Clad in a crisp salmon dress shirt and pressed beige dress pants, Bergquist naturally emanates the scholarly vibe of a solemn law student. Short dirty blond curls top off his tall, sturdy stature; a pair of glasses frames his light blue eyes.

Not only is he an expert in the social, economical and political issues facing immigrants, he is well versed in the firsthand experience of it as well.

“It’s my life experience, my own experience,” Bergquist, 41, said. “I moved in circles as a kid. I’ve grown up in a couple of different places, between here and Europe.”

Originally from Sweden, he attended elementary school in Washington, D.C. and finished his secondary education back in his homeland. He eventually returned to D.C. to earn a bachelor’s degree in politics at Georgetown University.

He continued his studies in Vancouver and Amsterdam, earning his master’s in immigration studies.

“Once in a while you’re out of the bubble and see that people react differently to immigration,” Bergquist acknowledged. “The hostility [toward immigrants] that I’ve seen in both the U.S. and in Europe is not something that I relate to in terms of what I’ve seen growing up. There was that contrast that just seemed a very oppressing political issue.”

In the following years, he worked for a think tank in D.C. while officially residing in Europe—“sort of commuting back and forth,” he explained.

Then several years ago, he defied his nomadic nature and settled down in Los Angeles with his wife, a doctoral candidate at UCLA.  

After passing some time working at a wine store while searching for jobs, Bergquist two years ago found his place at last—as a policy advocate at the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

CHIRLA, founded in 1986, is a nonprofit organization that rallies for the rights of Los Angeles immigrants at all levels of government. With about a hundred fee-paying members and 20 full-time staff members, it spearheads a growing grassroots effort to educate and empower the vast and diverse immigrant community in Los Angeles. Funded by annual membership fees and grants from various foundations, CHIRLA does not ask members about their legal status, Bergquist said.

Bringing his broad expertise and knowledge of immigration policies to a metropolis notorious for its remarkable volume of both documented and undocumented immigrants was nothing short of fresh and fitting, he said.

“Los Angeles is one of the most diverse places on the planet, with half the population of the county made of immigrants,” Bergquist added.

The most pressing issue on his current agenda is a program called Secure Communities (S-Comm). A federal fingerprint program implemented in August, 2009, S-Comm automatically links the Los Angeles Police Department with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

When the LAPD arrests someone, his or her fingerprint would be automatically matched with federal records via S-Comm. If he or she turns out to be an undocumented immigrant, ICE could then ask the LAPD to detain the arrestee until an agent comes to pick him or her up for questioning.

Because of this program, undocumented immigrants arrested for breaking a law as trivial as street vending end up being deported even if they have clean records, Bergquist said.

“Deportations are definitely on the uptick,” he acknowledged. “Deportations of individuals who have no criminal background are also on the uptick.”

Though a very rare occurrence in the past, five to 10 such cases were recently brought to CHIRLA’s attention, he added.

The federal government allocates enough resources to deport about 400,000 individuals per year.

“They go after low-hanging fruit as well as serious criminals,” Bergquist says. “They won’t admit the first part,” he added.

Low-hanging fruit, he explains, is someone who just happens to have been arrested, whether it is for selling tacos on a sidewalk or speeding on the way to work.

Consequently, thousands of people with no criminal background in L.A. County have been deported per federal government statistics. However, it is difficult to find a more detailed breakdown of those numbers.

“They tend not to release a lot of those numbers,” Bergquist said. “They will highlight the murders or DUI convictions, but they won’t say, a thousand of them were on the way to work. When we hear about it, given that people are reluctant to report and our resources are finite, we infer that there are more.”

Bergquist devotes much of his time bringing to light these issues of what he calls injustice with community leaders, acting as something of an emissary for CHIRLA’s disgruntled members. After all, a dangerous program like S-Comm can easily dismantle the public safety initiatives of a community, he said.

“With Secure Communities, we can’t in good faith tell victims of crime to call 911,” he acknowledged. “Who wants to report crime when people are wary of the police now more than ever before?”

Reach Esther Kang here. Follow on Twitter here.