Illegal immigration issue back on Escondido council agenda
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01 ... 1_8_07.txt
Illegal immigration issue back on Escondido council agenda; Waldron says battle isn't over
Jan 8, 2007
By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer
ESCONDIDO -- Two months after a federal judge shot down the Escondido City Council's attempt to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants, illegal immigration is once again on the council's agenda.
A resolution that states the council's opinion on illegal immigration, but creates no new ordinance or policy, is among several items the council will consider Wednesday when it meets at 4 p.m. at City Hall, 201 N. Broadway.
Although the resolution doesn't have the teeth of the rental ordinance passed last year by the council, Councilwoman Marie Waldron said Monday it is meant to send a message that the council hasn't given up its campaign against illegal immigration.
"It's to state our commitment to continue the fight against illegal immigration," said Waldron, who put the resolution on the meeting agenda and initiated last year's rental ordinance. "A lot of people are under the wrong impression that we've given up."
But Consuelo Martinez, coordinator of the Escondido Human Rights Committee, a grassroots organization that opposed the rental ordinance, said she is upset to see the city council continue its focus on illegal immigration, a matter she said was best left to the federal government. The resolution won't have any real effect other than to upset some people in the community, she said.
"It's just more giving an opinion, but it's not anything that's productive or will really change anything," Martinez said. "It's not a smart move for local governments to get involved in something that is supposed to be a federal issue."
The resolution cites several negative effects of illegal immigration, including that it "leads to higher crime rates, contributes to overcrowded classrooms and failing schools, ... and destroys our neighborhoods and diminishes our overall quality of life."
The resolution requests that the federal government take action to authorize local governments to make inquiries into people's immigration status and allow local governments to address the problems associated with illegal immigration themselves.
In October, the council passed an ordinance by a 3-2 vote that made Escondido the first California city to ban landlords from renting property to illegal immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and other civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit in November challenging the law's constitutionality.
Later that month, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the city from enforcing the housing ordinance. In December, Escondido city leaders dropped support for the ordinance, saying the pending legal battle would be too costly.
But Waldron said Monday the ordinance's failure was just "a skirmish in a long battle."
She said she hopes to rewrite the rental ordinance and bring it back to the council, as well as explore other ways to address illegal immigration such as targeting employers who hire illegal immigrants.
In other business, the council will discuss a growing pay gap between the mayor and city council members, which results from the mayor earning a higher salary but receiving the same percentage pay increase as other council members with each raise.
The council also is expected to approve the rezoning of the 74-acre Henry Avocado Ranch for the construction of 98 homes on part of the property, the funding of a new cashier system for the city, and the refinancing of bonds for the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, among other items.
