http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 6765.story

City's Border Push Sparks Outcry
# Immigration activists sound off at a Costa Mesa council meeting on a decision to train police to screen arrestees for possible deportation.

By Jean O. Pasco, Times Staff Writer

Activists clashed in Costa Mesa on Tuesday night over the city's decision to become the nation's first authorizing its police department to enforce federal immigration laws.

A 3-2 vote last month to train police officers to work with federal immigration officials and sheriff's deputies to determine the immigration status of suspects arrested for other crimes has made the city a battleground in the national controversy over immigration policy.

Mayor Allan Mansoor, who proposed the idea, has stressed that enforcement will focus on those accused of serious crimes and that no random sweeps will occur.

"The public has been demanding this," said Mansoor, who is also an Orange County sheriff's deputy.

About 80 activists massed before Tuesday's council meeting, singing in Spanish and carrying hand-painted signs reading "Nobody Is Illegal" and "Mansoor Is a Bigot." Other signs proclaimed the United States the property of Mexico and Americans as the interlopers.

Some 40 opponents of illegal immigration also gathered, some shouting, "America is a nation of laws!"

The matter wasn't on the council's agenda, and those who had voted for it â€â€