Escondido, CA Provides a Model for Immigration Policy

A model that political correctness will never let spread where it's really needed, but I like what they're doing in the Northern San Diego County town:

It was just an inconvenient traffic stop on the way through town for Javier Barrera Saldivar. Police had spotted the broken tail light on his car, and he figured he'd get a fix-it ticket and be on his way. But federal immigration officers soon rolled up, wielding handcuffs and Barrera's mug shot on a cellphone.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been stationed at the Police Department of this San Diego County city since May, responding to everything from traffic stops to gang sweeps in an aggressive effort to clear the community of illegal immigrants with deportation orders or criminal records.

Barrera, 24, the records showed, was a previously deported illegal immigrant with convictions for drunk driving and possessing a false driver's license. Instead of receiving a traffic citation and being released — which is what typically would have occurred — he was arrested and placed in deportation proceedings.

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Barrera is among 303 illegal immigrants arrested and placed in deportation proceedings so far in a program dubbed Joint Effort, which allows federal agents to reach deeper into the streets for immigration scofflaws than in almost any other community in the country. Most arrests are of illegal immigrants with deportation orders and drunk-driving records, but gang members and sex and drug offenders have also been snared and deported.

Since the pair of ICE agents moved into police headquarters, the pilot program, which was recently made permanent, has been hailed by many as a welcome expansion of federal authority. ICE officials say they would consider expanding the program if other communities expressed interest.

But opponents say the presence of immigration officers on the streets of Escondido has put Latinos, who constitute slightly more than 50% of the population of 140,000, on edge.

I see only one flaw in their program:

But backers call the program a balanced approach toward changing Escondido's status as a revolving-door destination for previously deported illegal immigrants. Officers arrest only previous deportees or people with criminal records; illegal immigrants encountered on city streets who have clean records are not arrested, said Police Chief Jim Maher.

If someone is in the country illegally they're breaking the law and should be deported. Period. I don't know why they would allow illegals to stay just because they haven't been caught breaking other laws or haven't been previously deported.

I got stuck in a traffic jam in Escondido one day when they were doing a driver's license check of every car entering the city from the west. It wasn't a problem for me because I had a valid license, but 24 people had their cars impounded and got to walk home when they were found to be without a license. The city has also been very tough on renting to illegal aliens, and all of these policies are kind of intriguing given the heavy Hispanic nature of their population. The local city council members have some guts and clearly there are enough supporters of their policies to keep them in office and keep the policies going.