Lee Baca, the Sheriff Arpaio of Los Angeles
By Javier Rodriguez 21 October 2009

The 287g Federal Agreement Program between the Department of Homeland Security DHS-ICE and the Sheriff of Los Angeles County is in effect in the City of the Angels. Aside from the ICE training of many sheriffs agents in the detection of undocumented prisoners, the agreement calls for ICE police to be stationed inside the largest jail system in the US. The agents are located in the prisoner release areas where their work is to interrogate just about all the Latino prisoners and identify all the potentially undocumented prisoners. Then in the early morning hours, with a shabby version of due process in place, all those who have agreed to voluntary leave the country are then lined up along a long hallway to receive a final dose of indoctrination and humiliation to discourage them not to ever come back to the US. Thereafter they are escorted to the buses for apparent deportation to indefinite places.

The ICE platoon in the Men’s side of the Twin Towers County Central Jail is primarily composed of Latinos with a 6.5’ White Anglo supervisor and they all wear combat Squad like uniforms. Witnesses say the ICE groups are also stationed in all the large complexes, including the women’s jail in South Central Lynwood.

The immigrant detection hunt of those suspected to have an irregular immigration status is also found in all the many sheriff stations and Superior Courts in LA county and these prisoners are stealthily transferred to the big houses. If the numbers already published are true, since the federal agreement was instituted with the LA Sheriffs, the quantity of deported undocumented immigrants maybe staggering.

The deportees include those arrested for minor crimes and temporary detainees, meaning people who should be freed immediately and who are probably the majority of those detected. The following story is an example of this probable reality:

· “Recently eight young Mexican men with roots in the southern state of Puebla were detained near a late night social gathering in East Los Angeles. This happened at an illegal house underground party which was advertised in the internet, and posters and party cards distributed in the neighborhood. The place jumped at midnight with. The great majority Poblano college students and workers and traditionally Salseros, whose people in the last decade and half have populated the Eastside by the thousands. At about 1 AM, as the Salsa whaled, an altercation erupted until shots were fired and the people began to look for cover and ran away scared. The Sheriffs combed the streets and arrested the eight young men. Voluntarily they all declared a similar story; pleading their innocence and the fact they ran to escape the bullets. Naively they all believed in the words of the jailers and the Station Commander who told them they would eventually be set free, without charges. But less than 24 hours later, without any explanation, the young workers that were English language deficient were taken out of the station. The next day early in the morning, along with a large group of undocumented immigrants they exited the county jail on their way to deportation”.


The way things are with the administration that promised us “change we could really believe in” and presided by our new Nobel Peace Prize winner, it is necessary to confront the Los Angeles authorities with a series of media and mass protest actions in front of the LA County Jail to dramatize this reality before the media and denounce to the nation and the international community the infamous 287g Program and demand that Sheriff Lee Baca and the Board of Supervisors immediately suspend the agreement with the federal government. This will be the first direct confrontation with Lee Baca and the thinkers and message makers in the movement should make an elegant and diplomatic comparison of Baca “with his Phoenix colleague Joe Arpaio”. In practical terms, our Latino Sheriff is silently doing the same or more damage to our community. Why? For one, Los Angeles is the second largest city in the country with the biggest amount of undocumented residents and Latino population in general in the US. With all these deportations emanating from his overpopulated household, Baca is cynically collaborating with the brutal national policy of separation of families directed by DHS Director Janet Napolitano. Furthermore, the victims are primarily working people, many are innocent and without criminal records. I will venture to say that the quantities of deportees are probably higher now than those conducted by Arpaio in Arizona.

On another plane, with this agreement, on top of the existing layers of institutional intolerance in the jail system, Baca is contaminating further the prison environment, intensifying the politics of racial profiling and racism which is manifested in a constant humiliation and mental mistreatment of Latino prisoners. With the entrance of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-ICE into the local penal system, the government is opening the doors to the ideological sensitizing of this huge police force, thereby exacerbating the pre existing conditions of xenophobia, as well as the acceptance of this nationally discredited program. It can be speculated that this societal and negative Sheriff mentality will spread unto the streets, if it hasn’t yet begun. At the same time the fact that Los Angeles is one of the (70) 287g agreements in force nationally, it will scream as a model for other departments to follow.

On the other side, an opposing national movement has once again sprouted to denounce and demand a stop to the infamous politics of repression and this time is not against the ultra right, but the Obama administration. Unfortunately this is the growing background to the future immigration reform law, which ii is around the corner. To erode the 287g Agreement in Los Angeles requires mass social mobilization and it will take more than the small protests and separate media events of the present. In the struggle for social change and a better world, dialogue, maturity and unity are much better consigliores.

Javier Rodriguez, a Media-Political Strategist, is also a progressive journalist and for years published in the LA Times, La Opinion, Eastern Group Publications, Uno Mas Uno-Mexico, was syndicated nationally with Hispanic Link , and recently publishes in ZNET.org, Newtorkaztlan.com and STN’s Portaluno.com. He is now writing his experiences and perspective as a leading activist in the Immigrant rights movement, including the making of 25 March 2006 for which he was the initiator. Email bajolamiradejavier@yahoo.com.

