Point Reyes Light - December 21, 2000

Supe criticizes Sheriff for naming foreign-inmates to INS

By Gregory Foley

Marin Sheriff Bob Doyle has declined a request by Supervisor Steve Kinsey and several local civil rights activists to stop sending the names of foreign-born inmates at the county jail to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Citing several harmful unintended consequences of the practice on Marin’s Latino population, critics have claimed they will continue to oppose the release of information on foreign inmates, many of whom are never charged with a crime.

Sheriff Doyle’s voluntary cooperation with the INS – considered an overzealous and troubled agency by its critics – has been under the close scrutiny of county supervisors since May, when the Marin Human Rights Commission passed resolutions to condemn the controversial practice. Commissioners subsequently asked for the support of supervisors, but after several individual meetings with Doyle the supervisors have declined to take any formal position as a board.

‘Public safety’

Providing the names of foreign-born jail inmates is commonplace among sheriff’s departments throughout the state, Doyle said this week, adding that he has no plans to discontinue the program.

"I think it’s in the interest of public safety," he said. "If someone’s here illegally and they are committing crimes, I think the people of Marin support having them looked at by the INS... I’ve talked to all five supervisors, and there seems to be a majority of the board which thinks that this is my call."

While acknowledging that supervisors have no direct authority over the sheriff’s program, Kinsey has been outspoken in his criticism.

"I’ve said that this is unnecessary and that there is no requirement for the county to share information on foreign-born people," he said Monday. "Not only is it presupposing that just because someone is foreign-born they have issues with the INS, it also carries a presumption as to who is foreign born... It does hint, if not smack, of profiling."

Kinsey’s objections

Kinsey asserts that the county law-enforcement efforts should not go beyond county matters. "We don’t need to do the INS’ job," he said. "It is a very troubled agency, and this practice can be very problematic for families. For the attitudes of Marin County, residents should live by our laws, but should not be under a cloud of suspicion. We don’t need to subject people to the additional fear of INS review."

First and foremost, the supervisor said, the collaboration between Doyle and the INS promotes an atmosphere of fear and distrust between Marin’s Latinos and county law enforcement.

"There is a reluctance to report some crimes out of fear of causing someone to be considered for deportation instead of just being looked at for the crime," he said. "And in addition, you could easily have an overly harsh reaction and punishment for a minor infraction like public drunkenness."

Kinsey openly advocated that Marin treat its jail inmates in the same manner as San Francisco, where county inmates are assumed to be legal citizens regardless of their origins.

INS ‘out of control’

Tom Wilson, executive director of the Canal Community Alliance, said the Sheriff’s efforts run counter to the county’s general air of tolerance. "I’ve had enough experience to know that the INS is an agency that is out of control. They routinely trample people’s rights," he said. "If the Sheriff’s department is using the standard of being foreign-born as a level of suspicion, it is in my view using a standard that is too low."

The result may be measured in several ways. For instance, the fear instilled in undocumented residents could discourage victims of domestic violence from reporting incidents of abuse, which are typically perpetrated by a spouse, Wilson said.

"In this scenario, a woman who is the victim of domestic violence would have to consider seeing her abuser not receive any treatment and possibly be deported."

County runs B&B

Wilson also said the policy involves a conflict of interest for the county, which rents up to 25 beds in the jail to the INS for their detainees at a per-bed cost of about $90 a day. The program generates approximately $650,000 per year for the county’s general fund.

Doyle countered that the INS bed-rent arrangement involves housing only INS detainees brought in from elsewhere in the Bay Area, such as San Francisco International Airport and other ports of entry. His cooperation with the agency does not automatically create a conflict of interest, he said.

As for the INS, Doyle said, "If you get deported you have usually been convicted of a serious crime. I haven’t seen that the INS is deporting people just for being illegal."

He also noted that the Sheriff’s Department has no role in determining whether a foreign-born inmate is prosecuted or deported by the INS. "We enter the names into a computer database and then the computer automatically refers them to the INS," he explained. "We don’t have anything else to do with it after the information is entered... If the INS wants to put a hold on someone, they will usually send someone in."

43 held for feds last month

After meeting with Kinsey and Supervisor Hal Brown in November, Doyle conducted an audit of the county jail inmates whose names were released to the INS by his department.

Of 576 total inmates jailed that month, Doyle said, 176 were foreign-born individuals whose names were released to the INS. As a result of the reports, the INS subsequently placed holds on 43 undocumented individuals.

With Doyle acknowledging that his department does not track the results of the INS holds, it is uncertain as to how many arrests in Marin result in deportation. But Wilson of the Canal Community Alliance said that he believes that the INS routinely places individuals who are held from being released into deportation proceedings. "If the INS puts a hold on someone then there is a high likelihood that they will be deported," he said. "There are certainly cases in which people who have been arrested for minor offenses have been deported."

More and more deported

Indeed, INS deportations are clearly on the rise. In 1999, the agency documented 176,990 deportations, of which 62,539 were "criminal removals," while 114,631 were "non-criminal removals." The figure, which is an increase of three percent from 1998, does not include 72,000 voluntary departures and some 1.5 million voluntary border returns.

The recent increase in deportations can be attributed to the passage of two 1996 federal laws, the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which both expanded the list of offenses for which non-citizens could be detained and deported.

Wilson said the cooperation between the sheriff’s department and the INS only puts further constraints on an immigrant’s ability to stay in the country and eventually become a legal citizen. "It just makes it additionally dangerous for people who happen to be undocumented," he said.

Rebecca Porrata, a public health nurse from Inverness, said she believes that many undocumented West Marin Latinos who are law-abiding residents still lead difficult lives because of their non-citizen status.

Living in fear

"From my work the people that come here that are undocumented always live in fear, especially if they do not have a driver’s license," she said. "Many of them that have lived here for a period of time just don’t want to go back."

Kinsey said he does not plan to bring the matter before the Board of Supervisors before he steps down as president at the end of next week. However, he said he will support future efforts to get the sheriff to reconsider the policy.

"The sheriff and I are going to disagree on this," he said. "One further action we could take would be to have a public discussion and possibly agendize it, and I’ve asked Hal Brown to consider that. I just believe that we are a community that depends upon and appreciates diversity."

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