Is Sheriff Leo Samaniego a Hitler wanna be?

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Sheriff Leo Samaniego

05.23.2006 - AUSTIN -- Some of El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego's border security operations could be illegal and lead to expensive lawsuits, state and local officials said Monday as a top civil rights group announced it is deciding whether to sue.
"As immigration issues hit border states, we must fight to ensure that the civil rights of border citizens are guaranteed," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

State Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, accused Samaniego of conducting illegal immigration raids and roadblocks, and in a letter Friday asked Gov. Rick Perry to rein in local law enforcement. El Paso County Attorney José Rodríguez said he has Related Articles
Deputies instilling fear in residents, groups say


received a flood of complaints and is monitoring the department to safeguard the county from liability.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Rick Glancey said the allegations are baseless and politically motivated by Shapleigh. Samaniego has endorsed Shapleigh's Republican opponent Dee Margo in the coming November election.

"There's been a tremendous amount of push from various organizations to make accusations, and it's kind of like that old saying, throw some mud and see if something sticks," Glancey said.

Hinojosa, chairman of the Senate Hispanic Caucus, said Samaniego is misusing money Perry provided border sheriffs for Operation Linebacker. He said legal concerns motivated

Hinojosa

him to write Perry, not political worries of Shapleigh, vice chairman of the caucus.

Texas law prohibits peace officers from engaging in activities designed to uncover undocumented immigrants.

"He's getting caught up in all this hysteria against immigrants, and I will almost guarantee to you that if he does not cease this type of action, there will be a lawsuit," Hinojosa said.

He asked Perry to develop a strict policy for use of Operation Linebacker funds. Under Operation Linebacker, sheriff's deputies work as a second line of defense to the U.S. Border Patrol, arresting undocumented immigrants who commit crimes.

Perry has sent more than $367,000 to each of 16 sheriffs in the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition through the federal Byrne Grant program, intended to fight the drug war on the border.

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said border sheriffs know the grant money is to be used to increase law enforcement presence on the border and deter crime, not to enforce immigration laws.

"To our knowledge, there has not been any misuse of those funds," she said.

Hinojosa said he has heard widespread complaints about detentions based on a person's "looking Mexican" from the operation in El Paso County.

In the letter to Perry, Hinojosa said community organizers have reported roadblocks in which sheriff's deputies ask vehicle occupants for their driver licenses, insurance information and social security cards.

Glancey said that because more than 90 percent of El Paso's population in some areas is Hispanic, it only makes sense a majority of arrests would be of Hispanics.

What Hinojosa called immigration raids, specifically referring to an incident last month in which sheriff's deputies led Border Patrol agents to arrest 26 undocumented immigrants at an East El Paso quarry, Glancey said were welfare checks in which citizens have reported unhealthy or suspicious living conditions.

Additionally, Glancey said, there was no way to determine which of the departments' operations are funded by the federal grant Perry awarded the county.

"We have to respond to complaints from people who live in that area," he said.

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No action taken on overtime pay for sheriffs


05.23.2006 - Lawyers for a sheriffs union on Monday asked county commissioners to rescind a 2005 order that denies overtime pay to employees unless they work more than 171 hours in 28 days.
After public and executive session discussions, county commissioners took no action during their regular meeting Monday.

The union attorneys said the current rule, adopted in January 2005, requires sheriff employees, including detectives, officers, deputies and detention officers, to work about 43 hours a week before they qualify for overtime pay.

County Judge Dolores Briones said discussion, including appropriate procedure and legal arbitration, will continue.

"We need to allow the process to run," she said.

Gerry Cichon, a lawyer for the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas who is representing the union in the matter, said the current overtime rule is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement between the association and the county, and the resulting actions of the sheriff amount to little more than retaliation.

But Sheriff Leo Samaniego said the argument is politically motivated.

"What I witnessed in court today was pure politics," Samaniego said in a prepared statement. "The court allowed a public character assassination at my expense."

He said the overtime decision was made not by himself, but by Commissioners Court at the advice of the county attorney.

But Cichon said Samaniego retaliated against the president and vice president of the El Paso County Sheriff's Officers Association after they supported lawsuits in favor of 40-hour work weeks and compensated overtime. After they expressed support, Cichon said, Samaniego ordered that anyone in the office with a rank above corporal who is a member of the union board step down or be demoted. Samaniego also took away the association leave that was previously allowed, which meant the donated time off members had given to the association for association business could no longer be used, Cichon said.

The clearest sign of retaliation could be seen when Samaniego fired the association president Marvin Ryals and association vice president Kevin Quinn soon after they began questioning the overtime rule, Cichon said.

"The sheriff admitted the ... lawsuit was one of the reasons for their termination," Cichon said. "It is union busting."

