Tickets for council meeting under fire in Waukegan
Immigrant advocate files for restraining order

By Andrew L. Wang
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 16, 2007, 4:06 PM CDT

UPDATE: A judge has ordered Waukegan city officials to distribute half of the tickets for tonight's council meeting at City Hall, which is accessible by public transportation, instead of handing all out at a city property at 201 Seahorse Dr. that Mexican American activists said would be too "inconvenient" for some people to attend.

A Mexican-American group has filed for a temporary-restraining order in Lake County, calling on a judge to order Waukegan officials to adhere to the state Open-Meetings Act.

The Police Department, which expects hundreds, if not thousands, to turn out for a City Council meeting and a preceding protest tonight, is limiting attendance at the 8 p.m. meeting to 400 members of the public and requiring anyone who wants to go to get a ticket.

The council is slated to take a vote on whether to apply for a controversial federal training program that would empower Waukegan police to enforce immigration laws and initiate deportation proceedings against immigrants who have committed serious crimes, such as rape, murder and drug offenses.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, acting on behalf of three Waukegan plaintiffs, filed for the restraining order this morning, arguing that the location where police are distributing tickets for the meeting is difficult to get to and will prevent some people from attending.

"The ticket distribution system for admission to the City Council meeting violates the Open Meetings Act because it is needlessly inconvenient for interested members of the public who wish to attend the meeting," the request for a restraining order stated. "Plaintiffs have a right to attend the City Council meeting without the inconvenience and burden necessitated by the proposed ticket-distribution system."

Police have said tickets will be available starting at 4 p.m. at the south Beach House of the Waukegan Municipal Beach, located at the south end of Sea Horse Drive.

But City Hall, at 100 Martin Luther King Ave., is about two miles from the ticketing site, and there is no public transportation there, nor are there sidewalks, according to the court filing.

As of about 1 p.m., attorneys for both the city and Legal Defense Fund were waiting for a judge to weigh the order.

Meanwhile, officials are bracing for activists from all sides of the immigration debate to descend on the city in advance of the vote.

Lake County officials are shutting down government offices, located across the street from where demonstrators will set up shop, at 4 p.m.

Latino activists plan to hold a news conference, prayer vigil and rally at 5 p.m.

What started out with a whisper—no members of any activist group were at the June 18 meeting when the Waukegan council voted 7-2 to authorize police to apply for the training program—has turned into a roar.

Mayor Richard Hyde and other officials have said the program, referred to as 287(g) after a section of the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, would allow officers to start deportation proceedings for immigrants—legal or illegal—convicted of crimes such as murder, rape and drug-related felonies. The goal is to oust criminals, not persecute immigrants obeying the law, Hyde said.

But Latino activists argue that the program could lead to abuses by police against the Spanish-speaking immigrant community and would prevent some from reporting crimes to authorities for fear of being deported.

At today's council meeting, aldermen are set to revote on authorizing Police Chief William Biang to apply to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to participate in the program.

If the council votes to continue pursuing the program, Latino activists have threatened to boycott businesses that don't disapprove of it.

William Gheen, national head of Americans for Legal Immigration, said several local groups that support the program will attend the meeting.

"We're [going to be] there in support of the existing laws and in support of 287(g)," he said.
alwang@tribune.com

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