http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 966832.htm

Posted on Sat, Mar. 24, 2007

San Pablo mayor irate over immigrant forum
Morris upset 'Stop the Deportation' meeting claims city as co-sponsor, and that councilwoman passed out flier for event

By Tom Lochner
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

San Pablo Mayor Paul Morris is objecting to the city's involvement in "Stop the Deportation," a community forum on immigration at Maple Hall on Saturday.

"I certainly do not think it appropriate that a meeting of this nature be held on city property to promote an illegal action on behalf of illegal immigrants," Morris wrote in an e-mail Wednesday to City Manager Brock Arner, with copies to police Chief Joe Aita, City Attorney Brian Libow and Morris' fellow council members.

The forum, organized by Promocion Latina and subtitled "Want to know what happens when ICE (federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement) stops you?" will include an update on pending federal immigration legislation. An immigration attorney will talk about people's rights when they are questioned or detained by agents. Organizers also have invited local and state officials to speak.

A flier lists the West County Latina/o Democratic Club and City of San Pablo as co-sponsors. Club President Andres Soto said San Pablo is on the sponsor list because the city waived the $130-an-hour rental fee for the hall. But Arner said that isn't so.

"The city is simply renting (out) the hall," Arner said.

Promocion Latina will get the nonprofit rental rate if it provides documentation, he said.

In his e-mail, Morris also took Councilwoman Genoveva Garcia Calloway to task for distributing the forum flier at a meeting Wednesday of the 23rd Street Merchants Association.

"Who is Promocion Latina? Why are they promoting this through a sitting council member?" Morris asked.

"I do not for the life of me understand why any local, elected-by-the-people council member would be out there representing an illegal group who did not vote her into office," he said, in an apparent reference to illegal immigrants.

Promocion Latina President Arturo Cruz said it is "a community outreach organization dedicated to the health and well-being of all the residents of San Pablo and the surrounding community." Cruz ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2006.

Calloway, a co-founder of Promocion Latina in 1996, though no longer a member of the group, said Friday that the Saturday event will provide legal expertise, not promote illegal action.

"It's a community forum," she said. "The merchants association is very interested in providing service to its customers and the community."

The 23rd Street corridor has many Latino-themed businesses. The city's population is 51.7 percent Latino, according to the latest Census figures.

Morris, in his e-mail, said, "If the City of San Pablo is to be involved with the 23rd Street Merchants Association, then it needs to take a good look at why this type of propaganda is being perpetrated through this organization."

Councilman Leonard McNeil responded to what he characterized as Morris' "tirade" in an e-mail Thursday, with copies to his fellow council members as well as Arner and Aita.

"A flyer about an upcoming public forum circulated at the 23rd Street Merchants Association is hardly considered propaganda," McNeil wrote. "Your ranting is much ado about nothing and bears a striking resemblance to the substance that bulls leave on the ground!"

Calloway said the notion, since rebuffed, that the city waived the rental fee and thus made itself a sponsor of the event was the result of "a miscommunication."

"At this point, because of the misunderstanding, the city will not be a co-sponsor," she said.

Morris said Friday that he's still hearing two versions: that the rental fee is being waived and that it is not.

"If they're donating the (rental) cost of a city-owned hall to a group condoning illegal activity, I have a problem with that," he said. "If they're actually renting it, I'll back off."

Morris has said illegal immigration is among the most urgent problems facing his city and the nation. He has defended ICE and its enforcement actions and has said many of the complaints against the agency alleging mass sweeps are fiction.

"All they're doing is targeting criminals," he said.

The agency came under attack recently at another Maple Hall function, a Feb. 20 City Council study session on ICE and illegal immigration.

"The other people who said they were afraid and getting their doors kicked in -- that's what they were saying at our special council meeting -- I suspect some of those stories are made up. It just doesn't ring true," Morris said.

At the February meeting, the council formed a subcommittee of Calloway and Councilwoman Sharon Brown to draft a resolution dealing with immigration issues for consideration by the full council. The committee is expected to report to the council next month.

Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: Community forum on immigration

• WHEN: 1 p.m. March 31

• WHERE: Maple Hall, 1 Alvarado Square, San Pablo