Bases Plea for Lawsuit on Disputed Figures : Golding Wants U.S. to Pick Up Alien Tab

Supervisor Susan Golding proposed Monday that San Diego County sue the U.S. government to recover millions of dollars spent by the county to arrest illegal aliens and provide social services for them.

Golding said she will ask for the board’s approval for the lawsuit today.

To show the financial impact that illegal aliens have on county government, Golding presented a dizzying array of figures, although some of them were later disputed. She said she had discussed the idea of such a lawsuit with county officials in Arizona, Texas and Florida, who are also beset by problems brought on by illegal aliens and may join San Diego County in suing the federal government.

She said it is appropriate to sue the U.S. government because enforcement of immigration laws is a federal responsibility, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service should be doing more to stop the flow of “uninvited visitors” to the county.

According to Golding, county taxpayers are “footing the bill for a national problem.” She claimed that “roads are going unfixed, sewers are overflowing” and community programs are being cut because county money is being spent to halt crime committed by aliens and to provide social services for their families.

In an attempt to dramatize the costs, Golding waved an “invoice” for $23 million allegedly representing funds paid by the county because of illegal aliens during the past five years. She said the $23 million, which includes jail, health care and court costs, represents identifiable costs only and charged that the true cost could total $100 million.

Some of the statistics Golding offered were later questioned by law enforcement agencies.

For example, Golding said the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department estimated that 61.5% of all the rapes in the county are committed by aliens. But sheriff’s spokesman John Tenwolde said that Golding took that and other figures out of context. Tenwolde said the department gave Golding some crime figures in March, but the rape statistic she quoted applied only to the sheriff’s substations in Fallbrook and Vista, and were accumulated during the fiscal year 1984-1985.

“Those figures should’ve been qualified,” Tenwolde said. “In fiscal year 1984 and 1985 there were 13 rape arrests in those two substations and of these 13 arrests, eight were illegal aliens. That accounts for 61.5%.”

The sheriff’s spokesman said the other figures quoted by Golding and attributed to the department should also have been qualified. Golding said that 34% of the car thefts and 25% of the burglaries in the county are committed by illegal aliens. But Tenwolde said those figures also apply only to Fallbrook and Vista, where a large concentration of undocumented aliens work on North County farms.

Golding later admitted that she used the figures inaccurately. “My staff made a mistake, but it’s hardly the point I’m making,” she said. “My message is not who commits crime. My message is what the cost is.”

In a prepared statement passed out to reporters, Golding said the Sheriff’s Department and the San Diego Police Department arrested 12,000 illegal aliens for criminal offenses in 1985. She said that it costs as much as $10,000 to prosecute a “low grade” felony and said that, if all 12,000 aliens arrested went to trial, it would cost taxpayers $60 million. She said the current combined annual budget for the county district attorney, municipal and superior courts totals about $51 million.

Many criminal cases, including those involving U.S. citizens, are routinely settled in plea bargains reached before trial.

Golding claimed that Escondido police spend 50% of their time on illegal aliens. But a police spokesman said that while undocumented aliens account for a significant percentage of Escondido’s crime problem, only 13% of the people arrested in that city in 1985 were aliens.

Responding to questions about the statistics, Golding said, “They are not my figures. . . . I will not defend all figures. . . . It may be more. It may be less.”

Golding painted a gloomy picture of what she said could happen if the federal government does not step up its enforcement of immigration laws and if federal funds used to pay for health and social services are cut.

“In the final analysis, non-citizens are taking a greater and greater percentage of the amount that is allocated, and citizens are getting less,” Golding said.

However, she said that she does not know how many aliens are currently benefiting from county services. Golding acknowledged that the possibility of successfully suing the federal government is slim, but she vowed to press forward anyway.

“By billing the federal government, and suing them, maybe we can get the attention of Congress, and get some sort of relief from this massive invasion,” Golding said.

Golding’s colleagues on the board said they have not seen her proposal. Board Chairman George Bailey said he favors sending a bill to the federal government “but I don’t think we’ll get anywhere with a lawsuit.” Bailey said both El Paso, Tex., and Los Angeles have billed the government for services provided to aliens, but those claims were rejected.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray said the proposed suit would have to be discussed and studied carefully.

“We have to document direct and indirect expenses,” Bilbray said. “We can’t act emotionally when making a decision. . . . You can’t go after it with a shotgun approach. You have to be very selective so you don’t end up hurting innocent people.”

Supervisor Paul Eckert said he favors the suit because “this issue needs to be addressed.” Eckert complained that the county’s congressional delegation is “just not doing its job and working for a solution to the illegal alien problem.”

In proposing the suit, Golding rejected three county studies that have been done in recent years that show illegal aliens paying more in taxes than they get in local services. She said that the studies no longer provide an accurate picture of what is happening because of a sharp increase in the number of aliens living in the county. But Golding admitted that she has no idea how many undocumented aliens live in San Diego County.

In addition to Golding’s proposed suit, the county counsel is drafting two suits against the state to force it to give San Diego County a larger share of tax funds used to provide social services.