Investigators Search Hermandad Offices

SANTA ANA —  State and county investigators seized records and computer equipment from the Santa Ana office of a Latino immigrant rights organization Tuesday and shut down operations for the entire day as they investigated “voting by unqualified persons” in last fall’s election.

About a dozen armed agents from the offices of the Orange County district attorney and the secretary of state arrived at Hermandad Mexicana Nacional in two blue vans about 7:30 a.m., serving a search warrant on the lone maintenance worker in the building at that hour.

Nearly 12 hours later, most of the agents left with at least 15 boxes of documents and computer hardware. Four other agents remained in the building, and it was unclear whether the search would be completed Tuesday night. The district attorney’s office would not comment on the items seized.

The search followed a monthlong investigation by state and local agencies into allegations of voter fraud and voting by noncitizens in the November election, triggered by a complaint by defeated Garden Grove Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan. Investigators have been assisted by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which keeps records on the residency status of immigrants.

Bert Corona, the Los Angeles-based executive director of the national group, said Tuesday that Hermandad is the victim of a political vendetta. He said the Orange County district attorney’s office is acting at the behest of Dornan, who is contesting his election defeat.

“It’s all part of the question of Dornan’s defeat,” Corona said. “His folks asked the D.A. to put this search warrant into effect. It wasn’t necessary. They know they can come here any time. We don’t have anything to hide.”

Investigators in the past three weeks have talked with people registered by Hermandad in an effort to determine whether laws were broken by the organization, authorities said.

In separate interviews last month, 19 people told The Times they registered to vote at Hermandad while taking citizenship classes there but before finishing the naturalization process. Most also said they voted before they were sworn in. Both actions could be prosecuted as felonies and could subject violators to deportation.

All the voters cast ballots in the 46th Congressional District, where Dornan, a veteran conservative Republican, was defeated by political newcomer Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove). After his defeat by 984 votes, Dornan immediately claimed the election was marred by voter fraud, including voting by noncitizens.

On Tuesday, Dornan said, “Since Thanksgiving Day, I always felt the story was bigger than me or one congressional seat. Regardless, I was not going to pack up my tent and slink off into the night believing I had been victimized in an unfair election. I will stand and fight.”

Civil rights activists and Latino leaders expressed outrage Tuesday and said the action could discourage new citizens from voting.

“I fear that we may be taking a meat ax to a discrete problem, and in the process chilling the interest of legitimate voters,” said Robert Rubin, deputy director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco.

“Certainly, we do not support any illegal registration of voters, but I have not seen any numbers that convince me that this problem is widespread.”

Others worried that voter registration among Latinos would lose the momentum it has gained over the last several years.

“What is the effect going to be on the voting empowerment movement in the Latino community that has been growing in the last three or four years?” said Jess Araujo of the Latin American Voters Assn.

“My concern is that we don’t allow any kind of controversy to dampen this growth, this enthusiasm. I just hope that whatever controversy arises today or tomorrow can be kept in perspective.”

Dozens of clients seeking help with immigration papers or other services arrived at the Hermandad office Tuesday only to find a “closed” sign posted in English and Spanish. “Come back tomorrow,” some were told by Jay Lindsey, the organization’s spokesman.

Nativo Lopez, executive director of the Santa Ana office, where 10,000 people took classes to become citizens last year, did not appear at the site. Lopez, 45, a Latino rights activist from his high school days, won a seat on the Santa Ana Unified School District board in the fall election.

Lopez attended Tuesday night’s school board meeting, but refused to comment on the search.

The large two-story building was surrounded by yellow police tape and several investigators from the district attorney’s office stood guard in the parking garage as Hermandad staff members gathered in the parking lot under a chilly gray sky and conferred with several attorneys.

The search inconvenienced several tenants who rent space in Hermandad’s building, including attorney Dennis Camene, who hastily set up an alternate meeting place with clients and a court reporter in the parking lot. “Hey, I don’t know anything about this,” he said. “I’m just a renter here.”

A nonprofit food distribution network that usually works out of Hermandad’s building set up a tent in the parking lot and handed out boxes of groceries to dozens of elderly clients.

Prosecutors obtained permission for the search late Monday, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, who is in charge of the investigation.

The search warrant was authorized by Municipal Court Judge James Brooks, based on a lengthy affidavit filed with him by prosecutors.

“A search warrant affidavit establishes probable cause for a magistrate to believe that evidence of a crime would be found in the place to be searched,” Wade said.

Hermandad last month acknowledged that some noncitizens who were taking classes at Hermandad cast ballots before they were sworn in but attributed the problem to misunderstandings and their eagerness to vote.

On Saturday, Hermandad officials said they had interviewed about 100 Hermandad students and staff members in an internal investigation and found no wrongdoing. Also that day, about 300 Hermandad supporters demonstrated at Times offices in Orange County and Los Angeles and urged a boycott of the newspaper.

Lopez, Hermandad’s director, also has said a congratulatory letter given by INS officers to people completing a citizenship interview could have led people to wrongly believe they were already citizens.

INS District Director Richard Rogers said Tuesday the district has added a sentence to the letter that clarifies when applicants become citizens. Earlier, Rogers announced he was suspending interviews by INS officers that had been held at Hermandad’s Santa Ana office until the district attor-ney’s office concluded its investigation.

In a letter to Rogers last week, Mark Rosen, an attorney for Hermandad, said no laws were broken when prospective citizens registered prior to completing their naturalization. He said state law contains special provisions that allow new citizens to register in advance of their swearing-in ceremonies.

That position was disputed in a legal analysis issued Tuesday by Secretary of State Bill Jones.

Jones said it is not his opinion, “nor was it the intent of the Legislature to create a classification allowing noncitizens to register to vote.”

Latino activists have said Dornan’s complaints of voter fraud are hypocritical because in 1984 Dornan registered to vote from a vacant office building in Buena Park that he was using as a campaign headquarters, an apparent election code violation. Dornan was not prosecuted.

Attorney Michael Schroeder, who is representing Dornan in his appeal of the election results to the House of Representatives, applauded Tuesday’s search. But he criticized the district attorney’s office for failing to call back or inform them about the progress of the investigation.

“While we are pleased that the district attorney has finally served a search warrant to preserve evidence of widespread voter fraud in this election, we are disappointed that [he] has not expressed any interest in any of the evidence we have developed,” said Schroeder.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Dexter Filkins and H.G. Reza and correspondents Hope Hamashige and Jeff Kass.

* LEFT OUT: Immigrants seeking help in acquiring citizenship had to be turned away during the raid at Hermandad. A12

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Hermandad Mexicana Nacional

* Offices: Santa Ana, Anaheim, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, New York

* Mission: Nonprofit organization says its purpose is “to develop, improve and advance the economical, political, social, cultural, linguistic and educational interest of workers of Mexican descent”

* What it does: Teaches English, conducts citizenship courses, provides legal assistance

* Annual budget: $2.5 million

* Employees: 30 (Santa Ana and Los Angeles County offices)

* Officers: Bert Corona, executive director; Nativo Lopez, regional executive director; Juan Garcia, news director; Tony Montano, bookkeeper

* Clients served: 13,000 last year (Santa Ana and Los Angeles County offices)

Source: Hermandad Mexicana Nacional