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4 Street roots Oct. 11, 2013 Activists continue to find fault with sheriff’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement BY NATHAN GILLES account for it. S T A F F W R IT E R The sheriff’s policy states it will honor iguel Hernández, not his real ICE holds based on the charges at the time name, really wanted a drink and a of booking. Qualifying charges are felonies and class A person misdemeanors — these night out. What he got was a are crimes that are inflicted directly on detention from U.S. Immigration and individuals, things like child neglect and Customs Enforcement (ICE). assaulting a police officer — or when ICE The 26-year-old Mexican immigrant and presents a warrant or an affidavit. Policy part-time auto-body worker was arrested in aside, in practice the jail has honored holds early August at a downtown nightclub after if the charge was a qualifying one at the he attempted to enter with a fake ID. An time ICE made its request. Hernandez’s Oregon Liquor Control Commission officer request came after his booking but before confirmed Hernández’s ID was forged. This his arraignment. His hold stuck, and landed the long-time Portland resident with Hernandez isn’t the only person with a petty a felony booking. And because Hernández charge who has gotten caught up in ICE’s was in the country illegally, the Multnomah deportation dragnet. County Jail held him for ICE. Beginning in late 2008, the first reports If you’re in the U.S. illegally and you’re of people being deported after encounters arrested on certain qualifying charges, ICE with local law enforcement started rolling in can request local law enforcement detain from members of Portland’s immigrant you an additional 48 hours. ICE has long community and the lawyers representing claimed these detentions are intended to keep dangerous criminals off the streets and them in the courts. In December 2010, the Portland Human Rights Commission allows ICE the time it needs to deport released a study confirming these reports. them. However, in practice, nonviolent People were deported often for minor people have also been detained and offenses. The Portland Police Bureau even deported, and often for minor infractions. raised concerns that mere traffic citations Here in Multnomah County, Sheriff Dan were leading to a rise in deportations. Staton continues to honor these ICE 1-247 Just how many nonviolent people ICE has Immigration Detainers. But responding to deported since the start of its detainee pressure from activists and Multnomah program is a bit of a mystery. Nonetheless, County commissioners, the sheriff has this spring, in testimony to the House abandoned his earlier conciliatory Judiciary Committee, ICE Director John relationship with the federal immigration Morton offered some clues. enforcers for a more nuanced and lenient Last year, Morton told Congress that ICE one. But immigrant and civil rights deported 409,849 individuals. According to advocates say cases like Hernández’s reveal him, roughly half of these deportations were cracks in the sheriff’s ICE policy where people who had been convicted with nonviolent individuals still slip through. “You can get charged with many charges,” felonies or misdemeanors. Of these, only 1,215 were convicted of homicides — that’s says Jaime Guzman from the immigrant roughly 0.5 percent; only 2.5 percent of advocacy group Oregon DreamActivist, “and arrestees were sexual offenders; and* by the end of the day they might all get roughly 34 percent of cases were drug- and dropped. And by the end of day, you already alcohol-related, leaving 63 percent of have an ICE hold regardless.” arrestees unaccounted for. This is what happened to Hernández. He Due to the current government was booked on a felony, but at his shutdown, ICE was unavailable to comment arraignment the district attorney lowered his charges to a B misdemeanor. Lowering for this story. Responding to concerns in Portland, charges at arraignment is common, however, Staton’s current ICE policy doesn’t Multnomah County commissioners held M public hearings on the issue. In April of this year, the commission unanimously passed resolution 2013-032, which outlined under what conditions the county will continue to honor ICE holds. The sheriff’s new policy came shortly after, closely following the resolution. Both policies are more lenient than ICE’s own recommendations. Regardless, activists say the county might not need to honor the holds at all. “It’s both our advocacy and our legal position that they (Multnomah County Sheriff’s office) are violating the state law and these requests are coming without any probable cause,” says Becky Straus of the Oregon ACLU. Straus says it’s questionable whether local law enforcement is obligated to honor the detentions, saying more often than not, detention requests from ICE are just that - requests — and don’t come attached to legal obligations, such as warrants. That, says Straus, means they’re largely voluntary, not mandatory. “These requests are most often coming without any probable cause of criminal wrongdoing, which, as we know, is an unconstitutional hold,” says Straus. In September 2012, the Oregon ACLU sued Multnomah County and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s office on behalf of Portland resident and ICE detainee Miguel Cabrera Cruz. The lawsuit argued ICE detentions violate Oregon Statute 181.850, which bars local law enforcement from using its funds to apprehend anyone whose only violation is breaking U.S. immigration law. The judge disagreed and ruled in favor of the defendants. The Oregon ACLU plans on appealing the ruling. As the Oregon ACLU plans its next offensive, other activists are petitioning the sheriff’s office to release individual ICE holds. Hearing about Hernández’s case from his friends, Guzman and others in the Activists Coming Together for Justice and Dignity Network, or ACT Network — a coalition that includes Guzman’s Oregon DreamActivist, Portland Jobs with Justice, and the Center for Intercultural Organizing, among others - then barraged the sheriff’s office with phone calls and emails requesting Hernández’s release. The group also held a protest in the Multnomah County building, where Sheriff Staton keeps an office. The sheriff responded?“ “The sheriff agreed to look at the case and judge it on a case-by-case basis,” says Chief Deputy Drew Brosh about the incident. “It was discovered that yes, the felony charge which we had at time of the detainer [sic] request was dropped to a misdemeanor...the sheriff made the decision to release.” Sheriff Staton was unavailable for comment. Seventeen days after his initial arrest, Hernández posted bail. His lawyer, John Edward Schlosser, who asked that we not use his client’s real name, says Hernández later plea-bargained down to a violation, paying a $200 fine. Responding to the Hernández case, at a September 23 meeting with ACT Network members and representatives from the sheriff’s office, a policy change was discussed that would make ICE holds dependant on arraignment, not booking charges. “I think they (the sheriff’s office) are willing to figure out how to make that change,” says Nicole Brown, ACT Network member and Field Director at the Center for Intercultural Organizing. “But for them it’s really complicated. They’re just trying to figure out a systematic process.” Brosh also confirmed the sheriff’s office was currently investigating how to make the See ICE, page 5 Portland Get yours today and ] The new Chinook Book is here! help the sustainable 1 economy grow | Featuring poetry from our Art Partner, Street Roots www.portlandhearingvoices.net
