Numbers of Deportable Inmates Up : Immigrants: County jail survey is part of Clinton’s pilot program to expel criminals. Officials blame the increase--from 11% to almost 17% over five years--on illegal border-crossing.

Busted for possession of $5 worth of rock cocaine, Juan Manuel Cardenas figured he’d serve a month in jail and soon be reunited with his wife and seven children and back at his job at a Long Beach body shop. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Cardenas did his 30 days in L.A. County Jail all right. But the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service quickly arrested him and moved to deport him to his native Mexico--even though Cardenas is a legal U.S. resident who left his homeland as a child almost 30 years ago.

“This is unjust,” a distraught Cardenas declared during an interview at the INS lockup in Downtown Los Angeles.

It is quite just--and legal--federal officials say.

Cardenas is among the County Jail inmates targeted for deportation in a much-publicized crackdown launched personally by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. The one-month pilot program is a centerpiece of the Clinton Administration’s vow to expel “criminal aliens” swiftly, amid criticism from California and elsewhere that federal authorities are slow to deport foreign offenders--allowing lawbreakers to return to the streets after serving their time rather than expelling them upon release.

The results of the test are now in, and authorities cite a significant finding: The proportion of County Jail inmates subject to deportation has risen sharply--from about 11% to almost 17%--since the last such survey five years ago.

The reason? Officials cite continued illegal immigration, especially from Mexico.

“We’re definitely seeing more deportable aliens this time around,” said John Brechtel, INS assistant district director for investigations in Los Angeles.

Overall, the study found, immigrants now account for 27.5% of all jail inmates--up from 18.7% in 1990.

But the data also indicates that, contrary to stereotype, immigrants are underrepresented among the jail population. Census data from 1990 showed that the foreign-born accounted for 32.6%--almost one-third--of the county population of 8.9 million. That percentage may have increased in the past five years of high immigration.

The disproportionately smaller number of immigrants among the jail population is “absolutely phenomenal,” said David Hayes-Bautista, a medical sociologist at UCLA. It is so, Hayes-Bautista noted, despite the reality that immigrants tend to be younger, poorer, less educated and live in more crime-prone neighborhoods--all factors associated with criminality--than U.S. natives.

Another finding: Illegal immigrants--mostly border jumpers and visa-violators--represent about 15% of the prison population. That is slightly lower than the 16%-to-20% figure cited by Sheriff Sherman Block, who has bemoaned the millions of dollars it costs taxpayers annually to house illegal immigrants.

Another 2% or so of prisoners fit into Cardenas’ category: legal residents whose crimes subject them to possible deportation.

Federal law renders most non-citizen drug offenders deportable, even those, like Cardenas, convicted for possession of relatively small quantities. Drug convictions underlie almost half of all jail deportation cases. Crimes of violence and other convictions deemed offenses of “moral turpitude” may also subject legal immigrants to deportation.

The jail program has been a “tremendous success,” concluded the INS’s Brechtel, who said it would extend for at least three months starting in the middle of July. That means shifting some staffing from other areas, Brechtel conceded, including investigations of employers who violate immigration laws.

L.A. County jails are widely presumed to house the largest illegal immigrant population of any local jail nationwide. The County Jail system, with a daily census of about 19,000, holds defendants awaiting disposition of cases and convicted criminals serving sentences of one year or less.

Between June 1 and June 30, INS agents were posted around-the-clock at the jail in Downtown Los Angeles, where all male county inmates are processed before release. The system is still not foolproof: Agents may miss some inmates who falsely claim to be U.S.-born since they only interview prisoners who indicate being born abroad. Officials also acknowledge losing track of some deportable immigrants released pending court dates.

During the one-month program, agents encountered 2,416 “deportable aliens” among the 14,466 inmates slated for release. More than 80% of the deportable prisoners are from Mexico, but the list included nationals of 25 countries, as near as Canada and as far as Ukraine and the Philippines.

Of those identified, 1,504 were arrested--triple the usual monthly number--and processed for expulsion; the rest were released pending adjudication of state charges or headed for state prison. The records of deportable inmates bound for state prison are red-flagged so that the offenders will be deported once their terms are over. U.S. authorities now have holds on about 16,000 California prison inmates--more than 12% of the state prison population.

Many of those slated for deportation at the jail were expelled within 24 hours as part of an expedited process. Nationwide, the Clinton Administration is attempting to streamline procedures with an eye toward speeding such deportations.

Civil libertarians have expressed alarm that immigrants’ rights to hearings and legal representation may be lost in a frenzy of deportations.

“Our concern is that due process be respected,” said Charles Wheeler, directing attorney for the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles.

Five inmates who were targeted for deportation last month told reporters they would never have entered guilty pleas had they known their action could land them back in Mexico. All five had served short sentences for possession or sale of small amounts of cocaine.

Their comments indicate a potential future problem: Once word gets out on the street about the likelihood of deportation, many arrestees may opt to go to trial rather than enter guilty pleas, increasing the burden on an already over-taxed criminal justice system.

All five inmates also said they would come back across the border if expelled--despite the risks of federal prosecution if captured. Entering the United States illegally after being deported may subject offenders to potential prison terms of five years or more.

“Maybe in a certain way what they’re doing to me is just: I certainly don’t want someone selling drugs to my children,” said Hugo Ibarra Garcia, a 25-year-old father of two U.S.-born daughters. He said he served 55 days at the jail for selling cocaine to an undercover policeman.

“But, at the same time,” he added, “I can’t just stay in Mexico and leave my wife and my children alone here to care for themselves.”

He was deported the following day.