Posted on 10/07/2018 11:59:07 AM PDT by Steve Schulin
An upcoming ballot measure to make Humboldt County a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants has stirred controversy and drawn criticism from a variety of local officials after the county government published inflated cost estimates, but those costs rely on made-up assumptions not supported by existing data, the Times-Standard has learned.
The cost estimates, revealed at a Sept. 4 board of supervisors meeting, assume that five to 10 times per year, the local Department of Human Health and Services will need to find children housing based on the wishes of their deported parents. That alone would take between $34,000 and 46,000 from the county’s general fund, the report found, leading to a total cost range of $171,500 to $312,650.
But those numbers have no correlation with reality. The Department of Human Health and Services hasn’t had to care for the children of deported parents 10 times in a year. Nor has it had to do so five times.
In fact, “that has never happened,” said Heather Muller, the department’s public information manager. That particular problem has never come up, but officials nevertheless assumed it would happen “five to 10” times per year to project over $40,000 in costs to the county’s General Fund.
As the Times-Standard previously reported, the estimates were calculated by Chris Shaver, the county’s assistant administrative officer. Upon direction to come up with projected costs, Shaver assumed the “five to 10” baseline because he “had to start somewhere,” he said in a Sept. 26 phone interview.
In the past week, candidates for Eureka City Council have referred to the costs while stating their opposition to the ordinance.
During a series of forums at the Central Labor Council union hall last weekend, Ward 1 City Council candidates Jeannie Breslin and Ward 5 candidate Joe Bonino, referred in some way or another to the cost estimates as they made it clear they don’t support the ordinance.
Bonino called the ordinance a detriment to staff time and paperwork, noting the county is “already strapped” for cash. He went on to say the measure would not be an effective use of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office’s budget, though it’s unclear whether the sheriff’s office would have to pay for any of the costs associated with the ordinance.
County voters will have the opportunity to either approve or deny the ordinance, Measure K, in the November election.
Measure K’s intent
Measure K would require local law enforcement to report to the county government on its communications with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It would further mandate disciplinary action against county employees who report individuals to ICE on suspicion of being undocumented immigrants. And, as previously stated, it calls for “assisting families” based on the wishes of the parents — so long as there’s no evidence of parental abuse.
So far in 2018, law enforcement has turned one person over to ICE, a number consistent with recent history; two individuals were turned over in 2017 and one in 2016, according to data provided by the sheriff’s office. These numbers fall far lower than the county’s five to 10 baseline.
ICE reports statistics at much higher levels than a single county. It has three “areas of responsibility” for the entire state — Humboldt County and the rest of the north coast fall within the San Francisco area.
The exorbitant cost estimates didn’t go unnoticed when first announced. 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell decried the costs at the Sept. 4 board meeting, going as far as to say they would exceed the high-end $300,000 estimate due to training costs.
Don’t blame Shaver — the man who figured the estimates in the first place — for this mess, said Elizabeth Phillips, volunteer for the activist group Centro del Pueblo, which has been a strong advocate for the ordinance.
“The Measure K leadership is not placing blame on anyone,” she told the Times-Standard on Thursday. “The fact is, someone in their department was given direction to do something and he just did it. And the fact is, Measure K does not cost as much as they’re saying. So come out and say, ‘Hey, we messed up on the numbers and we apologize.’”
As for the city council candidates’ sound bytes on the issue, Phillips chalked them up to conservative “talking points.”
“All Measure K does is allow for transparency,” she continued. “If you’re conservative, you don’t want the federal government to take over the whole country. We need Measure K to know what the sheriff’s office is communicating to ICE about.”
The sanctuary debate
Sheriff William Honsal, for his part, maintains that while his office does communicate with ICE, local law enforcement never gets involved in policing immigration. His own officers, he said, never inquire about an individual’s immigration status anyway — the county’s restrictions are already covered by existing state sanctuary laws.
