INS Resists Request to Crosscheck O.C. Voters

Secretary of State Bill Jones’ request that federal authorities check the Orange County voter file for noncitizens is drawing continued resistance from U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials, who had originally indicated they would comply.

“We have a lot of concerns” about doing the computer comparison requested by the secretary of state, said INS chief spokesman Eric Andrus in Washington on Friday.

Andrus said the review raised “important issues about privacy, confidentiality and discrimination” that are being assessed by officials at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.

It is “indeterminate” how long that assessment will take, he said.

Andrus raised similar concerns more than a month ago when Jones first made the request to Richard K. Rogers, Los Angeles district director of the INS. At the time, Rogers said the request was valid and both officials agreed it would be handled in the Los Angeles district office.

But in the past few weeks, federal immigration officials have been reluctant to make their records available in a related case.

For example, the INS has twice refused to comply with subpoenas from former Rep. Robert K. Dornan seeking access to its records to identify noncitizen voters. Dornan is challenging the election victory of his opponent, Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), saying he lost his seat to voter fraud. A congressional task force will weigh his arguments during a hearing in Santa Ana today.

Although the INS already has assisted Jones and the Orange County district attorney’s office in checking citizenship records against 1,160 people registered by Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Latino rights organization, they did so because those agencies were conducting a criminal investigation.

Jones found that in the 46th Congressional District, 490 people unlawfully registered on cards issued by Hermandad before becoming citizens and 303 of these people “unlawfully voted.” Countywide, he said, 721 apparently had not completed the citizenship process before they registered and 442 unlawfully voted.

Jones said that those significant numbers have given him “probable cause” to seek INS assistance in checking the citizenship of 1.3 million voters countywide.

But, Andrus said, the sweeping request made by Jones may be outside the “law enforcement exemption.”

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In addition to examining the “technical possibility of the data match,” INS spokesman Andrus said the agency must protect the privacy rights of those involved.

Exceptions to the privacy guarantees are made for government agencies engaged in “criminal or civil law enforcement activity,” according to U.S. law, and also for Congress or its committees.

Jones has argued that he is entitled to the information because, as the state’s chief elections officer, he is charged under statute and the state constitution with “ensuring the integrity of all aspects of the election process in California.”

Jones, a Republican, will strongly press the need for INS to do the review and share its results when he testifies today in Santa Ana at the congressional hearing looking into Dornan’s electoral challenge.

Latino and Democratic leaders have criticized Jones’ request for the computer review, saying it is overly broad, would invade people’s privacy and is designed to assist Dornan’s case. They have also said information gleaned from INS databases would be suspect because INS record keeping is notoriously poor.

Sanchez attorney Fred Woocher said “it’s about time” INS put a stop to this. Woocher said his review of the INS report on Hermandad registrants found numerous errors, including many people who are naturalized citizens for whom the INS says it has no records.

Dornan and Jones both will present witnesses today to testify about the quality of the INS database and how it can be compared to the Orange County voter file.

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In his prepared testimony to be given to the congressional committee, Jones wrote that he has “undertaken a colorblind, neutral and nonpartisan examination” of the voter registration file in the county. He said the congressional task force should “not be misled by” people who call it “a purely partisan issue” or attempt to “trivialize . . . elections fraud.”

Part of Dornan’s presentation today will be geared to persuade the panel’s two Republicans and one Democrat that he needs the INS records to determine if the “election was stolen by noncitizen voters,” as he has alleged.

This week, the House Oversight Committee, in charge of the task force, ruled that Dornan must make “a further showing of the relevance and necessity” of the INS request before it would consider enforcing the subpoenas.

Even if the panel decides it must have the INS information to settle the election dispute, getting it would still be difficult. To enforce the subpoena, the committee would need the agreement of the entire House, where Republicans barely outnumber Democrats 222 to 204.

Steve Jost, chief of staff to Sanchez, doesn’t think that will happen.

“There are a few wobblers” among the Republicans, he said. “The common-sense Republicans . . . are going to think long and hard before enforcing a Bob Dornan, wild-goose-chase subpoena.”