Keep Bailing

As of this Tuesday, all inmates who are now booked into Orange County jails will have their immigration status checked via fingerprint identification. Prior to this, the inmates were screened by specially trained deputies upon arrival and those who were found to be foreign born had their immigration status checked even further.

Orange County jail officials will join 11 other California county jails such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Ventura which have already implemented procedures for checking the identification of inmates using a federal database to identify immigrants who land in their jails.

A national database, which is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, houses fingerprints of those who’ve had contact with the department, such as having applied for any immigration benefits. The national program implemented in late 2008 will now be used to identify and deport any undocumented immigrants who’ve been arrested and jailed.

The Secure Communities Initiative has identified 18,000 immigrants who have been charged with offenses such as murder and kidnapping)since its inception. 4,000 of those offenders have since been deported. Additionally, 25,000 immigrants who have been charged with lesser crimes have also been deported.

The Orange County Jail already has one of the longest processing time for defendants. There is no word on how this may effect release times for those posting bail.