Thread: California city seen as focal point

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3950482

Article Launched: 6/18/2006 12:00 AM


City seen as focal point
SB described as 'tinderbox'
Robert Rogers, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun

SAN BERNARDINO - With a brewing fight over illegal immigration, the summer of 2006 here is in the historic league of the civil-rights battles 50 years ago in Montgomery, Ala.
So say immigrant-rights proponents who gathered Saturday morning for a meeting of the National Alliance of Human Rights.

"San Bernardino has become a tinderbox," said Armando Navarro, a UC Riverside professor who is coordinator for the advocacy group. "This is our Montgomery in many ways."

Navarro exhorted the morning crowd to gather at the Mexican Consul on Monday, where the alliance will deliver a letter of protest charging that Mexican President Vicente Fox's administration has mobilized in support of a conservative candidate in next month's Mexican election, a violation of the country's elections law.

Navarro and others also vowed to descend on Superior Court for the Friday hearing that could determine the future of a signature-driven anti-illegal-immigration initiative that has drawn national attention.

Held at the Norman F. Feldheym Central Library, about 35 people attended the meeting, including Mayor Pat Morris' son and chief of staff, Jim Morris, and Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto.

"This meeting is about keeping our fires hot," Navarro said. "It's an information meeting and a signal that these issues are still in focus."

Navarro said the means and the goal are international: to make sure the voice of the Latino community is felt in political processes north and south of the border. The immigration issue links spots as diverse as Washington, San Bernardino and Mexico City, he said.

Specifically, Navarro called on attendees to urge their friends and family south of the border to support populist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as Mexico's next president and to unseat Republicans in Congress in November.

Speakers repeatedly blasted Fox as a pliant tool in the Bush administration's desire for cheap, exploitable labor. But the meeting began with the fiery Navarro, a longtime advocate who has jousted with Minuteman Project members on the Arizona-Mexico border, silent as he listened intently to Jim Morris.

Morris began the meeting with a lengthy update on the status of a proposed measure to crack down on illegal immigration that garnered more than 3,000 signatures.

The proposed ballot measure, which would target employers and landlords who contract with illegal immigrants, has been challenged on grounds that the threshold for required signatures might not have been met.

"In terms of where we are today, we're in a little bit of the unknown," Morris said.

Morris said the issue will hit a turning point at the June 23 Superior Court hearing after which the initiative will either move a step closer to a September ballot or require another 1,500 signatures, he said.

Morris said the mayor had moral qualms with the initiative's means.

"This kind of proposition has no place in our city," Morris said.

Tensions flared in the otherwise temperate meeting when the initiative's designer, Joseph Turner, slipped into the meeting accompanied by two supporters. Taking a seat by the door with a USC ball cap pulled down low, Turner went unnoticed by most until one woman with him spoke up.

"Why can't you just give the people what they want?" said the woman, who wore a blouse designed like an American flag.

At that, alliance member Maria Anna Gonzalez declared above a growing clamor that Turner and his supporters were unwelcome and called for a vote to expel them from the meeting.

Navarro interceded.

"I have no problem with them being here," he said. "To put it bluntly, we're not discussing strategy, and we don't need to resort to a conflict situation."

Turner sat silently, then left the meeting about 20 minutes later.

Baca, who arrived after Turner left, told the crowd Turner should study the Constitution because his initiative is inconsistent with rights protected therein.

Later, Turner said by phone he was encouraged by what he saw.

"I was pleasantly surprised that the massive mobilization they were supposed to have didn't happen," Turner said of the turnout. "When it comes to broad support, we are the ones who have it.

"The activists and the mayor know they are going to lose big if this goes to the voters, and that's why they're doing everything they can to keep it from the ballot."

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3947746

East Coast city eyes local idea
Anti-illegal-immigration plan moves forward in Pennsylvania
Leonor Vivanco, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun

SAN BERNARDINO - Anti-illegal immigration legislation modeled after a proposal here has advanced in a small city in eastern Pennsylvania, adding fuel to the highly debated issue.
As San Bernardino residents await a court ruling to see whether they will be voting on the city's "Illegal Immigration Relief Act" backed by activist Joseph Turner, the City Council in Hazleton, Pa., on Thursday pushed a similar ordinance toward approval.

Turner's initiative and Hazleton's ordinance would punish those who rent housing to illegal immigrants with a fine of at least $1,000, punish those who hire or do business with illegal immigrants by denial of permits and contracts, and require city communications be done in English. Turner's proposal also would ban city-funded day-labor centers.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta said an ordinance is a tool to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the city.

"It's something that cities can do on their own as the federal government tries to protect the borders of our country. This is a tool cities can use to protect the border of their city."

Immigration is at the forefront of congressional debate and should be handled by the federal government, not locally, said San Bernardino Councilman Gordon McGinnis.

"I think that people across the country are a little annoyed with immigration problems the federal government is having," he said. "Out of frustration, people are trying to take it into their own hands."

Barletta started researching the issue and came across what Turner is trying to do.

"I was really impressed with it," Barletta said. "I'm trying to fix a big-city problem with a small city budget here. We're using so many of our limited resources chasing down illegal immigrants."

Turner said he was "very excited" about Hazleton, where the council could pass the similar ordinance as early as July 13. The council there Thursday approved the first of three readings of the ordinance on a 4-1 vote.

"I feel very gratified, very pleased to see my actions being emulated," Turner said.

Armando Navarro, a UC Riverside professor and coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, is helping plan a political and legal strategy to defeat the proposal. A meeting is set for 9 a.m. today at the Feldheym Central Library, 555 W. Sixth St.

The San Bernardino Democratic Luncheon Club on Friday voted to strongly oppose the measure.

While it appears that at least one other city is mimicking San Bernardino, if Turner's proposal is successful, Navarro said, "it's going to create a multiplier effect."

The proposed act is currently tied up in court, and the council has yet to set an election date.

Turner collected more than 3,000 signatures in favor of it earlier this year, forcing the city to consider adopting it.

By a 4-3 vote at its May 15 meeting, the City Council declined to adopt it itself and sent the question to the voters. At a subsequent meeting, the council was scheduled to set the election, but opted against doing so after facing a legal challenge on whether Turner had collected enough signatures.

The city charter requires that to force a vote on an initiative, signatures collected be equal to 30 percent of the number of people who voted in the last mayoral election.

The city has gone to court to seek seek declaratory relief. A San Bernardino Superior Court judge is expected to decide whether Turner should have used the city's November 2002 election as a benchmark or the February 2006 election in which turnout was relatively high.

Turner signaled his intent to collect the signatures in October, but did not turn them in until after the February election.

It would cost San Bernardino $1.9 million a year to implement the act due to policing, administrative and legal costs, according to a city study. But the city of Hazleton has not identified a cost.

If the act is passed, then that city would end up spending money on something it cannot enforce, McGinnis said.

"It doesn't matter if it goes through. Implementing it is a different story, and that to me is a waste of public money," he said.

But Barletta said such an ordinance could be enforced as city officials "stumble" upon illegal immigrants and then would go after their employers and landlords.

The proposed ordinance may be tweaked, he said, so landlords are not asked to verify citizenship.

He said he wants to use the ordinance to help curb problems, like crimes committed in the city of 31,000 involving illegal immigrants. About 30 percent of the population is Latino, he said. But he did not know how many illegal immigrants live in Hazleton.

The ordinance, he said, does not roll back the welcome mat to immigrants legally in the United States.

But it sends a strong message to people without legal status.

"Illegal immigrants are not wanted or welcome here," Barletta said.

Staff writer Kelly Rayburn contributed to this report.