Thread: ESCONDIDO CA : Diaz wants to condemn Arizona law

ESCONDIDO:

Diaz wants to condemn Arizona law,
but colleagues balking

Council members say immigration debates polarize community

By DAVID GARRICK - dgarrick@nctimes.com | Posted: May 11, 2010 7:06 pm
Councilwoman Olga Diaz says she wants to repair Escondido's reputation as a "racist" city by condemning Arizona's aggressive new immigration law, but colleagues are calling her effort inappropriate and divisive for the community.

Diaz said Tuesday that the council could show Escondido residents and the region that the city has moved past its hostility to illegal immigrants, which included a 2006 attempt to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants and a day labor ordinance proposed in 2008.

Other efforts were a 2007 resolution seeking ways to prohibit people from helping illegal immigrants, which passed, and consideration in 2008 of overnight parking restrictions that would have made it harder for large groups of illegal immigrants to share houses.

"All of those things together brought us such negative press and attention that this could be a cleansing process for the city," said Diaz. "It would say that we have moved on, and we're not that bad any more."

But Councilmen Dick Daniels and Sam Abed said Tuesday that dredging up old council policies and debates on immigration would polarize the community and create unnecessary turmoil.

Both men also said Arizona had every right to pass its new law, which requires law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there's reason to suspect they're in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.

"Arizona is dealing with its own problems and has a right to do so," said Daniels, explaining that the state has had to cope with violent drug cartels connected to illegal immigration. "Passing this resolution wouldn't change anything, it would just re-scab an issue that is very divisive in the community."

Abed agreed.

"We stopped dealing with illegal immigration a few years ago," he said, explaining that city officials have since decided to leave the issue to the federal government. "Going backwards is not going to help us. We need to look forward."

But in addition to condemning Arizona, Diaz wants to rescind the 2007 council resolution prohibiting "people or businesses" from "aiding and abetting" illegal immigrants because it would be contradictory to condemn Arizona and continue to support that resolution.

Councilwoman Marie Waldron, who wrote that resolution, said rescinding it would be the same as the city deciding not to enforce immigration laws. She contends that the resolution, which also declared that Escondido was not a sanctuary city, sent a message to the federal government that stronger enforcement of such laws was necessary.

Daniels and Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler opposed that resolution in 2007, but it passed 3-2 with support from Waldron, Abed and then-Councilman Ed Gallo.

On Tuesday, Diaz said she hoped that Daniels and Pfeiler would vote to rescind the resolution based on their prior opposition. But Daniels and Pfeiler said they didn't want to revisit the issue.

"It causes me great frustration to further divide the community," said Pfeiler, noting that she opposes Arizona's law but doesn't want the council to address it. "I don't want to create a public forum where you have a room full of people angry with each other. We need to build on our common ground rather than focus on our differences."

But Diaz, who said her resolution was inspired by the San Diego City Council voting 7-1 to condemn Arizona's law on May 3, contends that she is also seeking to unify the community.

"My efforts are not to create divisiveness, but to repair the divisiveness of the past," she said. "The government of this city has never apologized to the community for the harm we caused and the money we spent on lawsuits. We never made amends, so to speak."


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Escondido's history of immigration legislation

October 2005 ---- Council approves resolution supporting a state Border Police Initiative and declaring illegal immigration to be a great and imminent danger; supporters of the state ballot initiative fail to collect enough signatures.

October 2006 ---- Council approves ordinance making it illegal for landlords to rent property to illegal immigrants; ordinance is abandoned shortly afterward in face of court challenges.

January 2007 ---- Council approves ordinance declaring that Escondido is not a sanctuary city and seeking ways to prohibit and address "policies, people and businesses" that aid and abet illegal immigrants.

March 2007 ---- Council proposes an overnight parking ordinance as a new way to deal with the effects of illegal immigration; effort ends when council deadlocks in September 2008 over how comprehensive ordinance should be.

December 2008 ---- Council discusses creating an ordinance prohibiting day laborers from soliciting motorists from sidewalks. City attorney is still exploring issue when Olga Diaz defeats Ed Gallo and breaks up council majority of Gallo, Sam Abed and Marie Waldron that strongly supported illegal immigration legislation.

May 2010 ---- Diaz proposes resolution condemning Arizona's "show me your papers" immigration law and seeking to rescind the council's sanctuary city resolution from January 2007.

Call staff writer David Garrick at 760-740-5468 760-740-5468


NORTH COUNTY TIMES

Diaz is a member of LaRaza.

Escondido IS NOT a racist city. They are a city that is fed up with illegals.

"We stopped dealing with illegal immigration a few years ago," he said, explaining that city officials have since decided to leave the issue to the federal government. "Going backwards is not going to help us. We need to look forward."

Another bone headed politcal move. Yes, lets appease the law breaking group of whiners instead of listening the the legal residents who are tired of illegals crapping up thier town. How very spineless of them.

Call the City Council and let them know they are doing a GREAT JOB! We don't need more La Raza members trying to tell our country what we should be doing.

http://www.ci.escondido.ca.us/governmen ... index.html

Escondido City Council
City Mayor's Office: (760) 839-4610
City Council's Office: (760) 839-4638
CityCouncil@escondido.org

Imangine my surprise when on the John and Ken Show yesterday, Olga Diaz and this enntire story was featured on the radio. They spent almost a half hour on this story and it was pretty funny, yet true.


http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/jk2010.html


http://www.kfiam640.com/common/podcast/ ... JohnandKen

What's racist is that the majority of those opposing enforcement of laws are "hispanic". Not all illegal aliens are hispanic, but these laraza nutjobs keep pushing that notion, I wonder why?

ENFORCE AND DEPORT!!