Immigration Debate Goes Local

"In December, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan R. Mansoor, an Orange County deputy sheriff in real life as well as the child of immigrants, proposed requiring city police to check the immigration status of anyone stopped for even minor offenses, and detain those suspected of being in the country illegally. The c City c Council, on a 3-2 vote, approved a more limited plan for perhaps 30 detectives, gang control officers, and jail personnel to receive federal training and certification to check the bona fides only of suspects picked up for serious crimes. An estimated 1,500 people rallied against the plan at City Hall on Saturday.

Mansoor didn't answer my request to talk about the program. But he has suggested publicly that he was responding to a clamor by Costa Mesa voters for action on illegal immigration. Well, not all voters, perhaps. The measure has split the suburban community, of which more than 30% is Latino; scarcely a council meeting passes without vehement expressions of support and angry denunciations alike coming from the audience. A call for a boycott of local businesses that refused to oppose the measure split residents even further."

"What irks some critics is that the board's narrow majority pulled the plan out of thin air.

'There wasn't a study session held on it, the community wasn't dialed into the process,' says Ivan Calderon, a community activist and businessman who founded his chain of five Taco Mesa and Taco Rosa restaurants in Costa Mesa 14 years ago. 'I believe the focus of our municipality has to be to keep the city safe, minimize crime, instill trust, and get people working together so they feel comfortable coming forward. Now people are already afraid of going out.'"