PROTEST STAGED BY DETAINEES IMMIGRANTS AT MIRA LOMA ALLEGE DELAYS IN HEARINGS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - More than 120 immigrants awaiting deportation from the United States staged a 4 1/2-hour protest Wednesday at the Mira Loma detention center.

Apparently upset over the wait for court hearings into whether they can be freed or must leave the country, the men occupied a recreation yard at the former Los Angeles County jail.

``They refused to go back into their barracks,'' said Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Scott Gage. ``They apparently had some issues with the delays in their immigration hearings.''

Mira Loma holds about 950 men from dozens of nations. About 85 percent are immigrants targeted for deportation under a 1997 law that greatly expanded the list of crimes for which noncitizens can be expelled.

Other detainees include people seeking asylum on political or religious grounds, or immigrants contesting federal efforts to deport them.

Aerial footage shot by a news crew showed that the protesters, possibly using bed sheets, had spelled out the words ``Help Us'' and ``Ayuda'' - Spanish for help, City News Service reported.

Sheriff's officials called in deputies from the Lancaster sheriff's station and from county jails to reinforce the Mira Loma staff during the protest, but the men eventually gave up peacefully before lunchtime.

``I think they understand some measures are being taken,'' Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.

Agency officials talked with detainees and identified about 100 who are expected to agree to be deported rather than go through hearings.

The agency already had staff at the facility examining detainees' files to try to lessen the hearing backlog, which another federal spokesman said was no worse than at other immigration courts nationwide.

``We can move them but they do have a right to due process and a right to go to court,'' Kice said.

Most detainees spend two to four weeks at Mira Loma, but the stay can be longer depending on an individual's situation or for those who appeal rulings against them, Kice said.

The average wait for the initial court hearing is four weeks, said Greg Gagne, spokesman for the U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review.

There has been an increase in recent weeks in cases in which detainees ask a judge to let them out on bond, Gagne said. The Lancaster Immigration Court, which is on the Mira Loma grounds, has only two of its allotted three judges, but videoconferences let a judge in Virginia help hear cases, Gagne said.

Once a World War II training base for military pilots, later a state prison and a county jail mostly for drunk drivers, Mira Loma jail reopened in 1997 as a detention facility for immigrants awaiting deportation.

The Sheriff's Department runs the facility under a contract with the federal government.