He had asked county commissioners to reinstate Ryals and Quinn in some capacity within the county until their case could be resolved.

"We are trying not to sue the county because it's not going to help our clients," Cichon said.

But after commissioners took no action on reversing its overtime ruling Monday and did not place the two in alternative positions, Cichon said the lawsuits will continue.

Several community and law enforcement leaders spoke at Monday's meeting in support of the employees' desire for a 40-hour work week, including state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, and a representative for Mayor John Cook, who read a statement from Cook in support of the change to a 40-hour week.

"It is the standard in industry and in the city," Shapleigh said. "I ask you to make it the standard in the County of El Paso."

Ryals is a 28-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office and had the rank of lieutenant. Quinn was a sergeant and employed there for nearly 20 years -- just months shy of retirement.

"Whether they were retaliated (against) and fired for representing the deputies of El Paso County or for expressing their First Amendment rights in a political race, we ask you to put these two gentlemen back to work," Shapleigh said. "They have done everything they have been asked to do as sheriffs deputies."

Samaniego said he has done nothing wrong in terminating the two.

"In my capacity as sheriff I have terminated numerous individuals for violating agency policy or for criminal actions. I have also reprimanded numerous people for lesser actions. The disciplinary action has always been fair," he said. "I will not compromise my ability to act fairly because of political pressure."

Cichon said 160 grievances have already been filed stemming from the overtime issue, and he said each is expected to cost the county between $4,000 and $6,000 to resolve.

He said additional grievances may be filed as more of the approximately 800 Sheriff's Office employees find cause.

"(Samaniego) has picked a fight with the wrong people on the wrong issue at the wrong time and he has to answer for it," Cichon said.

Samaniego said the public will soon learn about the entire issue, particularly as it relates to Ryals and Quinn.

"There are two sides to the story," he said. "The other side will be played out in a fair tribunal."

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05.23.2006 - Perry asked to clarify 'racial profiling'
5/23/2006 1:53 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff

EL PASO -- A South Texas lawmaker worried about racial profiling asked Gov. Rick Perry to specify how the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition is permitted to spend nearly $10 million in border security grant money.

Democratic Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa sent Perry a letter Friday. He expressed concern that El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego is using a $376,500 grant to run roadblocks and raids aimed at ferreting out illegal immigrants.

The lawmaker says people are being detained on a hunch that they "look" illegal.

Samaniego denies wrongdoing and says he welcomes scrutiny.

The checkpoints are legal and designed to keep unlicensed and uninsured drivers off the road, the coalition's interim executive director said.

The governor hasn't formally responded to Hinojosa, a Perry spokeswoman said.

Money given to the counties was awarded to reduce crime and so far has been successful, the spokeswoman said.

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Complaint Filed Against Sheriff Samaniego

Local civil rights activist says Operation Linebacker needs to be better defined.

05.27.2006 - Saturday, May 27, 2006 — An official complaint has been filed against El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego for violating civil rights.

In the lawsuit filed by Carl Starr, he says back in March a deputy stopped and boarded a bus after he said the driver crossed a white line.

Starr says the deputy then asked everyone on board for their ID's, and took six hispanic men off the bus when they said they did not have theirs.

According to Starr the deputy admitted he was with Operation Linebacker, and Starr says he was going beyond his duties and illegally enforcing immigration law.

A spokesman from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said he can not comment on the lawsuit because it has not been received by the sheriff's office.

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Residents call for El Paso to sheriff to step down

May 31, 2006 - EL PASO, Texas - About 2,000 El Paso County residents are calling on Sheriff Leo Samaniego to resign.

The petition, organized by the Border Network for Human Rights, accuses Samaniego of enforcing immigration laws in illegal raids and traffic stops around the county as part of Operation Linebacker, a state-funded program that helps pay for border-area deputies to be a ``second line of defense'' for the U.S. Border Patrol.

Organizers from the Border Network say the sheriff is targeting immigrant communities and creating a sense of fear.

Samaniego has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said in a written statement that he will not resign.

``I have dealt with this organization previously, and it is my experience that they have a history of misrepresenting the facts,'' Samaniego said of the Border Network. ``In an open democracy everyone participates from freedom of speech to voting at the polls. I will practice my form of democracy by waiting for the voters to have a final say in the next election.''

Samaniego has been El Paso's sheriff since 1985 and is up for re-election in 2008.

State Sen. Juan ``Chuy'' Hinojosa, D-McAllen, expressed concern for whether Samaniego was using racial profiling in a letter to Gov. Rick Perry earlier this month. Hinojosa's letter asked for guidelines on how the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, which includes all 16 border sheriffs in Texas, can spend nearly $10 million in state funds under Operation Linebacker.