How Bay Area counties differ on reporting undocumented juveniles to ICE

Teens without legal status fare better in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties than the sanctuary city of San Francisco. After an undocumented teen released from juvenile detention went on to commit murder, Mayor Newsom and City Attorney Herrera mandated that teens even suspected of their legal status be referred to U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. Since the implementation of the new policy last year, more than 160 youth have been reported.

 

In Santa Cruz County, however, teens are not screened for immigration status because it would lead down the path of racial profiling, Chief Probation Officer Scott MacDonald said.  Juveniles are processed in the same manner and released to adults.  "The first order of business is on rehabilitating youth in the least restrictive way," he said.

Santa Clara County also does not report to federal agencies except in one case. If a juvenile has no adult, they will offer to contact the foreign consulate. If he or she refuses, they will then contact the federal authorities.

 

Spokeswoman Virginia Kice clarified the relationship between ICE and county probation departments in an email response to KALW last week: "Access to both adult criminal aliens and juvenile criminal aliens incarcerated in community and county facilities is dictated by the local jurisdictions that administer the facilities."

 

It's true that most Bay Area counties, many which have no written policy on the issue, refer juveniles to ICE. But they differ in other ways as well. San Francisco Supervisors wanted to amend current policy to give judges the authority to refer a juvenile to ICE, not probation officers. The move would ensure that teen would complete their cases. It also gave the judge leeway to not report the teen if the charges were dismissed.

 

It also turns out that the actions of ICE agents aren't predictable when a teen is reported. First and foremost, they can remove a teen before the dispositional hearing. Or they could place a hold on the teen and remove him or her after the case is completed. Other times, they do nothing at all. Solano County hasn't seen an ICE agent in ten years.

 

Kice explained, "Like all law enforcement agencies, ICE must manage its finite resources, so we give priority to cases involving individuals who are believed to be potential threats to public safety and domestic security. "