Border Patrol probing agents' allegations of arrest quotas

Border Patrol probing agents' allegations of arrest quotas
10:22 PM PST on Monday, February 2, 2009

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

The U.S. Border Patrol is investigating allegations that employees in the agency's Riverside office were given arrest quotas, a violation of federal rules.

Agents in the Riverside office say they were required to make 150 arrests officewide in January and 100 arrests in November and December, according to Local 2554 of the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents border-patrol agents.

The agents say they were threatened with less desirable schedules if they didn't meet the quotas.

The Riverside Border Patrol office has been under intense criticism in recent weeks for raids and identification checks at Inland day-labor sites and at the San Bernardino Greyhound bus station. The Riverside office, which covers more than 10,000 square miles in parts of Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, apparently is the only Border Patrol office in the country that raids day-labor locations.

The Border Patrol doesn't permit quotas that involve threats of punishment, said Agent Richard Velez, a spokesman for the agency's El Centro sector, which includes the Riverside office. Velez acknowledged that the Riverside office has a "goal" of 150 arrests a month, but he said it doesn't violate agency rules because agents are not punished for failing to reach those goals. The agency is investigating whether threats were made for not meeting targets, Velez said.

Quotas cause agents to spend their time pumping up numbers rather than targeting the most dangerous illegal immigrants, said Rich Pierce, national executive vice president for the border patrol agents union.

"You want to dedicate resources to quality arrests: criminal aliens, smugglers, maybe narcotics interdiction," he said.

Lombardo Amaya, president of Local 2554 of the union, insisted there are quotas.

"I have seven, eight, nine agents in Riverside telling me they were mandated a quota" and told they would be punished if they didn't meet the target, said Amaya, who Monday morning met with El Centro sector chief Jeffrey Calhoon.

Ahilan Arulanantham, director of immigrants' rights and national security for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said a "goal" is just as troubling as a "quota."

"It's not a relevant distinction," he said. "It seems if you have a goal, there will be pressure to reach that goal ... If it creates pressure to arrest a certain number of people, you're more inclined to use impermissible methods to reach that number."

Those methods could include stopping people based upon their ethnicity or use of Spanish, he said.

Quota Concerns

Federico Bass, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino, said he is concerned about the quota allegations.

"If it is true, this is a very serious situation," he said. "This goes against human rights, not just against Mexicans but against American citizens of Latin origin who could be targeted."

Immigrant, day-labor and Casa Blanca activists have accused the Border Patrol of racial profiling for stopping Latinos -- whether undocumented immigrants, residents or citizens -- and asking for identification.

Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Service Center, which assists immigrants, said he observed Border Patrol agents questioning people at the San Bernardino Greyhound station four times over the past month -- and only Latinos were asked for their IDs. Amaya said the sweeps have instilled fear in undocumented immigrants throughout the Inland area, some of whom are scared to leave home.

In the biggest operation, 25 Guatemalans and Mexicans were arrested Thursday in an area of Riverside's Casa Blanca neighborhood where day laborers congregate, officials with the two countries' consulates said.

Raymond Herrera, a Victorville resident and national rally spokesman for the anti-illegal-immigration Minuteman Project, said legal U.S. residents and citizens should thank Border Patrol agents for asking for their IDs.

"You're not offending Raymond Herrera or his mom or dad or anyone," Herrera said. "The only people crying racism are illegal-alien sympathizers trying to circumvent the rule of law."

Velez said Border Patrol agents stop people of different races and ethnicities, using their experience to determine who to question based upon behavior such as nervousness or attempting to flee. He declined to release arrest figures for the Riverside office but said the office is not using different tactics than it has in the past.

Increased Arrests

But local immigration-rights activists said the local Border Patrol has dramatically ramped up arrests recently, especially at day-laborer sites.

The site raids are unusual. Jason Ciliberti, a spokesman for the agency's national headquarters, said he is unaware of any other Border Patrol office that targets day-laborer locations.

Chris Newman, legal programs director for the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said his organization is considering legal action against the Border Patrol and Riverside police for their tactics. Eleven of the day laborers arrested Thursday were first detained by Riverside police for unrelated offenses and then turned over to the Border Patrol. Riverside police said Border Patrol was called because the laborers did not have identification.

Stopping laborers and checking their IDs without reasonable suspicion violates constitutional guarantees regarding search and seizure, due process, equal protection and the freedom to remain in a public area, Newman said.