Camps closed, but migrants still in canyon

By Kristina Davis

SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE

November 22, 2006

Faced with nowhere else to sleep, many of the migrant workers who were evicted last week from illegal encampments in McGonigle Canyon reportedly are bedding down in other parts of the Rancho Peñasquitos canyon.

“The workers are sleeping wherever night finds them,” said attorney Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

On Friday, about 180 men living in the canyon on developer DR Horton's land were told to pack up and leave or face arrest.
The effort between landowners and police to close the encampments had been in the planning stages for months, but it was enacted suddenly a day before a widely publicized protest was to take place on the property.

Police say a handful of private landowners now are enforcing “No Trespassing” warnings posted around the property between Carmel Valley and Rancho Peñasquitos, as well as paying security guards to look for intruders.

Some say the eviction only has led the men to sleep in other parts of the canyon to stay near the tomato fields, where many work.

“There's still a harvest going on, so they have to stay nearby,” said Smith, director of the foundation's border program. “By accelerating this shutdown of the encampments, all that's going to happen is they are going to crop up somewhere else.”

Gerald Katz, who lives at nearby Rancho Glens Estates, said migrants have begun to cross into the canyon near his neighborhood at dusk.

Katz said many gather at a food cart parked at Rancho del Sol nursery and wait for nightfall before going through a hole in the fence and back into the canyon.

Julie Adams, a longtime critic of the encampments who lives a mile from the canyon, said she hasn't noticed as many migrants since last week.

“It seems quieter, but there are obviously still guys in there,” Adams said. “Unless the property owners enforce it, (the migrants) are all just going to come back.”

San Diego police Capt. Boyd Long said he has not received complaints from the landowners about trespassers since last week.

“It's important that we keep on top of it, but we've received no complaints at this point,” Long said.

Police will meet with the landowners, city officials and residents next week to discuss how to prevent the camps from jumping to the next canyon.

Enrique Morones of Border Angels has been receiving several donations of blankets, food and water to distribute to the displaced workers over the past week.

“We are as concerned as always that people live in these conditions, and we are working and praying to get them out and into decent housing,” Morones said.

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