Four-Hour Joint Operation Rounds Up 100 : Corona Officers Plan More Alien Sweeps

U.S. Border Patrol and local officials have promised to continue sweeps for illegal immigrants in this Riverside County community of 45,000 after about 100 suspected aliens were rounded up in a four-hour joint operation through this city’s streets, barrios and playgrounds Thursday.

City officials said Friday the sweeps will continue because of police contentions that the presence of illegals in Corona contributes to an upswing of crime.

Corona Police Chief John Cleghorn, citing an increase of burglaries, shoplifting and car thefts, said illegal aliens are contributing to the rising crime rate “as suspects as well as victims.”

Large Latino Population

But he and other police officials could not produce data to substantiate their belief that an increase of crime and the presence of illegal immigrants in Corona are linked.

Latinos make up about 25% of the population in this booming bedroom community for Orange County workers. It once billed itself as the lemon capital of the world.

Thursday’s sweep was similar to one conducted Jan. 28 when 74 suspected illegals were apprehended by the Border Patrol and police in Corona’s central district.

Immigration officials said Thursday’s sweep was conducted at the request of Corona police “to assist in an area inundated with illegal aliens.” Teams of Border Patrol agents and local police officers combed the central district of the city, cruising in Corona police cars and apprehending aliens after brief conversations to determine their resident status in the United States.

Many passers-by did not seem to know the sweep was in progress as Corona police cars sped up and down Railroad Street, the main artery that runs through the city’s industrial area and its poorest barrio.

Soccer Field Raided

At one point Thursday, officers interrupted a scrimmage at a soccer field and picked up half a dozen suspects, including three teen-age boys.

After the suspected aliens were captured, they were taken to Corona City Jail. Later, they were transferred to the Border Patrol office in Temecula in southern Riverside County. Border Patrol spokesman Ed Pyeatt said Friday that the aliens, all of them Mexican citizens, were taken to the border at Tijuana after they had signed voluntary-return forms.

Civil libertarians have long complained about local police departments cooperating with federal authorities in the enforcement of U.S. immigration statutes. Some cities, including Santa Ana, have instructed their police officers not to cooperate with U.S. immigration authorities.

“Local police departments have enough to do without messing in Border Patrol stuff,” said one Chicano activist, who asked that his name not be used.

Corona city officials, however, defended the use of joint sweeps, contending that Corona is becoming a magnet for illegals who travel up Interstate 15 from the Mexican border.

Wide Role Seen

“The role of the Police Department is not just the enforcement of the Corona municipal code,” said City Manager James D. Wheaton, “but also the laws of the state and the nation.”

George Ramos reported from Los Angeles and Barry Surman from Corona.