Daily Pilot (CA): Police could enforce immigration law (in Costa Mesa, CA)

Published December 1, 2005

Police could enforce immigration law

Costa Mesa mayor wants city's police to be trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to apply federal rules.

By Alicia Robinson, Daily Pilot

Costa Mesa could become the first city to ask its police officers to enforce federal immigration laws if the City Council agrees to a proposal Mayor Allan Mansoor will make Tuesday.

A 1996 law allows state and local jurisdictions to enforce federal immigration laws. Under Mansoor's plan, Costa Mesa police would be trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to enforce immigration laws in the course of their normal duties.

Local police wouldn't be out doing sweeps to find illegal immigrants, said Mansoor, who works as an Orange County Sheriff's Department deputy. But when officers encounter suspected illegal immigrants during, say, a traffic stop, they could investigate and turn people over to immigration officials when warranted, he said.

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http://www.dailypilot.com/politics/story/31375p-45816c.html

In Huron County (Ohio) there are a couple of seasonal crop farms...cabbage, mostly. A large percentage of the workers are illegals. The Sheriff's Office pretty much leaves them alone unless they're involved in a crime. In the year and a half I worked there, we picked up illegals a few times and called INS. To the best of my knowledge, we were always told that INS wouldn't transport them.