Thread: CA: Bill would nix Escondido-like rental laws

Comments being left after the story too at the link.
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Sunday, April 22, 2007


Bill would nix Escondido-like rental laws

By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer

ESCONDIDO -- Some members of the Escondido City Council have said they would like to revisit last year's failed, controversial ordinance that punished landlords for renting to illegal immigrants, but they may not have that chance if a bill proposed in the state Assembly becomes law.

The rental ordinance passed by the council last October got the attention of Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, who decided to make sure similar laws aren't passed elsewhere in the state, he said in recent interviews.

In February, Calderon introduced Assembly Bill 976 that "would prohibit a city, county, or city and county from requiring a landlord to, among other things, compile, disclose, report, provide, or otherwise take any action regarding a tenant or a prospective tenant based on the immigration or citizenship status of that tenant," according to the bill's summary.

The bill passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday by a 7-3 vote and now is headed to the Assembly floor.

"The first thing that struck me was that I'd never seen a city try to develop their own foreign policy before," Calderon said about the Escondido ordinance in a recent interview. "And then it got me thinking, this is just the beginning."

The council eventually backed down from the rental ordinance after a federal judge blocked the law and the city faced a potentially costly lawsuit challenging it.

Under the Escondido rental ordinance that passed on a 3-2 vote last October, landlords found to be "harboring" illegal immigrants would have had 10 business days to remove the tenants, or face penalties ranging from suspension of their business licenses to fines of up to $1,000 a day and six months in jail.

Similar ordinances increasingly have been enacted or considered in more than 30 cities around the nation, it has been reported, most notably in Hazleton, Pa. A law passed there that would punish employers who hire, and landlords who rent to, illegal immigrants is being challenged in a closely watched federal court case.

While Calderon says he has enough support in the Assembly to get his bill passed, two local assemblymen said they oppose it, as do members of the Escondido City Council who passed the city's rental ordinance last year.

"It's just feel-good legislation for them (the bill's supporters)," Councilwoman Marie Waldron, who first proposed Escondido's rental ordinance, said last week. "It has no legal standing as far as I'm concerned."

Local opposition

Waldron, along with Councilmen Sam Abed and Ed Gallo, were the three to vote for the city's rental ordinance, and have continued to be vocal in their beliefs that illegal immigrants are largely to blame for overcrowding, increased crime and a lower quality of life in the city of 140,000 people.

Abed said last week that the bill is "a radical approach" to local attempts to deal with illegal immigration and "is just validating illegal activities."

"You cannot include illegal immigrants in the political process before they become citizens," Abed said.

Two assemblymen who represent parts of Escondido, George Plescia, R-San Diego, and Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, said last week that they oppose AB 976.

"Local decisions are best made at the local level," Plescia said. "I don't like the idea that either the state or federal government will tie the hands of local government."

He said he supported Escondido addressing illegal immigration problems locally because the federal government has yet to deal with the issue.

"Escondido knows what's best for Escondido," Plescia said.

Garrick also said he will vote against the bill.

"I believe that if local individuals and local government want to work cooperatively with local police and local government to enforce our laws, that should be supported," he said.

Abed said that while the city is attempting to deal with the effects of illegal immigration by other means, such as recently proposed overnight street parking restrictions, the council is closely watching the Hazleton case.

If Hazleton wins, "we will probably revisit the issue" of the rental ordinance, Abed said.

Waldron also hopes to bring the law back, she said.

"We'll carefully review the court records from that case and see if we can't strengthen our ordinance," Waldron said.

Federal purview, landlord protection

However, Calderon and other critics of Escondido's rental ordinance and similar laws have said that local governments are overstepping their bounds by taking on a federal issue.

"We need to follow our (federal) laws in terms of immigration. We also can't have every city with their own foreign policy. Realtors don't want to be turned into immigration agents," Calderon said. "Cities forming their own immigration policies is not the way to go about enforcing federal laws pertaining to immigration."

David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties, said last week that his organization supports the bill, although it isn't listed as a registered supporter of the legislation.

The ACLU chapter led the legal battle last year against Escondido's rental ordinance, convincing a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order and then forcing the Escondido council to abandon the law because of the legal challenges presented by the civil rights organization.

"It basically does what we said was the right thing from the beginning, which is basically keep local government out of the immigration business," Blair-Loy said.

It also will protect landlords, he said.

"They're not capable of evaluating immigration status," Blair-Loy said. "It's a federal issue, it's a complex issue, and that's why we leave it to the specialists."

Mixed support from rental groups

Ten apartment associations and civil rights agencies are listed as registered supporters of Calderon's bill, including the Apartment Association of California Southern Cities that is sponsoring the bill.

Nancy Ahlswede, chief executive officer of the association, said last week that her organization supports the bill because landlords shouldn't be required to police their tenants or be responsible for immigration enforcement.

"We felt that was extremely punitive and not within the role of what a provider of housing does," Ahlswede said of Escondido's rental ordinance. "We felt that this (AB 976) would protect the landlords from being put in that untenable position in the state of California."

The only organization listed as opposing the bill is the California Apartment Association, which had joined the ACLU in its legal challenge of Escondido's rental ordinance.

The association, which is the largest rental housing trade association in the United States with more than 50,000 members, doesn't oppose the spirit of the bill, just the wording in one part of it, spokeswoman Debra Carlton said last week.

One section of the bill says that landlords can't "make any inquiry regarding or based on the immigration or citizenship status of a tenant, prospective tenant, occupant, or prospective occupant of residential rental property," nor should a renter have to "make any statement, representation, or certification concerning his or her immigration or citizenship status."

Carlton said this section should be removed from the bill because it would limit the kind of identification landlords can accept from prospective tenants.

"The California Apartment Association has worked to convince its members that Social Security numbers and driver's licenses should not be the only form of identification they should accept," Carlton said. "You don't want a policy that says we only accept Social Security numbers, drivers licenses or American ID."

The law inadvertently would hurt some people it is meant to protect, she said.

"We think it has an unintended consequence for owners and for individuals who are not United States citizens," Carlton said.

But Blair-Loy, of the ACLU, said the apartment association's fears are unfounded.

"I disagree with that concern. I think a landlord can ask for identification. If a landlord asks for identification and the tenant presents their green card, then they present their green card," Blair-Loy said. "If that's the case, I personally don't see that the landlord has demanded information about immigration status specifically."

The full text of the AB 976 is available at www.leginfo.ca.gov.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04 ... _21_07.txt

Charles Calderon represents the 58th District in Southern California. The district is predominately Hispanic. Draw your own conclusions as to what he has to gain by supporting this Bill.