Bill to Provide Inmate List to INS Vetoed

Calling it “unnecessary” and “overly broad,” Gov. George Deukmejian this week vetoed a bill inspired by an Orange County judge’s attempts to force the deportation of illegal aliens convicted of drug-related or violent crimes.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), would have required the state Department of Corrections to refer to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service the names of people convicted of drug-related and violent felonies serving time in California prisons and whose appeals had been exhausted. The INS would then determine which could be deported as illegal aliens.

The bill would also have given county trial court judges the authority to make similar referrals.

In a veto message, Deukmejian said the Department of Corrections already routinely turns over to the INS the names of inmates it has reason to believe are illegal immigrants. He said that the screening the bill called for would be time-consuming, costly and burdensome to the state.

After the governor’s veto, Seymour said: “I am shocked . . . . I’m very disappointed. I thought that this kind of legislation was vintage George Deukmejian.”

Seymour has said the bill was inspired by the efforts of Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, who has been inviting INS agents into his courtroom to identify aliens among those convicted of a range of felonies and probation violations.

Seymour has said the bill would lessen the load on overcrowded court dockets and the state prison and parole systems.