9 Laborers Held in Costa Mesa, Later Deported : Crime: Civil rights activists criticize arrests by police near Lions Park, saying most people are not detained for minor infractions and expelled by INS.

Nine day laborers who reportedly were asking motorists for work were arrested by police and deported to Mexico on Wednesday, triggering angry responses from Latino rights activists.

Police said each of the men arrested had been warned several times previously about soliciting work on the street, a violation of a city ordinance. But critics said that police acted as federal agents when they not only arrested the men but turned them over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and that they violated the men’s civil rights.

Costa Mesa police said that 11 Latinos were detained near Lions Park, in a primarily residential area. One was cited and released after showing valid identification. A second man, a migrant worker, was released at an INS processing station in Westminster when family members arrived with his identification. The other nine were sent to Mexico within hours.

The police said they were acting on complaints from nearby residents that the men were creating a traffic hazard by approaching cars and soliciting work.

The arrests brought reaction from Latino leaders, who say they suspect the police of using city codes as a way of arresting illegal immigrants and turning them over to immigration officials for deportation.

“What they did was unlawful in my mind,” said Sal Sarmiento, a criminal lawyer and Latino activist. Sarmiento said the police should not have arrested the men for not carrying identification. “This is selective prosecution. I don’t believe they take in everyone who doesn’t have an ID.”

City Manager Allan L. Roeder said it is the policy of the city’s police force to arrest anyone who violates a city code and is not carrying identification.

“Are they acting now as agents for the INS?” queried Art Montes, president of the Santa Ana chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “I haven’t seen this practice in years, since they quit doing that in Orange.”

In 1991, the INS raided an apartment complex that it suspected was home to many illegal immigrants. Latino activists were enraged to discover that the city police, as well as code enforcement officers, were on hand to witness the pre-dawn raid.

Initially, the city of Orange denied that it had assisted the INS. But an internal INS investigation determined that code enforcement officers illegally had helped agents get inside apartments and that the agents had been briefed by the Orange police.

Latino activists have kept close watch over Orange County’s police departments since the incident in Orange, and many say they still don’t trust the motives of the police.

John Palacio, spokesman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he was puzzled by the arrests of people for what he called a minor infraction.

“It is not the role of law enforcement to determine one’s legal status,” he said. “They usually only turn people over to the INS when they have committed a serious felony--not because they were going to be given a ticket and they had no ID.”

Sarmiento agreed. “I think they just want to call the INS and get people off the street.”

Several Orange County cities, including Costa Mesa and Dana Point, have ordinances prohibiting solicitations of drivers for work. Others, such as Huntington Beach and Brea, have created job centers where day laborers may gather to prevent them from congregating at other spots in those cities.