Judge Wants Residency Screening

SANTA ANA —  An Orange County judge is negotiating with federal officials to restart a program that would screen felony suspects for legal residency.

Superior Court Judge David O. Carter met with officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. attorney’s office on Friday in hopes of redeveloping a screening process he implemented in 1989.

“We’re very optimistic about this,” Carter said Saturday. “This is an unprecedented cooperation we hope to work out.”

Carter gained national attention in 1989 when he invited INS agents into his courtroom to identify and ultimately deport illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

The pilot program resulted in the deportation of 685 illegal immigrant felons to 17 different countries in the first nine months of 1989. About 36% of the 1,880 defendants convicted of felonies or probation violations that year were illegal immigrants.

Critics saw the program as an abuse of detainees or a misuse of time and effort.

Carter said he had proposed that this time, the illegal immigrants be identified when they are arraigned and before they go through the criminal justice process.

The program was discontinued when Carter rotated into another trial assignment. He has since been reassigned as the head of the county’s felony caseload.

“This is still in the preliminary stages,” Carter said.