Inland Southern California

PROTEST: They want the U.S. Border Patrol to halt sweeps more than 100 miles from Mexico.

08:51 AM PDT on Thursday, June 24, 2004

Immigrant advocates say they are trying to pressure local U.S. Border Patrol officials into reconsidering their strategy of detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants more than 100 miles from the border.

Activists meeting Wednesday in Riverside said their protests may be paying off.

A Temecula-based Border Patrol team detained more than 150 immigrants in the Ontario and Corona areas on June 4 and 5. Agents made 161 additional arrests in Escondido from June 9 to 11. All of the detainees were Mexican or Central American.

The Border Patrol reports no sweeps since then, said San Bernardino immigrant activist Emilio Amaya, who met with Border Patrol officials last week.

"They might think about changing the strategy," Amaya said about the sweeps. "How can we ensure that it doesn't happen again? I'm confident we can do it."

San Diego Sector Border Patrol public information officers did not respond to several requests for comment Wednesday.

Opponents of illegal immigration, including Murrieta resident Kim Smith, have contacted the Border Patrol to praise the sweeps. "It should be expanded," Smith said.

Pro-immigrant activists from Fontana to Yucaipa and Temecula to Thermal met Wednesday to discuss how to keep up the pressure from their side.

"We have to get our voices across," said Nyrza Gonzalez, 19, a Desert Hot Springs College student.

Some proposed meeting with Bishop Gerald Barnes of the San Bernardino Catholic Diocese, arguing he should do more to protest the detentions.

Riverside activist Armando Navarro said Barnes should send a protest letter to U.S. leaders and direct churches to organize prayer vigils, host community forums or denounce the sweeps at English and Spanish masses.

Diocese spokesman Howard Lincoln said Barnes reached out to parishioners after the sweeps and would consider requests for additional action. Hispanics comprise about 55 percent of the 1.1 million-member diocese.

Barnes issued a letter of concern that was read to at least 100,000 Latinos at more than 200 Spanish-language masses earlier this month, Lincoln said.

"The Bible directs that we love our neighbor and welcome a stranger and therefore our diocese cares for and stands with immigrants, both documented and undocumented," Lincoln said.

But he noted that the diocese also confirms the right and responsibility of nations to control their borders.

On Monday, Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of the Los Angeles diocese, sent a letter to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to ask for a meeting with Border Patrol leaders and California's U.S. senators.

Mexico's Embassy in Washington, D.C. protested the sweeps in a letter last week, said Carlos Giralt-Cabrales, Mexico's consul in San Bernardino.

Los Angeles-based civil rights attorneys said by phone that they are investigating the constitutionality of the sweeps and interviewing people who were detained or witnessed detentions.

Staff writer Michael Fisher contributed to this report.

Reach Sharyn Obsatz at (909) 368-9458 or sobsatz@pe.com