Thread: Up to 300 men will be affected

Up to 300 men will be affected
By Elena Gaona
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 28, 2006

CARMEL VALLEY – Police say they are preparing to remove up to 300 immigrant men who live in shanty homes in McGonigle Canyon by the end of August.

“There are plans to close the camps in McGonigle in the next 30 days,” said San Diego Police Capt. Jim Collins with the Northeast Division.

It's not clear who owns the property, but police officials are talking with Pardee Homes and the city of San Diego, the probable owners of the lots, about clearing the camp, Collins said.

Once ownership is determined, police officers would post signs ordering the men, who are mostly from southern Mexico, to leave. Should they refuse, police would likely evict them.

It would not be the first time that immigrant camps in McGonigle are removed.




A wide undeveloped expanse of land between Carmel Valley and Rancho Peñasquitos, the canyon had about 750 people living there almost a dozen years ago, when the city of San Diego moved families out. Families were relocated from the massive shantytown into affordable housing.
Last year, Sharon Johnson, city of San Diego homeless services administrator, told the City Council that some 100 men were living in the canyon. Police estimate the number today could be as high as 300.

Before moving the men, police are working with agencies to try to find homes for them, Collins said, though he did not say which groups.

Johnson said the Section 8 rent subsidies and affordable housing resources that were available 12 years ago have been largely cut by the federal government.

“You keep looking for solutions,” Johnson said, adding that the city has been looking for a site to build farmworker housing for the men for more than a year. “But we haven't found it.”

Every summer, some of the shanty homes made from loose boards and plastic sheeting are torn down by private property owners, said Carlos Maldonado, a community worker with the California Rural Legal Assistance nonprofit that helps the migrant workers.

Collins agreed that the camps are periodically moved, but he said the camp dwellers often return to the same spots or nearby campsites.

Collins said police have continually monitored the camps because of the potentially unsafe living conditions.

The camps could present a fire danger because sometimes men cook over open flames, and officials are concerned about damaging environmentally sensitive areas, Collins said.

Recently, Minutemen and their supporters filmed the camps, which has angered immigrants and their supporters.

Rancho Peñasquitos resident Julie Adams said the threat of fires, crime and sanitary conditions are what's leading her to push police and city officials to close the camps.

She has called city officials and sent e-mails to other residents asking them to join her effort.

On Wednesday, police were called to the camp to calm down a heated exchange between Minutemen supporters, including Adams, and staff from a mobile health clinic treating men at the camp.

Police say there was “a shoving match,” but no reports were filed and no one was arrested.

Men at the camp said they were frightened by the visit.

The Minutemen group said the incident was exaggerated.

“It's not a good situation,” said Claudia Smith, with California Rural Legal Assistance, who is concerned about Minutemen tactics.

Several men at the camp, meanwhile, said they don't know where they will go if they are evicted.

“It's hard to get work,” said Saul Martinez, 25, a day laborer from Guerrero who lives in the canyon. “I can't afford a place.”

Staff writer Leslie Berestein contributed to this report.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nort ... anyon.html

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Elena Gaona: (760) 737-7575; elena.gaona@uniontrib.com
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Seems to me California keeps digging themselves in deeper by helping these illegals all the time.

These 300 men should be deported ASAP. The San Diego citizens do not the burden of paying rent for 300 illegals who are in our country illegally.

Duplicate Post

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=36056

Quote.
Before moving the men, police are working with agencies to try to find homes for them, Collins said, though he did not say which groups.


OK, WHICH ONE OF US WILL STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND BE THE FIRST VOLUNTEER? IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER?

nittygritty,

Police are working with agencies to try to find homes for them, Collins said, though he did not say which groups.

Guess who'll get stuck picking up the tab? Why are these people not being deported

bearpaw, we know the answer to that one don't we! I am guessing it is going to come out of our fund for the fence right?

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07 ... _28_06.txt

VISTA ---- As negotiations over immigration reform continue languishing in Congress, handheld cameras are capturing increasingly fiery protests in North County communities.

On street corners where day laborers have typically gathered, anti-illegal immigration groups known as the Minutemen and their allies have made a routine of videotaping would-be laborers and employers. In recent months, they have pointed their cameras at pro-immigrant activists and posted their pictures on numerous Web sites.

Immigrant-rights activists have also used cameras, aiming them at anti-illegal immigrant groups in attempts to capture inflammatory statements and actions by the Minutemen groups.

In Vista, the debate over illegal immigrant workers has come to a head in the form of rallies, protests and a city ordinance that puts restrictions on people hiring day workers, who are primarily Latino.

Cameras at the street corner rallies are now nearly as prevalent as picket signs and flags. But the cameras, which are supposed to be the neutral observers in an otherwise decidedly biased atmosphere, don't always show the full picture.

