http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/03/..._233_28_06.txt

Local council members show little support for student demonstrations



DAVID FRIED

Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY ----- When City Council members around the region observed thousands of students marching through their streets this week to protest immigration legislation being hammered out in Congress, many said that for them, the national issue was beyond their bailiwick.


Nothing more.

Except that maybe those children should have been in school.

"Marching down the street with a Mexican flag doesn't do anything constructive," said Hal Martin, a city councilman in San Marcos, where 38 percent of the city's 73,000 residents are Latino.

And while the youngsters crowding streets and parks on Monday and Tuesday represent a large and growing percentage of their cities' populations, many elected officials said they support the students' right to demonstrate, but not their cause.

In Escondido, where about 600 students protested in Grape Day Park on Monday and 400 marched again on Tuesday, Escondido Councilwoman Marie Waldron condemned the demonstrations, arguing that continuing to accept illegal immigration is not an option for the country, or for the city she represents.

Waldron said the debate for her starts and ends with enforcing the country's laws, a principal she swore to uphold when she took her oath of office.

"As one council member, I'm not willing to bend and just turn my head the other way when it comes to the immigration laws of this land," Waldron said.

Some 1,250 Latino students from across North County turned out for demonstrations around the region on Monday and 1,700 turned out again on Tuesday to protest the proposed reforms.

Similar protests have taken place around the country for the last five days.

Protesters have mainly focused on a bill the House of Representatives passed in December that would erect a 700-mile fence along portions of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and make it a federal felony to be an illegal immigrant.

That prospect clearly struck a nerve in North County's Latino youth, many of whom said they worried about family member being negatively affected, or even deported, by any new laws.

Latinos constitute 30 percent of the population of North County's nine incorporated cities, according to the San Diego Association of Governments, the regional planning group.

In some jurisdictions, that number is higher.

Escondido's Latino population has steadily grown over the years, and is now 42 percent of the city's 141,350 residents. And while the City Council has long stated a goal of connecting with Escondido's Latinos, it has often maintained an uneasy relationship with the community.

Last year, for example, the council raised the ire of many Latino community members who protested its decision to support a controversial ballot initiative that would have created a state-run border patrol.

Waldron said the city gladly provides many services for its Latino residents, including providing free English classes and investing in public roads and landscaping improvements in neighborhoods with large Latino populations.

"This issue (immigration reform) is different, because it's brought about by people here illegally, demanding rights they don't deserve," Waldron said.

Oceanside Councilman Jack Feller compared the protests to those during the 1960s, and said it was a personal issue for students, and they should protest if they believe strongly in it. However, "They're all truant, I'd imagine," he said.

As to whether the demonstrations would lead to San Marcos officials rethinking how they address Latinos' concerns in the community, Martin said, "I think they are (already) well represented in this city."

Some immigration advocates, however say there is plenty that local officials could be doing, starting with simply talking.

Consuelo Martinez of the Escondido Human Rights Committee said cities ought to host town halls to discuss how immigration issues affect the community "so it doesn't get to an extreme point where everyone has to come out at once because they're so frustrated."

While such face-to-face meetings may not resolve all the tensions that revolve around such a politically charged issue, they would help foster more open discussions, she said.

"We all have different political beliefs," Martinez said. "But even if you don't agree with somebody, when (another opinion) is out there, you have to listen."

Some North County council members also said they think their cities can do more to communicate with Latino residents.

Escondido Councilman Sam Abed said he in no way supported the message of the student demonstrations. He said he believes, however, that Escondido's Latinos need to know about the opportunities the city provides.

"We need to work hard as a council and reach out to the existing Latino community to make their lives better," Abed said. "But if we cannot stop the influx of immigrants to Escondido, then we are doing the (existing) residents of Escondido a disservice."

In Vista, the role of Latinos in the community has been in the limelight particularly since a U.S. Department of Justice investigation three years ago looked at why no Latinos had ever been elected to public office in the city's 40-year history.

One finding of that investigation was that, while more than 40 percent of Vista's population is Latino, nearly half of those residents were not U.S. citizens, and almost two-thirds were under the age of 18.

Vista City Councilman Steve Gronke said the simple answer to connecting with Vista's Latino residents is "positive Hispanic leadership" something he said the city has worked hard to foster.

Gronke pointed to Vista's voter participation committee ---- an outcome of the federal investigation ---- as well as the Townsite Community Partnership, a social service organization that caters to a predominantly Latino neighborhood, as examples.

But with many Latino families working multiple jobs and trying to raise children, building more civic involvement can be a difficult task, he said.

"You try and get participation out of people who just don't have the discretionary time in their life," Gronke said. "And obviously, that's a dilemma."

Staff writers David Sterrett, Chris Tribbey and Craig TenBroeck contributed to this report. Contact staff writer David Fried at (760) 740-5416 or dfried@nctimes.com.

On Tuesday, the demonstrations continued with about 600 students from Escondido and San Marcos marching to Cal State San Marcos and hundreds of Oceanside High students parading along the city's main thoroughfare.