O.C. supervisors agree to expand immigrant detention in county jails

Orange County supervisors, during a highly emotional meeting, voted to expand the county’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), allowing Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to hold an additional 120 federal immigration detainees at a time in county jails.

The unanimous decision came after more than three dozen public commenters spoke against the expansion.

Members of the audience responded to Tuesday’s decision by shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at the five supervisors. Chairwoman Michelle Steel ordered security officers to clear the meeting room.

Reporters and a news photographer attempting to document the removal of activists were also ordered to leave and threatened with arrest, before an official eventually intervened to allow the journalists to stay, a change from the county’s previous approach to news coverage of incidents inside the meeting room.

In requesting the ICE contract expansion, Hutchens said it would bring an additional $5 million in revenue to the county without requiring more staff.

“In my opinion it is far more humane” to keep people detained in Orange County than far-away detention centers in Adelanto or Bakersfield, said Supervisor Shawn Nelson.

During nearly two hours of public comments before the supervisors voted, 37 speakers urged the board to not expand the ICE contract, and nearly all called for ending immigrant detention in county jails altogether. No public speakers supported expanding the contract, or keeping it in place.

“Shame on us for seeking financial gain by putting innocent men” and women behind bars, said the Rev. Kent Doss, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Mission Viejo.

“Surely, we must know that seeing human beings as commodities” is wrong “and we will be judged,” he said, prompting loud applause from audience members.

Among other things, speakers said the expansion would make it easier for ICE to split parents who don’t have a criminal record from their U.S.-citizen children. An undocumented Garden Grove father, who has lived in the U.S. since 1998 with no criminal record, was detained by ICE on Monday, according to the Orange County Register.

Speakers also said the Sheriff’s Department’s cooperation with ICE will make crime victims even more fearful of talking to local law enforcement for fear they or their families would be deported.

“People are not gonna have faith” in police any more and crime victims won’t come forward, said Irvine resident Felicity Figueroa.

The commenters also pointed to a March audit report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, which found ICE detainees at the county’s Theo Lacy jail were served rotten lunch meat, forced to use moldy showers and separated into solitary confinement in violation of ICE standards.

Among the groups advocating against the ICE expansion were the faith-based Orange County Congregation Community Organization and Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, as well as the LGBT Center OC, Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

When it came time for supervisors to discuss the proposal and vote, Nelson was the only supervisor who commented.

He said the topic is “extremely sensitive” and “extremely emotional for a lot of people. We get that.”

But, he said, the county has no say in ICE’s decisions to arrest people.

“These people are already detained,” said Nelson, who disputed the notion that expanding the contract will make it easier for ICE to detain more people.

“If we did not agree to allow already-detained people” to remain in O.C., he said, the detainees would be held hours away in Adelanto, in the desert north of Victorville, or somewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border. His comments at one point elicited loud groans from audience members.

Hutchens also responded to the concerns about jail conditions, saying of the inspector general’s audit: “We have addressed all of their concerns.”

“The [audit’s] statement about the food was incorrect,” she added. “The food was fine” but the department made changes the auditors requested and it’s “all been dealt with.”

Hutchens’ proposal increases the maximum capacity for ICE detainees in the county’s jails from 838 to 958. There were 761 immigration detainees in county jails as of Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s spokesman, Lt. Lane Lagaret.

When the item passed, dozens of audience members became furious. They started shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at supervisors, their voices rising in intensity each time they chanted.

Steel tried moving on to a different agenda item, but was met with push back from audience members who shouted at her. She then declared a recess and ordered the room cleared by sheriff’s officers.

Almost all of the audience members left the room, but Venezuelan immigrant Maria Ruiz-Merroth, overcome with emotion, sat crying in the front row for several minutes. She was comforted by another woman who had spoken at the meeting, and neither left their seats as officers told them to go.

Sheriff’s special officers, who provide security at the meetings, also ordered Voice of OC and Orange County Register reporters, who remained in the room to witness the activists’ removal, to leave.

“I really don’t want to take you guys to jail,” said one of the officers.

As a Voice of OC reporter asserted a right to document their actions, the officers continued to insist the reporters leave.

It was the second incident in a month in which a reporter was threatened with arrest for attempting to remain in the board room to film the removal of activists.

Eventually, county spokeswoman Carrie Braun intervened to say credentialed media would be allowed to stay in the back of the room, and the reporters were allowed to witness what happened.

That was a change in the county’s approach, which previously required news reporters to leave or face possible arrest, meaning they couldn’t document how officers handled activists who remained.

After the room cleared out, Hutchens disputed that the expansion of ICE detention would make crime victims more fearful of police, saying her deputies do not enforce immigration law.

Activists disagreed, and said they would continue to pressure officials to end ICE detention in local jails.

This story was reported by Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, as part of a publishing agreement with TimesOC. Nick Gerda covers county government and Santa Ana for Voice of OC. You can contact him at ngerda@voiceofoc.org.