Sheriff Giordano: the right person at the right time

I attended the August 21 meeting of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO) in Santa Rosa and came away very impressed with Interim Sheriff Rob Giordano. The Board of Supervisors has to confirm him as Sheriff for the remainder of Steve Freitas’ term and, in my opinion, they would be nuts not to.

Giordano said a couple of times, words to the effect that, “I hope you still like me when we disagree.” Well, anyone who paves their way as an accessible and honest public persona, and who clearly articulates the issues, merits perseverance through thick and thin, as compared to public officials who fall into the mire of mealy-mouthed attempts to please everyone all the time. Frankly, it is refreshing to disagree with someone who has clear points based on the issues.

Allow me to explain why I think Giordano is the right person at the right time. He  doesn’t own Sheriff Freitas’ baggage; he’s a new man at the top; he is not running for Sheriff; he sees the issues clearly and is very well informed; he has excellent communication skills; and he is honest, transparent, clear-headed, and open and responsive to public opinion. He sees his mission as one of meeting the community and being transparent about Sheriff’s Office policy. Giordano’s goal is to achieve more access and transparency. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose, by going straight into immigration issues and talking about them frankly. As well, under the Giordano regime the Sheriff’s Office will not be politicized, or seen as biased, siding with any one candidate in the coming SO election.

On the substance of Sheriff’s Office policy regarding jailhouse ICE cooperation, it was Sheriff Freitas who made the call to implement a TRUST Act overlay on release notifications to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Credit to Sheriff Freitas for being responsive to IOLERO and the community on this.

From afar, it appeared that the Sheriff’s Office was foot-dragging on implementing Freitas’ promised TRUST Act compliance. The delay, however, was understandable after Giordano’s explanations. And due to his determination to make good on the promise, the TRUST Act policy is now in place. The Interim Sheriff is now in the process of refining the levels and thresholds for cooperation with ICE.

The Sheriff’s Office is doing this TRUST Act overlay because it is the right thing to do. The Sheriff’s Office was not breaking a promise, they just got caught up in multiple issues of Freitas’ retirement, Giordano being on vacation, and Giordano having a learning curve on jailhouse ICE policy.

What is the TRUST Act and what is the overlay on jailhouse policy regarding ICE? The TRUST Act is based on case law, where it was found unconstitutional to hold inmates after they were duly able to be released. Prior to this, inmates would be held, in what were called ICE holds, until ICE would come and pick them up.

With the TRUST Act, the threshold or overlay for ICE holds, consists of felony and high-level misdemeanor convictions. Felonies have no time limit. High-level misdemeanors have a five-year limit. Below the threshold or overlay, undocumented immigrant inmates with low-level and non-violent offenses would be released, if release was where they were in their legal process.

ICE can also ask for notification of when an undocumented inmate will be released. They find out who is in jail from mandatory law enforcement sharing of fingerprints into a national database. These ICE notifications were, until August 18 of this year, voluntarily done by the Sheriff’s Office for all ICE requests for release date information.

In the last year, there have been 176 requests from ICE for notification of undocumented inmate’s inmates’ release dates.

The current policy in place at the county jail, which is under Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction, is to not notify ICE for the release of anyone below the TRUST Act threshold. The threshold is: being a past convicted felony or significant misdemeanor criminal. Any ICE notifications will be about people with convictions only, not for people who have been accused of a crime but have not received legal due process. If people have been convicted, their fingerprints are on record. The Sheriff’s Office, under Giordano’s direction, is now assessing just where the TRUST Act overlay/ threshold line should be regarding hard-to-call crimes such as DUI grey areas, and statutory rape where the people, are 17 and 18 years old.

This is a balancing act where the Sheriff’s Office mission to protect local public safety comes up against Trump immigration executive orders, which while legal and federal law, are increasingly able to be seen as part of Trump’s racist, nativist and white nationalist program. “The immigration system is a mess,” said Giordano. “We get that.” And so, it is admittedly hard, as the Sheriff’s Office seeks to balance various law enforcement parameters at different levels of government.

The Interim Sheriff gave a rundown of how he is in a position of having to balance the desires of the whole county community, and the parameters of county, state and federal law. As a law enforcement officer, he is beholden to all laws, and the US Constitution. Giordano said he will look to the community here in Sonoma County first, as to how to proceed on immigration. Giordano listened intently and took notes, and appears open to what the community has to say. He wants to be fair-minded. Yet, “what citizens want is not always crystal clear,” he said.