The Vons shopping center at the corner of South Santa Fe and Escondido avenues in Vista has become one of the centers of the new video battle. Cameras were pointed in both directions Friday as the city's new day-labor law, requiring people to register with the city before hiring workers, went into effect.

The owner of a doughnut shop in the shopping center said people have made threatening phone calls to him and filmed him in his SUV. Members of the anti-illegal immigrant groups said they have video of the shop owner using his vehicle to try to injure them.

Each says the other's claims are false.

Vista is not the only place where cameras have caught images of escalating tension.

In Carmel Valley, a group of anti-illegal immigration activists recently visited a migrant camp site in McGonigle Canyon. According to both sides, they approached to film a mobile health clinic run by North County Health Services that was seeing patients living in the canyon's makeshift shanties.

The picture of what evolved is sketchy, but a confrontation between the health workers and the activists filming the clinic ended in a visit from police.

Clinic workers said they asked Brook Young, a Los Angeles activist who runs a Web site called Immigrationwatchdog.com, to stop filming the clinic to protect patients' privacy. Young said he simply wanted to interview the health workers about the services they provide and who pays for them.

"Both accused each other of pushing," said San Diego Police Detective Gary Hassen. "We came out talked to everyone, and neither one wanted to make a citizen's arrest."

Young, who said he wants to make a documentary on illegal immigration, posted video clips of the incident on his Web site. One of the clips shows someone off camera apparently slapping the machine from Young's hand.

Robert Baca, mobile clinic manager at North County Health Services, said it was the filming group that was being aggressive.

"He just kept sticking the camera in everyone's face," Baca said.

Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, said Friday that the health workers started the confrontation at McGonigle Canyon.

"Whatever they said, they probably exaggerated," Schwilk said.

Police said they are preparing to remove about 300 immigrant workers from the canyon by the end of August. The area has long been notorious for its shanty camps. In 1994, city bulldozers razed an encampment housing more than 500 men, women and children.

It was home to five Mexican farmworkers who were beaten, robbed and taunted with racial slurs in July 2000 in a highly publicized case involving a group of local teenagers.

Claudia Smith, a longtime North County immigrant rights advocate who is featured on an anti-illegal immigration Web site as "Public Enemy #2," said anti-illegal immigrant groups are alarmed not by illegal immigrants, but by the changing face of the population in their neighborhoods.

"It's not about day laborers, it's not about illegal immigration, it's about the changing demographics," she said.

Smith, a former attorney with the Oceanside office of the farmworker rights group California Rural Legal Assistance, is director of the Border Project that advocates for immigrant rights. Her group and her allies offer their own videotapes to bolster her claims.

"Day laborers are easy targets," she said. "They are the most exposed and the most vulnerable. It makes perfect sense to go after them."

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This woman is the mobile health unit Doctor.



I was one of the Minutemen (3 of us and a resident) that went down to the camp.

The article hardly mentions what happend but I have three videos on my website.

Click here for videos
http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=1602

This was my third visit to the migrant encampments in Carmel Valley, CA and I learn something new every time I go there. The illegal aliens have their own mobile health clinic run by North County Health Services providing free health care to everyone in the illegal shanty town.

I attempted to learn more about the services provided by the mobile unit. The health care workers weren’t very helpful which I can understand. They wanted me to wait until their supervisor arrived, so we did.

When the supervisor arrived things got a little crazy. The migrants called their Lawyer, Claudia Smith, who called Univision (Spanish TV) and the San Diego Union Tribune as well as several legal observers.

I did an interview with Univision and then the mobile health unit people lied their asses off and told the Spanish media that the Minutemen attacked them. And then the police arrived and I was nearly arrested!

Before moving the men, police are working with agencies to try to find homes for them, Collins said, though he did not say which groups.

Aiding and abetting! Gosh, will it ever stop?

Originally Posted by MW

Before moving the men, police are working with agencies to try to find homes for them, Collins said, though he did not say which groups.

Aiding and abetting! Gosh, will it ever stop?

I think I've asked before but don't they have homeless vets who are deserve and are entitled this this kind of help?

Brook,

These videos are awesome. I watched all three parts and recommend that everyone does the same.

The only thing Im not happy about is the low number of links to your site at www.immigrationwatchdog.com

I am preparing an e-mail tonight and Im going to ask our entire national list to take about an hour to locate and send email requests to about 10 websites a piece.

Im asking them to request more links to ALIPAC as the largest archive of information on the illegal immigration crisis in America and Im going to ask them to request links to www.immigrationwatchdog.com as the largest archive of video information on this issue.

We need more people in the nation watching your videos Brook because it really says a lot about how these illegal alien supporters operate, how they lie, and how they are violent.

If we ask our national list to help your site Brook, can we get you to spend some time over the next week sending out personal requests directly from you to other good organizations in our movement requesting that they link to your homepage?

I really think this would help you and your efforts and help our movement.

William