Ron Powell, director of communications and community relations for the Port of San Diego, said that two Harbor Police officers who made contact with a Southwestern College student and her boyfriend demonstrated due diligence during a routine patrol incident.
Ayded Reyes, 20, who is on the college’s track and field team, was detained Oct. 20 after Harbor Police officers found her with no valid identification.
Harbor Police officers were on a routine patrol when they spotted a vehicle parked at Cesar Chavez Park at 11:02 p.m., which is during closed hours, according to Powell.
“With a car being there after closing time, they (the officers) went up to the car to see who was in it and what was going on,” Powell said.
One officer asked the male driver to produce identification, which he did. Then the other officer asked Reyes for her ID.
“She did not have a driver’s license (with her) but said she did have one,” Powell said. “The officers ran a driver’s license check and couldn’t find one (a California driver’s license) with her name.”
Reyes then produced anything she had to show who she was, including her school ID.
Powell said that both were asked for identification because she and her boyfriend were in a place they shouldn’t have been at that time.
Within the San Diego Harbor Police Department policy manual 428 of immigration violations, section 428.3.4, Identification, “Whenever any individual is reasonably suspected of a criminal violation (infraction, misdemeanor or felony), the investigating officer should take reasonable steps to determine the person’s identity through valid identification or other reliable sources.”
After things didn’t check out with Reyes, one of the officers called the Border Patrol, which had a unit in the area.
“The officer from Border Patrol responded and they took over from there,” Powell said.
San Diego Border Patrol agent and spokesman Scott Simon said his agency does not release whether or not an individual was detained.
“We don’t give out names of people who are detained,” Simon said. “Ever.”
Chula Vista Congressman Bob Filner was contacted by Reyes’ parents for help and called the incident “horrendous.”
In an effort to protect Reyes from facing deportation, Filner introduced a “private bill” on her behalf that should stall any deportation.
“We’e going to try to protect her through a ‘private bill,’ which offers citizenship for a person who is not eligible in other ways,” he said in a previous interview.
Filner’s office has worked with numerous similar cases over the years and said passing the bill was difficult because Republicans call it amnesty.
Reyes was born in Mexico but brought to the United States by her parents as a toddler and has been here since, according to Filner.
Powell said a student ID does not constitute as a valid, government issued identification, which would be a passport, driver’s license, birth certificate or Social Security card.
In addition, he said the fact that Reyes said she had a California driver’s license, but officers could not find one registered to her, raised suspicion.
“The officer doesn’t know if that person has a warrant out on them,” Powell said. “From the Port’s perspective, it appears that Harbor Police did everything by the book in this instance,” he said.