Where the county populace stands on the immigration issue is a matter of dispute depending on which side of the issue one is on. The Interim Sheriff noted getting hate mail from all sides. Given the voting in the last presidential election, it would be reasonable to assume that roughly 80% of the voting populace are against Trump policy, and thus the Interim Sheriff, and candidates for Sheriff, are on safe ground in the county, anyway, to support immigrants’ rights, and to limit ICE cooperation as much as possible.

Obviously not all law conforms to that desired by immigrants and their supporters. The primary mission of the Sheriff’s Office is to protect the public safety in the county. Public safety is a frequently used term that on the face of it makes sense, but in subtle ways can be blended with more Draconian law enforcement views that move into the territory of Nixon-era law and order. Law and order in the Nixon/ Trump sense is a dog whistle to discriminate against minorities. The law and order meme has resulted in a high US incarceration rate for minorities. Issues with racial profiling and cultural bias are part of this. Law enforcement agencies are in the middle of a national political morass that conflates public safety and the political law and order. In this case, the target minority group is immigrants.

Trump law and order seeks to criminalize 11 million undocumented immigrants, even though being in the US illegally is a civil and not a criminal violation. The overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants are not criminals. Yet, Trump law and order seeks to use every means possible to deport all 11 million immigrants. No “good people on all sides” here. In addressing this messy situation, Giordano admitted that the Sheriff’s Office finds itself in a balancing act that is not easy.

Into this immigration policy landscape comes the TRUST Act overlay, and the Sheriff’s Office is now trying to integrate public comment into where to establish the line of past convictions above which ICE will be notified of undocumented immigrants’ release dates.

The Interim Sheriff said that ICE is going to get the guys they want to. ICE thinks it is easier and safer to get them from jail than from people’s homes. It is also easier to get their targets through courthouse pick-ups. If ICE feels limited in their ability to get people from jail, they may concentrate more on courthouse pick-ups. This all starts to get messy, as an intimidated public does not trust law enforcement and public safety suffers because people are scared to report crimes or to participate in the legal system at all. When 11 million people are seen by the president as default criminals, that kind of nativism percolates into legal and law enforcement systems like poison gas.

It is clear there is political conflation of law enforcement terms and ideas going on, with the nativists and white nationalists talking law and order on one side, and supporters of an American creed of inclusivity on the other. The Sheriffs Office’s emphasis on public safety suffers when conflated by Trumpian law and order, because the Trump program is so clearly racist.

ICE is now working for an administration that wants to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants, and to hire 15,000 new officers, many of whom are ideologically biased. This is likely to recap the mass hiring of many incompetent, and later abusive, Border Patrol agents in the past. These new hires and ICE ideologues will not necessarily be professional, articulate, and fair officers like Chief Sackett and Interim Sheriff Giordano.

Giordano comments: Sheriff’s Office officers never ask about immigration status; it is not their job. The current immigration issue is one of the rare instances where federal law conflicts with the local public safety mission. If the local populace does not trust law enforcement agencies, public safety for all suffers, as crimes are not reported and people shy away from the legal system. Law enforcement is supposed to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies, but the Sheriff’s Office will only help ICE if there is a warrant and if no one but the target person is taken. The Sheriff’s Office won’t go with ICE if they target others without warrants. There have only been two warrants served by ICE at the jail in the last year.

In terms of federal funding, some could be at risk if the county is deemed to not be cooperating with ICE. The county could be sued by the feds for non-cooperation. The Sheriff’s Office is not going to fudge TRUST Act policy just to get the money and equipment, as The Interim Sheriff said this is a matter of principle.

Said Giordano, to conclude, “we are still Americans, we still have the obligation to work together, and try to figure out the balance.” My opinion: the immigrant community should take heart.

PS

Many Americans do not accept the Trump immigration law as valid. Nevertheless, ICE activity today is real and not a fantasy. In order to address the unjust aspects of these executive order-based laws, many Sonoma County groups are mobilized to help undocumented immigrants. One of these groups is the Sonoma Valley Action Coalition, which is working on a three-pronged approach to address legal needs, witness ICE raids with rapid response teams, and support families with transportation. Of note for the SVAC, the business community is almost entirely absent.