Camp Pendleton targeted for immigration enforcement

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Friday, October 28, 2005 10:40 AM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Camp Pendleton will be the next military base checked in San Diego County to be sure employees are in the United States legally, federal authorities said Thursday.

Michael Unzueta, acting special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's office in San Diego, said it will take four to six months for the review once it starts.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau was created as a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 to protect the nation's borders. It is a mixture of agencies, including the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service.

"I don't know that they (Camp Pendleton) know we're coming yet," but the immigration enforcement will include working with Camp Pendleton's command structure, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and contractors, Unzueta said.

A spokesperson for Camp Pendleton could not be reached for comment.

Unzueta made his comments after a media round-table in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Diego. Local immigration authorities and John Torres, director of the agency's detention and removal office in Washington, D.C., discussed immigration and border protection issues.

Torres outlined what Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accomplished and its future goals in dealing with illegal immigration, terrorism, identity and benefits fraud, gangs, sex offenders and other border-related issues.

Congress has added 2,000 beds this year to help end the "catch and release" process that allows thousands of illegal immigrants to be released on their own recognizance or low bail, only to disappear into the U.S., the officials said.

They said the process to detain and remove illegal immigrants in this region is being streamlined and expedited, as well as expanded by working on documents at the sites and checking on criminals before they are released from state prison, in an effort to have more bed space available.

And more staff is being hired to work local jails, they said.

Work site enforcement ---- checking employees at work places to be sure they are legal and don't pose a security threat, and prosecution of criminal illegal immigrants were also among the topics explored.

The work-site enforcement is done under the agency's Operation Safe Cities program to protect sensitive area businesses from possible security breaches.

In this county, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already checked several military installations for work-site compliance, including the North Island Naval Air Station and the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. operations at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego.

Agents arrested 18 foreign nationals in April who worked for a contractor at the ship-building area. Most of the suspects had security badges authorizing them to enter the Navy base, officials said.

Over the past 1 1/2 years, Unzueta said, more than 300 people with fraudulent documents have been arrested.

Torres said under current law, all employers have to prove is that they have made a "good faith" effort to be in the country legally. Because the fines in such cases top out at $11,000, some employers simply regard the fines as the "cost of doing business," he said.

The law will have to be tightened or the focus of the prosecution changed to broaden the scope of work-site enforcement, he said. Torres said the agency is looking at the entire process.

Arrests require prosecutions, a touchy subject in this county since the U.S. attorney's office proposed new guidelines last year that would cut back on prosecution of illegal immigrant smuggling cases because of a lack of resources.

"I can understand some frustrations with a policy change, but we're going to have to take that in stride," Torres said.

If a criminal illegal immigrant can't be prosecuted federally, then the case can be handled through the state or administratively, he said. Unzueta said area agents now work comfortably in state and federal courts.

It was pointed out that Adrian George Camacho, 30, on trial now in Vista for the 2003 slaying of Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella, 27, during a traffic stop, was repeatedly arrested and released into Mexico before the gunbattle that killed Zeppetella.

Torres said Immigration and Customs can usually seek federal prosecution for some cases of repeated violence.

That has been true in the cases of gang members, based on their criminal histories, Unzueta said. He said some cybercrimes and benefit fraud cases are now being handled by state prosecutors.

There are a number of cases where defendants would receive longer sentences in the federal system, but the state is better at dealing with juvenile suspects, Unzueta said.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.

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