Federal offer may offset mayor's plan

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials want to place an agent in the Costa Mesa jail to screen arrestees for immigration violations.

That would make Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor's plan to have city police do the screening unnecessary, officials said Thursday.

Mansoor and Costa Mesa interim Police Chief Steven Staveley were cautious in assessing the federal plan, which they have not discussed with immigration officials, and both said they'd have to see what is being proposed before abandoning the city's immigration enforcement plan.

"My goal is to make sure that everyone is screened. If ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is willing to do that, absolutely, I'm going to take full advantage of that," Mansoor said, adding, "but I have yet to verify that [proposal] with them personally or in writing."

Jim Hayes, the Los Angeles field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sent a letter to Staveley on Thursday proposing the idea.

"Costa Mesa is one of just a handful of Orange County cities that actually has detention facilities," Hayes said in a phone interview. "What I'm working to do is actually place an ICE agent into the Costa Mesa jail facility to make sure that all the detainees that are booked into the Costa Mesa facility are screened for immigration violations."

The city has been in the media spotlight since December, when Mansoor spearheaded a proposal to have city police trained to check the immigration status of criminal suspects. The proposal stirred up controversy but ultimately helped Mansoor win reelection last week as the top vote-getter in a six-way council race.

But the city's plan has never been defined, and now it may be moot.

Hayes said his proposal is the result of two things: a three-month assessment of his agency's resources and duties, and the fact that he's getting more resources.

"This is an overture that we, that ICE is making to Costa Mesa to partner with them to try to put an agent in the jail," he said. "I think that would alleviate the need to have them go ahead and take on the extra task" of having police screen criminal suspects.

Costa Mesa police now refer between five and 10 arrestees per week to federal immigration officials as possible immigration violators, Hayes said. Once an agent is screening all detainees, he said, that number could rise to between 10 and 20 suspects a week.