INS Raid Tactics to Be Investigated : Border Patrol: Federal officials probe allegations that agents violated Orange residents’ rights during sweep. City officials present say they saw no abuses.

A day after the biggest local immigration raid in years, federal officials Thursday ordered an inquiry into allegations that Border Patrol agents ran roughshod over the rights of local residents, as Latino activists denounced tactics used in the sweep.

Residents of Orange Park Villas contend that authorities raided their low-income, largely Latino apartment complex at daybreak Wednesday with guns drawn, kicking down doors and threatening some residents.

“We’re concerned about these allegations, and we’re looking into it,” said Duke Austin, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington. “We’ve asked (regional INS officials) to look into the circumstances and see if there’s any foundation.”

Austin added: “I don’t care if we apprehended 300 or 400 aliens--if we violated anyone’s rights, it’s not worth it.”

Charles Geer, agent in charge of the Border Patrol’s San Clemente office and organizer of the sweep, said authorities did not target the apartment complex but entered the area to pursue fleeing suspects.

“The whole thing has been exaggerated way beyond what happened,” said Geer, who called the residents’ claims “all fabricated.”

“This doesn’t worry me,” the agent added. “The allegations are being reviewed.”

Police and city officials in Orange who were present also say they saw none of the alleged abuses.

Separate raids by Border Patrol agents in Orange and El Toro on Wednesday morning netted 216 people said to be illegal immigrants. All were bused to Tijuana and turned over to Mexican immigration authorities, U.S. officials said.

The sweep was one of the largest in this area in 15 years. INS officials apprehended about 160 suspects in their only other raid in Orange this year--just three weeks ago--in response to mounting community complaints about parking, congestion and sanitation problems that some say are tied to the illegal-immigrant issue.

But while some officials hailed the sweeps Thursday as a successful and proper attack on the growing problem, officials for a prominent Latino-rights group blasted the tactics that they say were used in the raids.

Mary Ellen Martinet, an attorney for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, said officials there spent much of the day taking statements from witnesses. A press conference has been scheduled for 3 p.m. today, when Hermandad officials expect to present statements by some of the witnesses.

Martinet said her group may consider legal action against the INS, which oversees the Border Patrol, as well as against Orange, whose police supported the raids there.

“There’s evidence there was forceable entry,” Martinet said. “At some of the apartments, you could see that they had forced their way in (and used) very aggressive tactics, taking people without shoes or shirts. . . .

“Maybe with a lot of blond, blue-eyed people, I don’t think they would have used this method to take care of the overcrowding,” Martinet added. “They would have used normal procedures.”

The controversy focused on the crowded Orange Park Villas complex at 3138 E. Maple Ave., where just 25 of the suspects were actually arrested.

Geer of the Border Patrol said agents set out to round up suspected illegal dayworkers from Chapman Avenue, several blocks away from the complex. Dozens of workers often congregate along the strip to look for work.

Orange officials said city police were called earlier this week by immigration officials to help in the operation but played only a support role, limited to directing traffic during the sweeps.

But some witnesses disputed this, saying police in several cases detained suspects in the street until immigration agents arrived to seize them.

Orange police “see anyone that look like Latino, they just stop him, and the INS came right away,” said Miguel Eizenga, who owns a restaurant on the 2800 block of East Chapman Avenue and said he saw some of Wednesday’s arrests.

At about 6:30 a.m., agents began apprehending about 160 dayworkers along Chapman, officials said, but others fled to the Orange Park Villas complex, shouting: “La Migra! (Immigration) La Migra!”

Agents pursued, Geer said, which was when the trouble began, according to some residents at the 260-unit complex.

Several residents alleged in interviews with The Times that during the hectic moments of the chase, some agents entered the complex, kicking on doors, banging on windows and door frames and threatening residents in a bid to apprehend suspected illegal immigrants.

Resident Jesus Ramirez, 28, said Thursday that he was standing across the street at the moment agents entered the complex and could see only some of the action.

“They were banging on doors, and they were taking young men out of some of those apartments,” Ramirez said. “We were a little afraid.”

Resident Octillia Montill, 37, pointed to scratches on an apartment door that she said had been made by law enforcement officials.

She said she first heard pounding on the door and a male voice identifying himself as being with the city.

“I told my aunt, ‘Let’s call the police and let them know what’s happening,’ ” Montill said. “But then I saw that the police were right there, so who was going to protect us?”

She said she refused to answer the door until she saw a gun pointed toward her through the mail slot and heard a threat that authorities would shoot if she did not let them in.

When she opened the door, police and immigration agents rushed in, searched under the beds upstairs and asked where were all the men of the house, she said. Of the 12 people living in the apartment, two are men, and both had already left for work, Montill said.

The agents then left quietly, she said.

Other residents alleged that law enforcement officials broke a window at one apartment; apprehended a man and a woman from another, forcing them to leave their 2-year-old child with neighbors, and even took one woman still dressed in a bathrobe.

But even as local and federal officials began to review the allegations, some authorities reacted skeptically and said they saw no evidence of abuse.

Capt. Gene Hernandez, a patrol division commander for the Orange Police Department, said of the allegations: “From what I saw, it did not happen--it absolutely did not happen.”

Responding to the contention that authorities used drawn guns to apprehend suspects, Hernandez said: “That would be incredibly foolish. This is not a situation where it would be appropriate to have weapons drawn.”

And of the report that a window had been broken, the captain quipped: “Broken windows are not unusual in that neighborhood.”

Orange City Manager Ron Thompson, after receiving a briefing on the raids from Hernandez, said: “I’m not bothered . . . because it does not appear that we had anything (to do) with this but traffic control.”

City code enforcement officers were also on hand during the raids, but Jack McGee, the city’s director of community development, said the five employees from his department were there only by coincidence, conducting routine inspections for housing violations.

McGee maintained that despite reports from some witnesses, code enforcement officers did not help federal agents gain access to apartments.

Code enforcers may have requested entry to apartments for inspections, McGee said, but that was not in concert with the INS.

Critics remained unconvinced, however.

Martinet of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional said: “There seemed to be complicity between the city and immigration officials. This is disconcerting. If they are going in as building inspectors, then that’s what they are supposed to do--is inspect.

“They are not supposed to be asking for immigration status,” she said.

Also at issue is the question of whether Border Patrol agents needed search warrants to enter the complex.

Geer said it is generally “not worth our time” to get search warrants because most raids are conducted on the streets, rather than in residences.

He said agents entered homes Wednesday only after being given permission by the resident or in “hot pursuit” of a suspect who had run in an open door. In that case, a warrant is not needed, he said.

Geer would not say whether future raids are planned in the area, but he did note: “I like Orange because it’s a good safe operation, and the city police keep the vehicles off our backs, and it keeps things clean.”

Wednesday’s sweeps were particularly successful, he said, because he had more agents available than usual--18 in all.