Lee Baca, el Sheriff Arpaio de Los Angeles

Por Javier Rodriguez 20 October 2009

El programa de acuerdo federal 287g entre el Sheriff de Los Angeles y el Departament of Homeland Security DHS-ICE ya esta en vigencia en el Condado de Los Angeles. Aparte del entrenamiento de muchos agentes policiales en la detecion de indocumentados, adicionalmente, el convenio incluye el derecho de ICE de tener agentes dentro de la Carcel del Condado. Estos estan ubicados en el pasillo de salida/libertad de presos, donde interrogan a todos los Latinos para identificar a los indocumentados y luego a tempranas horas de la manana, PONERLOS EN DOS FILAS, INDOCTRINARLOS Y HUMILLARLOS PARA QUE NO REGRESEN AL PAIS. LUEGO SON ESCOLTADOS A LOS AUTOBUSES PARA TRANSPORTARLOS A SU DEPORTACION A LUGARES INDEFINIDOS. El grupo de ocho agentes es compuesto de Latinos y un anglo sajon de 6.5’ de altura quien funge como jefe de grupo. TODOS CON UNIFORME DE COMBATE.

A esto existe la informacion que en todas las estaciones del Sheriff y los tribunales superiores del condado, donde los sheriffes sirven de celadores y guardias, tambien se escrutina a todos los detenidos para tambien detectar a los sospechosos de ser indocumentados y luego sin informarles, sigilosamente los sacan para transferirlos a la carcel del condado. Si las cifras ya publicadas son veridicas, desde que el programa federal ha estado en efecto en el sistema carcelario mas grande del pais, la cantidad de indocumentados que -como a eso de las 3 AM- son deportados de esta carcel, pueden ser ya escandalosas.

Los deportados incluyen los arrestados por delitos y problemas menores, incluso detenciones momentaneas de las cuales ambas categorias deben ser puestos en libertad y que probablemente son la mayoria de los detectados. La siguiente historia es un ejemplo de esta posible realidad:

· “Recientemente 8 jovenes poblanos fueron detenidos en el Este de Los Angeles. Sucedio que hubo una fiesta clandestina en una casa, con musica y cerveza de venta. Ilegalmente, esta fue publicitada anunciandose por medio del internet, y cartelones y volantes en el barrio. Se lleno de juventud, principalmente de trabajadores y estudiantes. Como a la 1 de la manana hubo un pleito, se elevo la violencia, hasta que hubo disparos en la calle. La gente comenzo a correr asustada. Los Sheriffes rastrearon las calles y detuvieron a esos ocho. Todos declararon lo mismo, su inocencia y que habian corrido para escapar de las balas. Todos creyeron en la palabra de los celadores y el comandante en turno quienes les informaron que las autoridades eventualmente los hiban a liberar. Pero a menos de 24 horas, los que no hablaban mucho ingles y eran trabajadores, fueron sacados de la estacion sin ninguna explicacion. Al otro dia por la manana temprano salieron de la carcel del condado junto con un grupo numeroso de indocumentados”.


Como estan las cosas bajo la que fue la administracion del cambio presidida por el Nuevo Nobel de la Paz, es necesario confrontar a las autoridades Angelinas con una serie de eventos mediaticos y de protesta masiva en frente de la carcel del condado para dramatizar esta realidad ante la prensa y denunciar a la opinion publica nacional e internacional el Programa de Colaboracion Policial 287g, exigiendo que el Sheriff Lee Baca y la Junta de Supervisores suspendan inmediatamente el infame acuerdo con el gobierno federal . Esta seria la primera confrontacion directa con Lee Baca y se debe ingeniar una elegante comparacion diplomatica con “su colega Joe Arpaio”. En esencia Baca esta haciendo mas dano a nuestra comunidad. Porque, por un lado, Los Angeles es la segunda ciudad del pais con la mas grande cantidad de residentes indocumentados y de Latinos en general. Con estas deportaciones emanadas de una de sus casas, la hacinada carcel del Condado de Los Angeles, Baca esta colaborando cinicamente con la brutal politica nacional de separacion de familias, encabezada por Janet Napolitano.Y mas, las victimas son mayoritariamente gente trabajadora, muchos inocentes o sin antecedentes criminales y me aventuro a predecir que las cantidades de deportados probablemente ya son mas altas que las de Arpaio en Phoenix, Arizona.

Por otro lado, Baca esta contaminando el ambiente carcelario, creando mas condiciones anti inmigrantes, intensificando el perfil racial y el racismo policial sobre del ya existente que se refleja dentro de las carceles, con una constante humillacion y maltrato mental de los presos Latinos. Con la entrada de ICE al sistema se esta sensibilizando ideologicamente mas a esta fuerza policial y la esta seduciendo hacia la aceptacion de este descreditado programa y la falacia de su necesidad. Se puede tambien especular que esta optica alguacil se extendera a las calles sino es que ya es tarde. Al mismo tiempo, el acuerdo sirve de modelo para que otros departamentos policiales consideren entrarle.

De hecho ya se ha generado un movimiento a nivel nacional de denuncias y demandas contra esta nefasta politica represiva de la administracion de Obama, que esencialmente es la antesala de la futura reforma migratoria. Para derogar el Acuerdo 287g en Los Angeles, se requiere la mobilizacion social mas alla de las pequenas protestas y eventos mediaticos que se manifiestan en el presente. En la lucha social por el cambio y la creacion de un mejor mundo, el dialogo, la madurez y la unidad imprescindiblemente son mejores consejeras.

Javier Rodriguez, estratega Politico y Mediatico es tambien un periodista y por anos publico en LA Times, La Opinion, Eastern Group Publications, Uno Mas Uno-Mexico, fue sindicado nacionalmente por Hispanic Link , y hoy publica ZNET.org, Newtorkaztlan.com y STN’s Portaluno.com. En elpresente se encuentra escibiendo sus experiencias y perspectiva como uno de los principales dirigentes del movimiento por los derechos de los migrantes en los EU, incluyendo la construccion de la Gran Marcha del 25 de Marzo 2009 de la cual fue el iniciador. Email bajolamiradejavier@yahoo.com.