Orange Won’t Give on Aliens Roundup

Orange city officials Friday denied that they are backing down from their policy of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants and vowed that the crackdown would continue indefinitely “until the problem goes away.”

The tough stand by the city--outlined in remarks by Bruce Praet, a former assistant city attorney who is representing the city in this case, and Orange police spokesman Timm Browne--seemed to contradict Mayor Jess F. Perez’s Thursday statements that he would not support “an ongoing, uninterrupted enforcement activity like we have now.”

But Friday, both Praet and Browne complained that Perez’s comments had been taken out of context. They said the mayor, who could not be reached for comment Friday, fully supports the police action that has drawn fire from immigrant-rights groups and civil libertarians.

‘High Enforcement Profile’

“I think the mayor was a little disappointed in the manner in which it was reported,” Praet said. “That is not his posture, and the Police Department has plans to continue its high enforcement profile.”

Browne added that that city officials stood united in their belief that the policy is constitutional and sorely needed to fight an increase in crime along East Chapman Avenue, an area where hundreds of undocumented aliens gather on mornings looking for day jobs.

“I will assure you that the policy will not change,” Browne said. “It is planned to go indefinitely. What the mayor said was that we could not indefinitely commit manpower to this issue because of financial and budgetary restraints. He made no comments about the policy itself.

“We will continue to enforce it, but we may not do so with the manpower we have had in the past.”

For the past two weeks, Orange police have been patrolling the area around Chapman and Hewes Street and routinely stopping scores of motorists and pedestrians on misdemeanor violations such as littering, jaywalking and driving without wearing seat belts.

Turned Over to INS

If those stopped cannot provide proof of U.S. citizenship, they are turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and deported. Through Friday, 135 Mexican illegal aliens had been sent back through Tijuana.

Orange police have declined to detail the reported crime increase but have said the policy was motivated by complaints from area businessmen that crime had risen as the numbers of day laborers in the area had grown in recent months. Latino and immigrant-rights groups have denounced the policy as highly discriminatory and legally questionable, saying it was aimed at anyone with dark skin who happened to be in the area.

Responding to protests, Praet said he had scheduled a meeting with the American Civil Liberties Union and other rights groups for Thursday to discuss their complaints. Praet said he hoped to stop the ACLU from seeking a court order forcing police to stop the practice.

“As we see the law, the practice is fully constitutional,” he said, denying that “the idea is to target aliens or Hispanics. This is an effort to target crime. Hopefully, the problem won’t go on forever, so therefore the enforcement won’t go on forever.”

But Rebecca Jurado, an ACLU attorney, said she was curious about “exactly what they are trying to accomplish. It doesn’t matter how many people they have rounded up, because one is too many. We are seeing one group of people being harassed.”

If the city does not back down, Jurado said, “We would have little choice but to go to litigation.”

Other rights groups, meanwhile, were on the streets early Friday advising many of the aliens of their rights.

Calls Flood Office

Robin Blackwell, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Coalition for Immigration Rights, said her office had been flooded with telephone calls from aliens whose loved ones had been arrested and deported.

“We have been getting strange stories,” she said. “People are saying I saw this, or this happened to someone. . . . Some of them have been taken to Tijuana. A lot of people out there are scared.”

In one case, Blackwell said a former Mexican schoolteacher was deported Feb. 25 and had not been heard from since.

“He has not checked in with his family back in Mexico, and the man he was living with here has not heard from him,” she said. “His friends are very worried about him. He could have been robbed or could have ended up in a ditch.

“People are very fearful. They are very fearful about calling the police themselves, and obviously they don’t want to walk into that police station and ask.”