AFTER THE RIOTS: THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS : Rohrabacher Asks Bush to Expel Seized Illegal Aliens

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), locked in a tough primary election battle in Orange County, dispatched a telegram Wednesday to President Bush demanding the quick deportation of illegal immigrants arrested during last week’s riots in Los Angeles.

Rohrabacher said he was angered after learning that U.S. Atty. Gen. William P. Barr was not proposing any special effort to have foreign-born suspects deported.

“I demand that you order the attorney general to set up procedures and assign the necessary personnel to deport these illegal aliens on the fastest track possible,” Rohrabacher said in the telegram.

The move drew no immediate reaction from the White House, but sparked a firestorm of protest from Latino leaders, who have clashed repeatedly with Rohrabacher this election year as the two-term congressman seeks to make illegal immigration a major campaign issue.

Critics suggested Rohrabacher sent the telegram in an effort to draw attention to his election campaign, noting that federal laws are already in place spelling out a deportation process for illegal immigrants seized in criminal acts.

Among those arrested for riot-related acts in Los Angeles were 1,044 illegal immigrants, according to Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. Of those, 781 remained in jail as of Monday and were to be turned over to the INS once their criminal cases are disposed of. The other 263 have already been turned over to the INS for return to their native countries.

“Rohrabacher’s looking for votes,” said Zeke Hernandez, state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “He’s certainly missing the point. We have to look at rebuilding Los Angeles and the surrounding cities,” rather than playing on the resentments of the Anglo majority, he said.

John Palacio, Orange County spokesman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the congressman is “trying to use immigrants as a whipping boy to hide his lack of leadership and failures as a congressman.”

One of Rohrabacher’s opponents in the race for the 45th District seat agreed that the congressman was merely trying to win votes in the district, where Latinos make up only 7% of the electorate. The coastal district stretches from Seal Beach to Costa Mesa and part of Newport Beach.

“He’s not trying to solve a problem,” said Costa Mesa Mayor Peter Buffa, who acknowledged that he shares Rohrabacher’s concern about illegal immigration, but differs on how to solve it. “What he’s trying to do is grab some attention, to hot button it.”

Rohrabacher vaulted into the headlines last month when he called for curbs on health, education and welfare benefits permitted illegal immigrants, suggesting during one speech that “Pedro” shouldn’t expect to get a $50,000 heart bypass operation for free.

He dispatched his telegram to Bush after federal officials announced that illegal immigrants made up about 10% of the people arrested during the riots and looting that followed the verdict in the trial of four white police officers accused of using excessive force in the arrest of Rodney G. King.

“We’ve got to start making it clear we’re serious about this problem,” Rohrabacher said in Washington. “The Administration has got to take some of the lead. There is no sense in not deporting illegal aliens who are looters and rioters. We should kick them out of the country and not let them back in.”