http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3823411

Founder of immigration reform group has long history in region
By Kelly Rayburn and Stephen Wall, Staff Writers

IF YOU GO
Who: San Bernardino City Council
What: Meeting to discuss whether the council should adopt an anti-illegal immigration measure or send it to voters.
When: 3 p.m. May 15
Where: City Hall is at 300 N. D St.
SAN BERNARDINO - Joseph Turner's tenure as an anti-illegal immigration activist dates back to the days of Proposition 187, when he was a senior at Riverside's John W. North High School.
Turner organized a rally in support of the measure, designed to take public services away from illegal immigrants and approved by voters before it was overturned in the courts.

‘‘The rally quickly turned into a speech when nobody would go up there with me,'' Turner said, recalling the angry reactions of some Latino students.

Years later, Turner has almost single-handedly ignited passions again, and this time on a much larger scale.

In San Bernardino, the 29-year-old man has forced the city's hand on a proposal that would, among other things, ban city-funded day-laborer centers, penalize landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and require that city business be conducted only in English, except when higher law mandates otherwise.

‘‘I'm not your average person,'' Turner said in a recent interview. ‘‘I don't shrink from confrontation.''

Indeed not.

Already, the effort has been called mean-spirited, bigoted, racist and even a form of ethnic cleansing.

Opponents have pledged to fight it through a number of methods, including protesting today, writing letters to city officials and organizing massive get-out-the-vote efforts should the measure go to a citywide vote.

Turner himself is the target of much of the criticism.

‘‘I think if he had one wish in the world,'' said Latino activist Gil Navarro, ‘‘he would make all Latinos disappear, legal and illegal.''

Turner dismisses such talk as absurd, and says a number of Latino voters support him.

But he does not deny he has a fight on his hands.

His actions have made San Bernardino a focal point in the heated national debate on illegal immigration and possible border reform. People on both sides of the debate call the consequences huge. Some legal experts say Turner's measure won't hold up in court, even if approved at the ballot box.

But Turner said he is following his philosophy of not ‘‘biting off more than you can chew.''

He has limited manpower and resources, but said he uses them to make a maximum impact.

He has led protests of day-laborer centers, noting that it only takes a handful of demonstrators to stop people from hiring workers.

Turner also drew media attention for a protest of a Baldwin Park monument that Turner said contained blatantly anti-Americans inscriptions.

But while he has generated headlines, he has irked a number of people -- including some on his side of the issue, who say he is too confrontational. And opponents say Turner, who lived in Ventura until last year, is carpet-bagging with his most recent effort.

Turner, who is married and has two children, does have roots in the region.

He grew up in a number of Inland Empire cities. At various times in his childhood he lived, among other places, in San Bernardino, Bloomington, Riverside and Redlands.

He graduated from North High School in 1995, and attended Riverside Community College, where he was active in student government and the campus' Republican student group.

Turner graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in finance in 2000.

He returned to San Bernardino for a time before moving to Chicago in 2001 to take job with a trading firm. He moved to Ventura in 2003.

It was there that he founded the nonprofit group Save Our State.

The home page of the group's Web site asks this question: ‘‘Is your community becoming a 3rd World city?''

The name of his nonprofit set off a dust-up with another anti-illegal immigrant group that had used same name. That group, founded in 1993, pushed for Proposition 187.

Andy Ramirez, who was executive director of the previous Save Our State group and now serves as chairman of the Chino-based Friends of the Border Patrol, said he still hasn't forgiven Turner for ‘‘stealing'' the name.

Turner said he followed all the necessary steps in using the name. But Ramirez has also has taken exception to Turner's style of activism.

In postings on the Internet, Turner's signature line was ‘‘Bring your bats, fellas. If we are lucky, we are gonna need them. PING!''

Ramirez said he ‘‘went ballistic'' when he saw the remark.

‘‘I find it difficult to support somebody whose mission is in-your-face confrontation,'' Ramirez said.

On the immigration debate, Ramirez said, ‘‘This is a volatile issue. You have to be careful about your comments and conduct. If you don't care about that and are trying to pick a fight, we have boxing leagues that allow for that.''

Turner said he has never initiated violence or brought a baseball bat to a demonstration.

He said he used the line not as a reference to any particular demonstration, but, ‘‘Basically to say we're an aggressive organization. I was trying to send the message that we love our country, and we're willing to protect our country.''

Turner said he had been thinking about launching a ballot measure before he established Save Our State.

Consistent with his small-steps approach, he said, he decided that a statewide or even county-wide effort might be too ambitious.

Last year, Turner moved back to San Bernardino, largely because he had lived here before and has family here.

And, he said, San Bernardino was a good place to launch a ballot measure.

A little-used provision of the city's charter forces the city to consider initiatives if signatures equal to 30 percent of the total voters in the last mayoral election are collected.

In 2001, Judith Valles ran unopposed for mayor and citywide voter turnout was just 7,385.

And Turner said he likes the idea of pushing his proposal in San Bernardino for another reason: its high Latino population and relative high number of Democratic voters.

Turner said a victory for his measure in a city with this kind of make-up would be devastating to the opposition.

On Oct. 10, months after moving to the city, he filed with the City Clerk his intention to push the measure.

Navarro called Turner a ‘‘carpetbagging opportunist riding on the anti-immigrant wave of hatred.''

Valles, the first Latina mayor elected in an American city of more than 100,000, reflected on the attention the city is now getting due to Turner's measure.

‘‘It bothers me greatly,'' she said, adding the measure is a symbol of anger over the failure of the federal governments in both the United States and Mexico to control the border.

Turner and Candies Casillas, 20, of San Bernardino, who helped gather signatures, said the bulk of the feedback they received was supportive.

‘‘There was a snide comment every once in a while, but it was mostly positive, which was really surprising,'' Casillas said.

The signatures were collected almost entirely in north San Bernardino, Turner said. Areas south of Highway 30 have lower voter registration and lower voter interest, he said.

‘‘South of the 30 is a ghetto, basically,'' he added.

He made no apologies for sticking to neighborhoods where he thought he would be most effective, and said people of ‘‘all different walks of life on the north end'' signed his petition.

Turner's best guess is that Mayor Pat Morris and the City Council will not adopt his measure, and that it will be sent before voters.

Morris has not commented on the proposal, but is expected to do so today.