Rising Illegal Alien Crime a Touchy Issue : New Breed of Commuter Criminals Blamed for Increasing Burglaries

Ed Sergott and Jack Tussey are undercover San Diego detectives who say they might as well be shoveling sand against the tide.

Their assignment is “special investigations.� These days, that means trying to catch car thieves and burglars who work San Diego County’s residential neighborhoods in pairs and threesomes and then take their loot downtown to be hawked at a fraction of its value--like $500 video cassette recorders for $25.

Sergott and Tussey say that, with 100 arrests under their belts, they can personally confirm what the police brass has been saying in recent months, and which new figures appear to substantiate:

There is a new character joining the ranks of criminals in San Diego County. Although his crimes still represent only a small portion of all those committed, he is confounding police and may be virtually unstoppable, because he holds little regard for the American criminal justice system.

This person, police say, is in his teens or early 20s. He doesn’t live in this community, but catches the trolley from the border for a ride into downtown San Diego, where he gets on a public bus for a ride to the neighborhood of his choosing.

He carries a screwdriver as his tool. He prowls San Diego’s neighborhoods for automobiles and homes with open doors or windows, or ones that can easily be jimmied. Finesse is not his style, but he’s quick.

Jail is not a deterrent to this criminal because if he is caught, at least he’ll sleep warm and will be fed--which may be a better alternative than what he’d face as a free man that night. And if he is caught, chances are he will be treated as a first-time offender because he’ll use a different name and may slip through the system unnoticed as a repeat offender. If convicted and jailed in San Diego, he may be behind bars only for a few months or less, because in jails already brimming over, burglars and thieves are bounced out prematurely to make room for those who are considered more dangerous to society--those who are suspected or convicted of committing violent crimes against other people.

These new criminals are undocumented aliens from Mexico, some of whom live here but many of whom sleep in their native land and cross daily into the United States to commit their crimes. At the end of their workday, they go back into Mexico with a few dollars to show for their efforts.

That’s the scenario offered by street cops and police brass from throughout the county, who acknowledge that their conclusions are unsettling and may have racist overtones. Indeed, Latino activists say they are troubled by this picture drawn by police. They complain that immigrants are once again being unfairly stigmatized.

Herman Baca, chairman of the Committee on Chicano Rights, characterized as “racist, plain and simple� statements by police that illegal aliens are responsible for crime.

“They’re not categorizing individuals, but a group of people,� Baca said. “An ‘illegal alien’ in this society is a code word for Mexican, so they’re indicting every person of Mexican ancestry, which is something they don’t do with the white community, black community, Vietnamese community or any other community.�

Roberto Martinez, chairman of the Coalition for Law and Justice, a group of attorneys and community and Chicano activists, said he is also bothered by how undocumented workers have recently been targeted by police as the reason for increases in local crime.

“My problem with these reports is that they’re concerned with 20% of the crime being committed by so-called illegal aliens. My question is, why aren’t these police chiefs worried about the other 80%?� And the attention being given to alien crime “adds to the stigmas that already are on the immigrants. First they (border authorities) say they’re coming across the border to steal jobs, and now they’re responsible for 20% of the crime. What’s next?�

Police officials say they are sensitive to their statements’ racial overtones, and they quickly add that aliens as a whole are not considered criminally suspect.

“We don’t want to instill that kind of fear in the public,� said Capt. Robert DeSteunder, commander of the Sheriff’s Department’s substation in Vista. “Most of our undocumented aliens, while here illegally, want to find work and earn money. The illegal aliens who are criminals are no different to us than any other undesirable element who is in this country legally.�

Said Escondido Police Chief Jim Connole: “We’re not looking with a jaundiced eye at every alien. We’re attacking the crime problem regardless of race, color and creed.�

But police insist that the facts as they know them cannot be denied: Crime by illegal aliens from Mexico is rising, and the trend shows no signs of reversing.

“It’s so easy to cross the border and it’s so easy to break into a home. These guys know how to play the game and even if they get caught, it’s still so easy,� said Sergott. “There is ease of getting away with it. And the word is spreading down there, so we’ll be getting more.�

Police say the trolley and public buses are the favorite modes of getting around the county by these commuting criminals.

