Tucson, Arizona Thursday, 14 August 2003
By Elliot Spagat
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO - Border Patrol agents in California have been ordered to stop making
arrests on city streets and avoid questioning suspected illegal immigrants except
along the border and at highway checkpoints in Orange and Riverside counties.
The directive, outlined in an Aug. 8 memo, is aimed at agents in San Diego County
and southern areas of Orange and Riverside counties.
It follows protests over recent arrests in San Diego and San Juan Capistrano.
Five members of a Mexican family were detained Aug. 1 as they walked to the
Mexican consulate in downtown San Diego to apply for identification cards issued
by the Mexican government to its citizens living in the United States.
The memo says enforcing U.S. immigration laws away from the border and at workplaces
should be left to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"They are no longer Border Patrol functions," according to the memo
by William T. Veal, chief patrol agent for the greater San Diego area.
"Border Patrol agents are not authorized to conduct any 'interior enforcement'
or 'city patrol' operations in or near residential areas or places of employment,
including immigration inspections at day labor pickup locations or on city streets
while agents are en route to assignments," Veal said.
Veal's memo, first reported Wednesday by the Los Angeles Times, was directed
to all agents in the San Diego sector, which includes San Diego County and border
checkpoints in San Clemente and Temecula.
A Border Patrol spokesman said the directive reiterated policy set in Washington,
not in San Diego.
"The memo in question is an internal document that resulted from a series
of recent incidents," said the spokesman, Ben Bauman.
"The memo was issued to remind agents of those longstanding policies."
A union local representing
Border Patrol agents said the order was a response to political pressures.