Support Sought for Anaheim Jail Screening

Anaheim officials are seeking national support to continue a city jail program that identifies arrestees who are in this country illegally.

Under the immigration bill signed by President Clinton last year, a six-month pilot program began Nov. 1 to station Immigration and Naturalization Service agents at the jail to screen for illegal immigrants. The program ends April 30, but city officials want to extend it.

Councilman Bob Zemel, who has led the city’s efforts to set up the program, said the National Governors Assn. has expressed support for Department of Justice funding for programs similar to Anaheim’s.

“Fifty governors agree that this is a good program,” Zemel said. “I only hope that the decision-makers at the INS take notice.”

Zemel said the city is also seeking support from Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), whose district includes part of the city. Anaheim already has support from Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and has sent information to other members of Congress on the status of the program.

Kristine Thalman, the city’s intergovernmental relations officer, said the governors association’s support should have a positive effect on the city’s efforts to keep the INS program.

“It raises the level of consciousness on the issue,” Thalman said. “It just validates that the city is going in the right direction.”

“Having every governor in the country saying this is a good policy . . . expands the support to a national scope,” she said.

From Nov. 1 to Feb. 28, the Anaheim program has resulted in the INS identifying 344 criminal illegal immigrants, Thalman said. That represented 17.3% of the total arrestees interviewed by the INS, she said.

Identifying arrestees before they are arraigned means that hundreds of illegal criminal immigrants are placed directly in deportation proceedings, she said, rather than the overburdened criminal justice system.