“When we interrogate them, the ones who will talk to us tell us how they used the trolley to get up here, and how they’ll get on the buses to go where they want to go,� said Lt. Claude Gray, who heads the burglary detail of the San Diego Police Department’s Central Division.

While police say virtually no neighborhood in San Diego is safe from these criminals, they generally are attracted to the more affluent ones that can be reached by bus, Gray said. “A lot of these guys have been coming up here for years, and they know their way around town.�

Lt. Nancy Goodrich of the department’s Northern Division said there is “a particular problem in La Jolla� with illegal alien criminals, but said she was unsure whether La Jolla is attractive because of its affluence or because of the convenient bus connections between there and downtown.

“We had an officer ride the bus one day and he said a considerable number of what appeared to be illegal aliens rode the bus to the end of the line in La Jolla,� she said.

Tussey recalled one time when, on a hunch, he and Sergott tailed two Latinos getting on a bus at Broadway and 10th Street. When the bus got to Rancho Bernardo, the men--with the two detectives behind them--boarded another bus to Escondido, where they transferred to a third bus.

“We ended up following them into a rural area of Escondido, where we observed them attempting to break into a house,� Tussey said. “That’s when we busted them.�

But Gray said police have no authority to stop and question a Latino just because he may be in this country illegally--which is a federal, not a state, crime. “Unless an individual is engaged in what we consider possibly criminal activity, we can’t just stop that individual,� Gray said.

Generally, police say, these criminals will unload their stolen merchandise before they get on the trolley for the return trip south. But some criminals are less than discreet in the process, Tussey said.

“We’ve seen them carry color TVs on downtown streets,� he said. “We saw one guy get off the bus with three rifles wrapped in a blanket. He didn’t even try to break them down (disassemble them) before getting on the bus.�

These commuter criminals, police say, have little in common with migrant farm workers looking for a decent job so they can send money back home, or who are trying to establish illegal--but otherwise crime-free--housekeeping in this country.

And the nature of the crime is changing, too. If an illegal alien broke into a home 5, 10 or 15 years ago, chances are he would target the refrigerator, looking to satisfy a hungry stomach on his journey north, police and Border Patrol agents say.

The new criminal is looking for small, expensive and easy-to-fence merchandise--things he can hide in a suitcase or duffel bag and then openly sell along the sidewalks and bus stops on the edges of downtown San Diego: Stereo components, video equipment, computers, jewelry, cameras. Sergott and Tussey tell of how one alien settled on $200 for a $5,000 German-built Hasselblad camera, how another sold a pair of $1,300 two-way radios for $30, and how another accepted $25 because he had no idea what he had stolen--computerized telephone equipment valued at $5,000, taken from the trunk of a salesman’s rental car.

“There are places in downtown San Diego that look like afternoon swap meets,� Tussey said, naming Broadway between 11th Avenue and 13th Street and Market Street between 14th and 16th streets as examples. “They walk up and down the street dealing their goods.�

They’ll keep the stolen guns and money for themselves.

While police can set up fencing stings--phony businesses to buy stolen goods from thieves--that practice won’t work when illegal aliens are the suspects, Tussey and Sergott said.

“We’ve operated stings where we’ve operated for three months, then gone out and made 32 arrests on one day because we knew where they all lived. But those were local people. You can’t do that with illegal aliens because you don’t know where they live--and you can’t bust them one at a time in a sting because after the first arrest, the word’s out and you’ve blown your cover,� Tussey said.

So, the two detectives work the streets of downtown San Diego and respond to calls from businessmen who see aliens walking from business to business, bus stop to bus stop, opening their duffel bags to show their stolen wares to passers-by.

While these criminals don’t seem bent on violence, they may panic and turn violent if confronted or feel cornered, authorities say. Seventeen-year-old Genaro Villanueva, who stabbed actor David Huffman to death in Balboa Park a year ago this month after being caught trying to break into a motor home, is such a case.

Figures that quantify the amount of crime in San Diego County that can be blamed on illegal aliens are hard to come by because there is no countywide system for keeping track of such information. While police arrest reports include a box marked “undocumented person,� those records are not tabulated by computer and that information is obtained only if a department chooses to manually review its arrest records.

