have been made to feel very afraid by what’s going on,” said Ignacia Estrada, who came to the store with her adult daughter. “In my neighborhood, there’s talk about not opening the door to police. What’s the point? The police aren’t on our side.”