Thread: Patch of California Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants

Patch of California Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants

By IAN LOVETT
January 4, 2011
MURRIETA, Calif.

Protests erupted across Southern California last year when Arizona adopted its tough immigration law: immigrant rights advocates staged rallies in cities like San Diego and Santa Barbara; Los Angeles severed economic ties with Arizona.

But just 50 miles east of Los Angeles, a handful of cities have started crackdowns similar to those in Arizona on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

In what may be the single most Democratic state in the country, with a huge, fast-growing Latino population, the area known as the Inland Empire — a sprawl of suburbs, old and new — has emerged as a pocket of ideological resistance in a state that has grown increasingly averse to crackdowns on immigration.

Late last month, Murrieta became the fifth Inland Empire city to require all businesses to check the legal status of new employees with E-Verify, an online federal government system designed to confirm employment eligibility. Businesses that do not comply could lose their licenses.

Just north of a highway immigration checkpoint, Murrieta and Temecula, where an E-Verify ordinance took effect on Saturday, are cities with white-majority populations, surrounded by agricultural wine-growing areas.

With unemployment over 15 percent in much of the Inland Empire, locals say illegal immigrants have inundated industries like fast-food and construction, leaving American citizens unable to find any jobs.

Their complaints echo some of those that helped lead to the crackdown in Arizona.

“We’re a conservative area, and we’ve had an outcry from our citizens,â€

Yes, the number of IA's here is going down, the economy is in the tank so they have no means for employment here. Murrieta is a mix of people, but it seems that everyone here wants the law enforced and we are doing our best to see that it is.

Thanks Murrieta!

Ken