Riot Aftermath : Scores of Suspects Arrested in Riots Turned Over to INS : Police: Immigrant advocates say action inflamed situation and violated LAPD policy.

In the midst of the city’s unrest, Los Angeles police turned over scores of foreign-born suspects to U.S. immigration authorities, who have targeted illegal immigrants among them for repatriation to their homelands, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The action--which immigrant advocates say served to inflame an already volatile situation in Latino enclaves hard hit during the disturbances--was in direct contravention of Los Angeles police policy to not turn over people to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“This was a departure from our normal policy, but this was not a normal situation,” said Lt. John Dunkin, a police spokesman.

Earlier, Dunkin had denied to a Times reporter that police had handed suspects over to immigration officials. But he later telephoned back to correct the statement and confirm that police did hand over at least 100 suspects to the Immigration Service.

Among the riot-related arrests in Los Angeles were 1,044 illegal immigrants, according to an INS official who declined to be identified. Of those, the official said, 781 remained in the County Jail as of Monday and were to be turned over to the INS once their criminal cases were disposed of, the official said. Another 263 were turned over to the service for return to their native countries, according to the official, who said he believed those 263 were turned over by Los Angeles police.

Los Angeles police could not provide a precise number, other than to say that about 80 suspects were handed over to U.S. immigration authorities on Saturday alone.

About 400 agents of the U.S. Border Patrol--an armed agency of the Immigration and Naturalization Service--were among the 1,000 federal law enforcement authorities deployed to Los Angeles in an effort to quell the disturbances. The first Border Patrol contingents arrived Friday and had left by late Monday, federal officials said.

Many Border Patrol units were deployed in the Pico Union area and other Latino immigrant neighborhoods, raising alarm among residents who have long feared la migra --as U.S. immigration officials are widely known.

“This was basically throwing gasoline onto a fire,” said Madeline Janis, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN), the nonprofit social service and legal assistance organization. “There was almost a feeling that someone was exacting vengeance against the community.”

The high-profile Border Patrol presence--some patrolled the city in their distinctive green and white vehicles while others accompanied Los Angeles police officers--raised fears that new Latino immigrants were being used as scapegoats for the violence, advocates said. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has already publicly blamed “illegal aliens” for much of the pillage.

“It’s part of a pattern we’ve seen for at least a year, where immigrants are targeted for a lot of society’s problems,” Janis said.

Authorities insisted that all apprehensions by immigration personnel were initially for looting and other riot-related offenses, and that any immigration charges were only discovered afterward.

Los Angeles police officers did not direct immigration agents to arrest undocumented immigrants, LAPD Lt. Dunkin said. “I can state unequivocally,” he said, “that we did not give them a mission to go out and round up illegal immigrants.”

According to Dunkin, suspects turned over to the INS by city police officers tended to be those for whom there was no “probable cause” of prosecution for riot-related offenses.

U.S. Justice Department officials defended the deployment of the Border Patrol agents. “At the request of California authorities, we took the necessary steps to restore law and order, which required us to use all available resources,” responded a Justice Department official in Washington, who declined to be identified.

It appears that about 10% of those arrested during the Los Angeles disturbances were illegal immigrants, the official said. An earlier, widely repeated estimate that one-third of those apprehended were undocumented was in error.

The Border Patrol detachment sent to Los Angeles came from stations throughout California and from Yuma, Ariz., said an official familiar with the assignment.