Indeed, not until recently have police even cared about whether a suspect was an illegal alien because police do not arrest people simply for being illegal aliens. The concern about whether the suspect was an illegal alien would come into play later, when bail would be set or when the U.S. Border Patrol or Immigration and Naturalization Service checked jails to identify, and place deportation holds, on certain inmates.

But because of concern that illegal aliens are committing an increasing share of crime in San Diego County, some agencies have reviewed arrest reports and have concluded that a disproportionate number of arrests are of illegal aliens.

Assistant San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen said that during the month of December within the city of San Diego, 26% of all persons arrested for thefts were illegal aliens, compared to 21% last spring, and that 29% of all people arrested for auto thefts in December were illegal aliens, compared to 23% last spring. Those were the only two specific categories studied.

He said 16% of all felony arrests in December were of illegal aliens, and 10% of all misdemeanor arrests were of illegal aliens. (No similar figures were available for last spring.)

DeSteunder, commander of the Vista sheriff’s station, said that of 1,821 arrests made by his deputies during the 1984-85 fiscal year, 555--or 30%--were of undocumented aliens.

Among the specific crime categories:

- Of 118 arrests for burglary, 33--or 28%--were undocumented aliens.

- Of 42 arrests for receiving or being in possession of stolen property, 7--or 17%--were aliens.

- Of 37 arrests for assault with a deadly weapon, 6--or 16%--were aliens.

- Of 58 arrests for weapons violations, 12--or 21%--were aliens.

- Of 94 arrests for felony and misdemeanor theft, 24--or 26%--were aliens.

At the County Jail in Vista, which holds prisoners on behalf of all of North County’s local law enforcement agencies, 18% of the 391 inmates on Jan. 28 were illegal aliens, according to jail Capt. John Burroughs, citing information provided to him by the U.S. Border Patrol. The Border Patrol daily checks the jail population in Vista to identify those who are in this country illegally so that when their court proceedings are concluded, they can be deported.

The illegal alien jail population figure usually runs upwards of 20%, Burroughs said.

In Escondido, police Lt. Mike Stein said that of 2,765 people arrested in 1985, 349--or 13%--were undocumented aliens.

Stein said illegal aliens accounted for 43% of all robbery arrests, 13% of all aggravated assault arrests, 26% of all burglary arrests, 19% of all theft arrests, 12% of all auto theft arrests and 57% of all hit-and-run driving arrests. On the other hand, illegal aliens were responsible for 4% of all narcotics arrests, 5% of all simple assault arrests and 9% of all drunken driving arrests--the largest single category of arrests.

Stein said of three homicide arrests during 1985, two were of illegal aliens--and the victims were themselves illegal aliens.

Relating arrest figures to population figures is difficult because authorities do not know how many illegal aliens live in San Diego County, or come here daily from across the border.

Some senior police officers say the flow of illegal aliens across the border is so out of control that, in terms of fighting crime, Tijuana and San Diego might as well be considered one huge megalopolis. “We have a small police department for a city the size of San Diego, yet our citizens are being subjected to crime from two cities. We’re frustrated,� said Burgreen, the assistant San Diego police chief.

The state Department of Finance’s office of population research estimates that about 24,000 of the county’s full-time residents are undocumented aliens. But that figure, the state warns, does not include other aliens who are simply passing through to points north, or who live here on a transient basis, such as migrant farm workers, or are criminals crossing the border just for the day.

Ernie Halcon, a special assistant to Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller specializing in Latino affairs, said he is not surprised by the influx of Mexican criminals into the United States.

“For any specific type of crime,the punishment is commensurate on both sides of the border,� he said. “The difference is, spending six months in custody in Mexicali during the summer, or at the La Mesa penitentiary, is worse than spending three years in (in jail) the state of California. They’d rather be caught up here, and besides, they’d rather steal where there’s apt to be something worth stealing.�

Added Sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde, “These guys are street-wise, and they are aware of what to expect from our system. They know they might have to serve time in jail--but they’ll get three square meals a day, a roof over their head, heating, television and a lot of comforts they might not have at home.�

Don MacNeil, chief of the district attorney’s South Bay division, puts it this way:

“They seem to have no concern about getting caught since so few of them are getting caught.