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Escondido immigrant proposal slammed

Latinos say landlord law would send racist message
By Booyeon Lee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 13, 2006

ESCONDIDO – Latino community activists told the City Council yesterday that a proposal to impose fines on landlords who house undocumented immigrants would send a message across the country that Escondido is a racist city.

That would be false, resident Danny Perez told the council.

“I've lived here for 17 years,” Perez said. “I know Escondido is not a racist town.”

Joe Medina, an associate pastor of Mount Olive Church in Escondido, said the idea of taking a poor person's home away is inhumane.

“Dogs you protect more,” Medina said.

Perez and Medina were responding to Councilwoman Marie Waldron's recent suggestion that a municipal code be created to fine landlords $1,000 for every illegal immigrant to whom they lease an apartment. Waldron brought the idea to the city manager and the city attorney this week. No date has been set on a public hearing about the issue.

Perez and Medina spoke during a public-comment period at the beginning of the council meeting.

“We know there's no ordinance to even debate about yet. But we know the intent is there, and we want to make sure it doesn't get any bigger than that,” Consuelo Martinez of the Escondido Human Rights Committee said before the meeting.

A message left on Waldron's cell phone seeking comment was not returned last night.

Latinos make up 42 percent of Escondido's population of 142,000. Most undocumented immigrants in the city are known to live in Mission Park, a poor, mostly Latino neighborhood in central Escondido.

If Waldron brings her idea to the council, the debate probably would thrust Escondido into the national spotlight. One other city in the country has tentatively approved a similar ordinance. The City Council of Hazleton, Pa., also has preliminarily decided to revoke business licenses from companies that hire illegal immigrants and to make English the official language of the city.

Perez, 38, said he became a permanent U.S. resident five years ago after paying $15,000 in fines and legal fees to go through a lengthy approval process. For years, he lived without papers in Escondido.

“I lived on the street. I knew where every abandoned house is here,” he said outside City Hall.

Perez since has been trained as an emergency medical technician and is now a project coordinator for Dream Builders, a San Diego nonprofit. He also serves as a local soccer league official, leads workshops against gang violence and organizes Latino blood drives for the Red Cross. He is a single father to his 8-year-old daughter, Alani.

“She deserves a better community than one divided in racism,” Perez said. “I'm staying in Escondido, and I'm going to stop anyone from planting seeds of hatred in this community.”


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Booyeon Lee: (760) 737-7566; booyeon.lee@uniontrib.com