ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Sweep That Went Wrong

Despite earlier denials, it appears that the city of Orange not only cooperated in a controversial immigration raid last September but assisted U.S. Border Patrol agents when they followed people into their homes. The result? Agents ended up violating the Border Patrol’s own policies about entering homes.

Orange officials repeatedly have denied the city’s involvement in the raid early on the morning of Sept. 18, writing off the presence of city inspectors as a “coincidence.” But, according to two internal Immigration and Naturalization Service memos obtained through the Freedom of Information Act last week, that clearly was not the case.

Gustavo De La Vina, the San Diego-based chief of the Border Patrol’s regional sector, told his supervisors at the INS in Washington that Orange had requested the raid, helped plan it and assisted in its execution. He said when Border Patrol agents had doors slammed in their faces by people who were pursued to a nearby apartment complex, city code enforcement inspectors on several occasions stepped in to help. They knocked on some doors, identified themselves and, when they were let in, invited Border Patrol agents to follow. De La Vina said Orange police also assisted in the raid.

De La Vina denied that agents drew weapons, broke down doors or broke windows--as some residents have alleged. But he acknowledged that agents entered apartments 14 times without a search warrant and that “at least once” they violated Border Patrol policy in doing so.

Since the raid, De La Vina said, the agents involved have received training on what is--and is not--allowed during raids; none of the agents were punished.

The Border Patrol’s light response to its agents’ policy violations is troubling. But more troubling still is the apparent cover-up by the city of Orange. De La Vina’s memo raised questions about what a city’s role should be in conducting such raids. Orange should heed the lesson.

The raid was ill-conceived. It accomplished little--if anything--and may end up dragging the government into costly lawsuits.