INS Increases Orange County Bus Boardings

Orange County transportation officials have complained to federal authorities about the way immigration agents are randomly boarding public transit buses to question passengers about their citizenship.

For more than a year, the U.S. Border Patrol has been inspecting northbound buses, primarily in south Orange County, to request immigration papers from riders they suspect have entered the country illegally.

But the inspections have increased in recent weeks. And last week, agents boarded a bus in Santa Ana without alerting the Orange County Transportation Authority, prompting the transit agency’s chief executive officer, Stan Oftelie, to write the Border Patrol on Dec. 2.

Oftelie said that while the practice may be legal, he is concerned about “the safety of OCTA passengers, bus drivers and the motoring public with which we share the roadways.”

On Thursday, OCTA administrator Monte Ward explained that “people might try to exit the bus through the back doors, or while it’s in traffic, or there might be an altercation on the bus.”

Ward said that agents had promised to notify OCTA officials before boarding county buses north of the Laguna Hills transportation center, a common stopping place for illegal immigrants.

Agent Charles Geer, who supervises the Border Patrol’s San Clemente checkpoint, said agents had no time to notify transportation officials before last week’s boarding. “My people were there, they felt there were some aliens in that area and that’s where they went.”

Geer added that notification is done “out of courtesy.”

Transit officials said the boardings have not led to any mishaps so far. But Border Patrol chases have resulted in a number of deaths and injuries to both suspected illegal immigrants and innocent bystanders. A Border Patrol pursuit in Temecula last year ended tragically when a driver of a van fleeing agents sped through a red light and crashed in front of a high school, killing six people.

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Some lawyers and immigrants’ rights activists decry the boarding practice on other grounds.

“The enforcement of immigration law means that it’s going to be at the expense of civil liberties,” said John Palacio of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Santa Ana. “These Gestapo tactics are going to happen.”

Harry Simon, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, said that demanding identification constitutes unlawful search and seizure, unless people consent to provide the information.

“If someone seems extremely nervous, that could be cause to believe a person’s here illegally,” Simon said, and agents could take the person into custody. “But I’m not sure that should be enough.”

Geer noted that his agents have the “statutory authority” to board public transportation vehicles and they regularly inspect Amtrak trains as well as OCTA buses.

In the past six weeks, the Border Patrol has boarded eight to 10 buses at Orange County stops, OCTA spokeswoman Elaine Beno said.

Officers usually ask certain riders for their legal papers, explained Border Patrol spokesman Steve Kean. “They look for the telltale signs of illegal immigrants. . . . Usually it’s based on the person’s overall presence, their reaction to uniformed officers on the bus . . . dirt around the bottom of the pants typical to the border region.”

Controversy over the Border Patrol’s practice dates back at least to 1986. Harold Ezell, at that time western regional commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, assured the transit officials that agents would not randomly stop the buses, but only search them in “hot pursuit” of suspected illegal immigrants.

The inspections were infrequent until about a year ago. At that time, transit officials met with Border Patrol representatives to discuss safety concerns. Agents assured OCTA officials that they would take precautions--no buses would be stopped in the middle of the street, for example.

In the most recent searches, two Border Patrol agents detained two suspected illegal immigrants Tuesday on OCTA bus line 91 when the vehicle stopped at El Toro Road and Paseo de Valencia in Laguna Hills, Beno said. The line runs from San Clemente to Laguna Hills.

The week before, agents boarded an OCTA bus at Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue in Santa Ana, across from South Coast Plaza. It was that search that prompted OCTA chief Oftelie to send his letter to the Border Patrol.

Some bus passengers on Thursday expressed concerns about potential hazards.

“If people run across busy highways to get here, you’d expect them to climb out the windows to get away from officers,” said Kevin Snider, a Saddleback College student.

Border Patrol agents appear regularly at the Laguna Hills transit center, according to some passengers who often ride the buses.

“Last week, (an INS) van came up and the officers took two guys,” one bus passenger said as he waited to catch a bus. Agents didn’t get on a bus, but questioned people in the center, he said. “I ran the other direction,” he said.

The passenger said he was an assistant restaurant manager who has been in this country for six years without a green card. He said the INS practice is a waste of time. “If they take you back, with a little imagination we can come back the next day.”

Gary Reder, a driver on the Laguna Hills-to-Santa Ana bus line, said he thinks that most drivers don’t mind the agents coming on board, and he does not feel it’s particularly dangerous.

“It’s effective in reducing ridership, though,” said Reder, 46, as he drove through Tustin on Thursday. “For Hispanic people that are here illegally, it’s probably their worst nightmare.”

Officials said that checking bus passengers is not an everyday occurrence, but rather something the Border Patrol does when it has more than enough agents to staff the San Clemente checkpoint.

OCTA’s Beno said that in addition to lines 57 and 91, agents have boarded route 75, between Santa Ana and Laguna Hills; route 85, between Santa Ana and Dana Point; and route 89, between Newport Beach and Laguna Hills.

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The bus checks are “a concern overall, and since they’re now going out of this (South County area) we’re wondering why,” he said.

Border Patrol officials said complaints from citizens who see people they believe to be illegal immigrants on certain bus lines lead agents to board those buses.

If agents find a suspected illegal immigrant, they question the person sitting in the next seat regardless of their appearance because “typically they travel together--or very, very far apart,” Kean said.

Suspected illegal immigrants who say they are permanent residents must by law produce their green cards to immigration officials. If they maintain they are citizens, they are free to deny agents their documents.

But agents then question suspects about their life in this country--such as when they graduated from school and where they live--and shaky answers can be enough for officers to detain people, Kean said.

Ron Rogers, spokesman for the INS in Laguna Niguel, said agents “could probably take 100 people from Santa Ana, and let’s say five of them are illegal, and I bet that Border Patrol agents, through their experience, could pick out those five.”