Border Patrol Irked by Police, Transit Policy on Aliens

The San Diego area’s top immigration officer lashed out Friday at local law-enforcement and transit officials for shying away from helping his agency identify illegal aliens, including those that use public transportation.

Alan Eliason, chief Border Patrol agent in San Diego, said the officials were adopting a “head-in-the-sand attitude” about the influx of illegal aliens, and added that he will withdraw the patrol’s special unit of 15 to 20 immigration officers from the city.

Eliason said the unit was created several months ago to check local bus routes that police and citizens had complained served “marauding bands of illegal aliens who are responsible for burglary, auto theft and break-ins.”

“We’re under invasion,” Eliason said in a prepared statement. “I think there’s a crime problem involving a small but growing number of illegal aliens. Some citizens of the community have been bombarding us with complaints on the issue. The position of the city seems to be otherwise.”

Eliason’s statement came one day after San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender, under pressure from civil rights groups, decided that his department would no longer monitor suspected illegal aliens by checking a box labeled “undocumented person” on a standard arrest form. Police said they checked the box to help county officials compile statistics on aliens.

Kolender also said the Police Department was considering whether to drop the practice of detaining suspected illegal aliens who are stopped in connection with crimes--some as minor as jaywalking--for 20 minutes so Border Patrol officials could pick them up. Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen has said a final decision is expected next week and could prove to be a “major shift” away from helping immigration officials.

Eliason on Friday also criticized a July 28 order from Roger Snoble, general manager of San Diego Transit, which instructed city bus drivers not to inform the Border Patrol of suspected undocumented passengers. Although they were discouraged by management from doing so, some drivers had been contacting the Border Patrol if they suspected there were aliens among their passengers.

Snoble said Friday that bus drivers were not trained to spot illegal aliens and that incorrect referrals to the Border Patrol had forced the interrogation of some legal residents.

“We are not a law-enforcement agency,” Snoble said, adding that drivers would continue to allow the Border Patrol’s daily bus searches.

The two recent actions cut back on crucial information city police, bus drivers and citizens provide about the whereabouts of undocumented aliens, Eliason said Friday.

“It seems to me to be a movement by the city just to ignore the situation,” Eliason said. “It seems to be taking a step back and saying, ‘We’re not providing any information.’ ”

But Assistant Chief Burgreen said Friday, “Our head is not in the sand.”

“We know that a large percentage of our burglaries are being committed by aliens. . . . We are aware of the problem and the magnitude, but we have to decide what is our job and what isn’t,” Burgreen said.

In not detaining suspected illegal aliens, Burgreen said, the department “will have more time to concentrate on the serious offenders. We’re doing our part as our citizens want us to. They want us to concentrate on enforcement of state and municipal law.”

The issue of local law enforcement’s role in immigration matters was rekindled this week when several civil rights groups voiced objections to a Kolender memo issued late last month that reaffirmed the police practice of filling in, if appropriate, the box labeled “undocumented person” during an arrest.

Police checked the box if the suspect did not speak English, had no U.S. address or admitted under questioning to being in the country illegally.

But the American Civil Liberties Union, the Committee on Chicano Rights and the Harborview Community Council complained that the police had no authority or training to identify suspected illegal aliens. They charged that bad guesses would exaggerate the amount of crime committed by illegal aliens and fuel a “vendetta” against Latinos.

The complaints prompted Kolender to rescind his order.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, however, will continue to mark the box on its arrest form as a guide to solving crimes, said Lt. John Tenwolde.

“As we have done in the past, we will continue to mark the ‘Undocumented Alien’ box,” Tenwolde said. “We don’t go around looking for undocumented aliens. We don’t go out and enforce immigration law. But if we think that in the course of an investigation we have a suspected alien, we are going to note that on the arrest report.

“But that has no effect on these individuals. It’s for statistics-gathering, nothing more.”

Community groups said they would continue to press the Sheriff’s Department--and all other law-enforcement groups using the form--to discontinue the practice.

“I think it’s fine that Chief Kolender withdrew the memo,” said Al Ducheny, Harborview chairman, “but the underlying problem still exists.”

Eliason said his agency needs all the cooperation it can get from police and transit officials.

“We need a flow of information,” he said. “We will do the best we can to stop the onslaught at the border, but those who get past us and into the city will be free to do their own thing.

“We have never asked local officials to do our job for us. We have asked for cooperation and assistance in reporting the presence or movement of suspected illegal aliens.”