L.A. County votes to keep ICE presence in jails

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a controversial partnership with federal immigration authorities designed to target potentially deportable immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes.

The board voted 3-0 to extend the contract after a tense hearing in which dozens of activists blamed the program for eroding trust in law enforcement among immigrant communities.

The program, known as 287(g), places federal immigration agents inside county jails and trains jail employees to investigate whether inmates convicted of certain crimes are in the country illegally. Inmates identified through the program are often turned over to federal authorities after they are released from jail.

Supervisors Gloria Molina, Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich voted to approve the agreement. Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Mark Ridley-Thomas abstained.

Yaroslavsky said he wanted to see more data on the program, saying quarterly reports produced by the Sheriff’s Department since 2010 have been “superficial.”

He held up a one-page report sent to the board in August that he said included little more than the number of interviews conducted by ICE-trained jail employees (339 during a three-month period that ended July 31).

Yaroslavsky said he would like more detail about what crimes individuals identified through the program had been convicted of.

During Tuesday’s hearing, advocates said a host of immigrants without serious criminal records have found themselves in deportation proceedings because of 287(g).

Blanca Perez, 34, told the board that she ended up in ICE custody after being arrested for illegally selling ice cream bars outside a school in Van Nuys. Perez, a Mexican immigrant who came to the country illegally, said she was transferred from an L.A. County jail facility to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Santa Ana after an L.A. County sheriff’s deputy questioned her about her immigration status.

“Please end this program,” she told the supervisors. “It separates families.”

Molina, who has been one of the staunchest supporters of 287(g), said her office would investigate the circumstances of Perez’s case. She said serious criminals, not people like Perez, are the program’s intended targets.

“We are not here picking up people who are selling lollipops,” she said. “We are trying to find a way to make L.A. County safe.”

After she and her colleagues voted to approve the contract, the board chambers erupted in jeers as immigrant advocates shouted “Molina deports!” in unison. Earlier in the meeting, about 60 advocates stood up and turned their backs to lawmakers for more than an hour in a silent protest over the contract item being heard late in the meeting.

Several advocates asked that lawmakers delay the vote until a new sheriff is elected and sworn in. Both candidates vying in the November election to replace interim Sheriff John Scott have voiced opposition to 287(g).

Across the country, state and local governments have been reconsidering their relationship with federal immigration officials. The number of law enforcement jurisdictions participating in 287(g) has decreased from 75 to 35 in recent years, according to ICE.

Many immigrant groups have criticized not only 287(g), which concerns how inmates are flagged as possibly deportable, but also the manner in which ICE takes inmates into custody after they serve their time in local jails.

Twitter: @katelinthicum