INS Agents to Return for 6-Month Program at Jail

Immigration and Naturalization Service agents will return to Anaheim City Jail on Wednesday for a six-month campaign to identify criminal illegal immigrants, INS officials said Friday.

“We have successfully got an INS agent back in the Anaheim jail,” Councilman Bob Zemel said. “Anaheim wins a big battle today in fighting street crime. We have fought for a year for this day. It literally took an action of Congress to accomplish this.”

The program is a result of the immigration bill signed earlier this month by President Clinton. It makes Anaheim the only city in the nation to have INS agents placed at its jail to screen inmates for citizenship.

In March, at the urging of Anaheim officials, the INS placed agents at the jail on a trial basis. They were pulled out in late June after officials said that only 24% of those arrested were illegal immigrants, and most of those were being held on only minor offenses.

The agents’ removal prompted city officials to push for the legislation.

After a tour of the jail Friday morning, Zemel, who spearheaded the city’s effort, and Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who also supports the program, announced the start date for resumption of the program.

John Brechtel, acting officer in charge of the INS Orange County office, said an agent will be assigned to the Anaheim jail on a daily basis.

“We will provide complete coverage,” Brechtel said. “We’re going to try and pick up where we left off in June.”

Brechtel also said that the INS will bolster its efforts across Orange County to identify and deport criminal illegal immigrants. That will include expanding its program at Orange County Jail to 24-hour, seven-day-a-week coverage.