“We don’t interact with [ICE],” he told the Times-Standard in a Sept. 26 phone interview. “But they can do what they want at any time. If they want to come into this county and interview people based on the fingerprint database they have, we have no say in that. And there are times ICE wants to come in and talk to someone for information — it’s not necessarily to detain them.”
For all the alarm county officials and political candidates have raised about the costs behind the measure, Honsal has rarely leaned on the estimates when staking out his opposition to the ordinance. He scarcely mentioned the costs at all during the supervisors meeting in early September.
Instead, he spoke to what he called a need to keep “serious and violent” felons out of the county. Most of the drugs that have entered the county, he said, have arrived from Mexico.
“I want these (drug dealers) deported,” he said. “This ordinance is taking away these tools that I have.”
At times, the sheriff’s office might take part in a joint task force with ICE, but its involvement is exclusive to a crime — like sex trafficking — that happens to involve immigrants, Sheriff’s Office Corrections Captain Duane Christian told the Times-Standard.
Under Christian’s interpretation of Measure K’s language, the ordinance would “restrict” the sheriff’s office from communicating with ICE. He said the mandate could put communication at odds as the state law allows contact, and federal law mandates it.
The language of the measure doesn’t actually restrict communication, though Christian noted “certain verbiage” makes the ordinance murky.
What it does do is order the sheriff’s office to provide the county a report, twice a year, detailing its communication with ICE. But since ICE is a federal agency, it can still enter a county to detain undocumented individuals. In other words, ICE answers to no one but the federal government.
“Let’s say someone has a prior conviction and gets reported to ICE,” Christian said. “Our booking information is public information; ICE still has access to their fingerprints. They have the ability to come here, figure out where that person is living, go to that residence and arrest the whole family, most of whom are not criminals.”
It isn’t worth stonewalling ICE, he said, if it meant innocent people would be detained for the sake of individuals with prior convictions — people county residents “may or may not even want here,” Christian said.
“Measure K will make it easier for everyone to do their jobs,” Phillips contested in response. “We’re talking to sheriffs up from Merced County and other places where they’ve passed local sanctuary laws. They’ve seen crime decrease.”
More than anyone, it’s undocumented individuals who are targets for human trafficking, Phillips said, since they’re frightened to report being victims of crime if it would jeopardize their own immigration status.
“When we talk about fighting crime, it’s not about boots on the ground,” she added. “It’s about having a community, giving people a voice to actually call the sheriff.”
Centro del Pueblo, she noted, plans to reach out to Honsal to arrange a meeting. To this point, both sides admitted, communication has been scant.
CA doesn’t care how much they’re taxed.
Well, how about the point that our two dominant political parties have failed to secure our borders for decades? Anybody who votes for Democratic or Republican Party candidates for House, Senate or President have been giving aid and protection to the parties who have long encouraged and rewarded their elected members to abrogate their oaths to support the Constitution. There’s many other important points than the fact that tens of millions of people here broke our law to get here.
Your solution? Like it or not, the Republicans are at least somewhat supportive of closing the borders. Staying away from the polls changes nothing. A third party might have a chance now.
after his re-election trump should begin third party if the GOP resistance continues
The only real solution is all illegals must go home. Period.
If they can’t come here legally they have no business being here. Period.
The Department of Human Health and Services hasn’t had to care for the children of deported parents 10 times in a year. Nor has it had to do so five times. In fact, “that has never happened,” said Heather Muller, the department’s public information manager. That particular problem has never come up, but officials nevertheless assumed it would happen “five to 10” times per year to project over $40,000 in costs to the county’s General Fund.
Facts are not as important as the seriousness of the false allegation.
With my limited time, I’m struggling with this article.
The headline is apparently convoluted, right?
The scammers are the ones who said it’s expensive to cooperate with ICE?
Hi Arthur - the cost estimate that was “debunked” was the high estimate of the cost of becoming a sanctuary county. There’s more of interest in the story than just that.
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