Deportation Hearings Held at Jail Under New Program : Courts: INS and L.A. county try to speed expulsion of immigrants convicted of crimes. Civil rights advocates decry the action.

One by one, handcuffed and dressed in prison blue, the young men were taken into the small hearing room in the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail. In less than 15 minutes all but one returned to their jail cells with deportation papers in hand, ready to be placed on the next bus to Mexico and Central America.

These men, all serving up to a year in County Jail, were among the first to take part in a program that brings to the jail a federal judge and agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation hearings.

Although similar programs are in place at state and federal facilities, this is one of the first to be instituted at the county level. The program started Sept. 10 in order to speed up deportations for immigrants convicted of crimes ranging from selling marijuana to dealing firearms.

INS and Los Angeles County officials said they launched institutional hearings to prevent the release of deportable criminal immigrants before the INS could schedule deportation hearings. In the past, many of those released failed to show up for their deportation hearings or returned to jail on new offenses. According to a countywide law enforcement report released in July, criminal illegal immigrants make up 11% of the County Jail population and cost Los Angeles County taxpayers more than $75 million annually.

But civil rights advocates have blasted the program as little more than an effort to scapegoat foreigners for societal problems. They argue that the speeded-up process makes it difficult for inmates to obtain counsel and makes it virtually impossible to produce evidence that might persuade a judge to decide against deportation. Moreover, the deportation orders can be applied to legal residents as well as illegal immigrants.

The hearings grew out of federal legislation. As part of its anti-drug program in 1988, Congress enacted legislation to expedite the deportation of immigrants convicted of “aggravated felony,” which at the time referred to trafficking in drugs and firearms and crimes such as murder.

The 1990 immigration reforms expanded the list of crimes that render immigrants deportable and ordered that deportations be speeded up.

The most important result locally, said John Brechtel, INS assistant director of investigations, was the institution of deportation proceedings in County Jail. The Central Jail and a jail in Washington are the only local facilities to have launched an Institutional Hearing Program, said Brechtel, who represents the INS on the countywide committee.

Inside County Jail recently, a robed federal judge presided over the immigration court, and INS attorneys came prepared with stacks of immigration lawbooks. Because deportation is considered a civil matter, the inmates had no right to court-appointed counsel. So the primarily Latino immigrant defendants represented themselves in criminal deportation hearings--arguably among the most complicated of legal proceedings.

Presiding Judge Thomas Y.K. Fong handed each defendant a list of free and low-cost attorneys, but hardly any defendant wanted to fight.

When Fong asked David Ramirez Mora, 23, who was convicted of cocaine possession, if he wanted time to find an attorney, Mora just shook his head. “I just want to finish this today, quickly,” he said through a court interpreter.

Fong asked Luis Garcia Morales, 21, if there was any reason why he should be allowed to stay. Morales’ hands shook as the INS agent in a blue pin-stripe suit and cowboy boots passed him documents that laid out the government’s case against him. Like nearly all of the 45 inmates who had gone through the county institutional hearings, Morales, who is from Mexico, shook his head and agreed to be sent back to his home country.

Only one requested time to find an attorney. His wife had already called four lawyers from the list, he said, and found none that were affordable. Everyone else was escorted back to their cells with deportation orders.

Deportation hearings under normal conditions are much the same as those inside the jail. But immigration attorneys argued that it is easier to find a lawyer for a defendant when the person is not incarcerated. And only in criminal immigrant proceedings are permanent residents considered deportable.

Unlike illegal immigrants who can be deported whenever they encounter the INS, those who legally emigrated to this country can be deported only when they are convicted of a crime. Under the 1990 reforms, permanent residents who have lived here most of their lives can be deported for selling $10 worth of marijuana. If they admit to being foreign-born when they are booked into jail, they are automatically interviewed by INS agents and their deportation status determined. By law enforcement estimates, about 25% of criminal immigrants are legal permanent residents.

INS official Brechtel said institutional hearings will “expedite the removal of criminal aliens from the county criminal justice system,” saving INS money spent on detaining criminal immigrants after they complete their jail terms.

“Now, as soon as they are released, they will be taken to the airport or transported to the border and deported immediately.”

But immigration attorney Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law said that this fast-track approach tips the scales of justice too much, particularly against legal immigrants.

“The INS has been encouraged to move at lightning pace on people convicted of crimes who may be--not are--deportable,” he said. “The result is that people with long residence in the U.S., with families they support, with deep roots in the community and equities in this country will end up being dragged onto the stagecoach and railroaded out of town.”

Legal permanent residents may be able to prevent deportation if they can submit evidence showing they have roots in this country. But immigration rights advocates say it is nearly impossible to convince a judge that one is a good American when he is brought into the courtroom in shackles.

“The information you need to show is highly personal--letters from employers, priests, friends--and being in jail obviously adds enormous difficulties for a person to muster all of that,” Schey said.

Fong noted that almost all of the 45 inmates who were brought into his County Jail courtroom were illegal immigrants and had no such relief available. But Brechtel said the INS anticipates including permanent residents once the program is expanded.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman said there should be a difference in how permanent residents and illegal immigrants are handled.

“We could refine it in the next phase, so it would separate into categories--those who are here illegally and those who are legal residents,” Edelman said. “So you would have deportation hearings for the first category; and for legal residents, do something different . . . depending on their offense.”