“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses the Alternatives to Detention program as one way to monitor individuals it releases into the community,” says the Alternatives to Detention: ICE Needs to Better Assess Program Performance and Improve Contract Oversight report.

ICE’s absconders

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is spending $2.2 billion on a contract to make sure undocumented migrants waiting for immigration court don’t “abscond” before their legal fate is decided. But flight risk is growing, not least in San Diego, which has a 20 percent “absconsion rate.” That has the city tied with Atlanta, Georgia for fifth on a list of eleven American cities, with El Paso and San Antonio, Texas coming in first at 50 percent, and Buffalo, New York last with 15 percent.

“Enforcement and Removal Operations considers [Alternatives to Detention] participants to have absconded if the individual flees from their current address without any notification or forwarding information and neither the contractor nor ERO can locate the individual,” says a June 22 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, entitled Alternatives to Detention: ICE Needs to Better Assess Program Performance and Improve Contract Oversight. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses the Alternatives to Detention program as one way to monitor individuals it releases into the community,” says the document, using “electronic monitoring and case management to help ensure that individuals enrolled comply with release conditions, such as appearing at immigration court hearings.”

According to the findings, “ICE has wide discretion to detain or release individuals of foreign nationality awaiting resolution of their immigration court proceedings, except for individuals subject to mandatory detention.” But, the audit continues, “ICE does not fully assess the contractor against the standards for performance established in the contract. Further, ICE does not follow-up or document whether the contractor takes actions to resolve issues it identifies through audits of ATD case files.”

Barrio’s chemical emergency

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control “has issued an Emergency Permit to the BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair to treat hazardous waste through a controlled reaction with a chemical solution,” per an environmental review Notice of Exemption posted June 7 by California regulators. “Specifically, two 205-liter containers and one 20-liter container of Derakane 8084, and three 205-liter containers of Derakane 510 must be stabilized prior to transport to an authorized hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility.”

Toni Atkins gulps Gallo’s generous gift on behalf of abortion rights.

According to the notice, the stash of deadly chemicals is kept at BAE Systems, 2205 East Belt Street, at the foot of Sampson. “As a safety precaution to prevent an accident or severe injury, an Emergency Permit should be issued to chemically stabilize the hazardous waste prior to storage and eventual transportation off-site by Clean Harbors Environmental Services.” BAE was a key big-money player in the successful 2014 referendum by military contractors to overturn the Barrio Logan community plan, coming up with $75,000 to overturn what the ship industry argued were too many environmental limits on ship repair operations.

Toni’s abortion cash

The recently re-branded ballot measure committee of San Diego’s Democratic state Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins has a new donor: E & J Gallo Winery of Modesto, which came up with $5000 on June 21. Formerly known as California Works, the political fund is now called Protect Constitutional Abortion Rights, supported by health care organizations, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, and Senator Toni Atkins Ballot Measure Committee.

Atkins isn’t neglecting her other source of political wealth, the Toni Atkins for Lt. Governor 2026 committee, which got $5000 each from the Doctors Company PAC (aka DOCPAC) of Napa on Jun 19, Women in Power (WIP) PAC of Sacramento on June 15, and Park West Casinos Inc. of Los Angeles on June 7. Nathaniel Simons, of Meritage Group LP of Berkeley, kicked in a total of $8800 on June 3.

Nathaniel Simons: Berkeley big boy backs Atkins’ ambitions

Doctors Company is the state’s biggest medical malpractice insurer. Recent givers to Women in Power include Uber Innovation PAC ($20,000, April 18), California Hospital Association PAC ($10,000, March 28), California Real Estate PAC ($7500, April 16), and Motor Vehicle Software Corporation ($10,000, April 21). The casino outfit, owned by Petaluma’s John Park, per an April 7 account posted by the Los Angeles Wave, has bought the gambling unit of the Bicycle Hotel & Casino and was recently before the Bell Gardens city council seeking an operating license. “A report prepared by Bell Gardens Police Chief Scott Fairfield and Lt. Paul Camacho indicated that the state’s Bureau of Gambling Control ran an initial background report of the purchase that did not reveal ‘any disqualifying information that would preclude the issuance of a card room business license’ to Parkwest Bicycle Casino,” according to the post. Noted a May 13 post by real estate site The Real Deal: “The sale [to Parkwest] comes after a years-long money-laundering investigation into the casino, which resulted in the property agreeing to pay $500,000 to settle federal violations of anti-money laundering rules last November.” Adds the account: “Parkwest Casinos operates five casinos — in Livermore, Sacramento, Lodi, Rancho Cordova and Manteca. The Bicycle property is Parkwest’s first in Southern California and in Los Angeles.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

The Reader offers $25 for news tips published in this column. Call our voice mail at 619-235-3000, ext. 440, or sandiegoreader.com/staff/matt-potter/contact/.