CA - San Bernardino County expands program to deport illegal immigrants

SAN BERNARDINO — The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal to expand the Sheriff’s Department’s Criminal Illegal Alien Identification unit, officials said.

Proposed by 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, the unit will identifiy illegal aliens in the county jail system and refer them for deportation.

Latst year, the program at the county’s West Valley Detention Center identified more than 2,300 criminal illegal aliens.

Mitzelfelt proposed allocating $100,000 from his priority policy budget to purchase video conferencing equipment to screen inmates at remote locations. The equipment will be installed in jail facilities in Barstow, the Morongo Basin, the Victor Valley, and the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino.

“We are expanding the Criminal Illegal Alien Identification program to other  jails because it’s critical that we identify every criminal illegal alien in our jail system and refer them for deportation,” Mitzelfelt said in a news release.