Few Deportable Inmates Are from San Francisco

Mexicans top the list, but the Soviets aren't so far behind.

​Yesterday, we told you about California being a national leader when it comes to the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in our state prisons. It turns out that very few of those criminal aliens hail from San Francisco.

Criminal aliens are noncitizens, whether they are here legally or illegally.

Per SF Weekly's request, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released a list of the number of inmates who immigration officials have flagged as potentially deportable. Such a designation is called an "ICE detainer" or "ICE hold."

These inmates may be illegal immigrants or permanent residents -- either way if they have committed a crime they could be deported. When the inmate completes their sentence, they then are transferred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which initiates the deportation proceedings.

As of March 31, 2011, there were 16,912 inmates with "ICE holds" in state prisons. We combed through the statistics to see where the inmates were coming from -- and most of them are not from San Francisco.

Specifically, out of the 58 counties, San Francisco is No. 20. Here's the number of inmates with ICE holds by the county where they were convicted:
  
1. Los Angeles - 6,935
2. Orange - 1,538
3. San Diego - 1,204
4. Riverside - 916
5. Santa Clara - 849
6. San Bernardino - 689
7. Fresno - 456
8. Sacramento - 352
9. Tulare - 328
10. Kern - 305
11. San Joaquin - 288
12. Alameda - 276
13. San Mateo - 268
14. Ventura - 260
15. Santa Barbara - 255
16. Monterey - 255
17. Sonoma - 195
18. Stanislaus - 163
19. Contra Costa-141
20. San Francisco - 125

We were also able to glean information about where these inmates come from originally. Here are the inmates in California prisons with ICE holds broken down by place of birth:

1. Mexico - 12,176
2. El Salvador - 943
3. Vietnam - 491
4. Guatemala - 458
5. Honduras - 283
6. Cuba - 246
7. Philippine Islands - 193
8. Thailand - 193
9. Laos - 185
10. United States -154
11. Cambodia -135
12. Soviet Union - 107
13. Korea - 98

If you're wondering about the United States, those are people who indicated that they were born here, but authorities believe there is a possibility they weren't. An ICE hold means they will be further investigated.

One last stat. What are the most common crimes these deportable immigrants have been convicted of?

1. Lewd Act - 2,292
2. Second Degree Murder - 2,186
3. Robbery - 1,939
4. Unknown (CDCR doesn't have the info yet) - 1,510
5. Possession of Drugs For Sale - 1,146

If you'd like to see the rankings yourself, check out these statistics.

Strangely, the only illegal immigrants allowed inside the state prisons are criminals. As we wrote last year, illegal immigrants cannot visit inmates because corrections officials say they have no way of checking identity and criminal history without a valid state ID.

That makes for a lot of lonely prisoners.
 

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