Community responds to divisive idea

Some say enforcing immigration law is vital; former police chief says proposal could ruin cops’ rapport with city’s Latinos.The Costa Mesa City Council will likely face a deeply divided audience when it meets Tuesday to discuss empowering city police officers to enforce immigration laws.

Mayor Allan Mansoor has proposed that Costa Mesa police be trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to uphold immigration laws while carrying out their regular duties.

A 1996 federal law allows local law enforcement, after training from U.S. immigration officials, to detain people suspected of violating immigration law. Police officers would not seek out immigration violators, but if they encountered someone without proper documents while investigating a crime, the suspect could be turned over to immigration officials, said Mansoor, who works as an Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputy.

If the council supports the plan, Costa Mesa would be the first city to take on immigration enforcement. State police in Florida and Alabama, and the Arizona Department of Corrections already have similar programs in place, and three Southern California sheriff’s departments, including Orange County, plan to offer training soon.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley has said she’s concerned about the burden more duties will put on city police.

Council members Eric Bever, Linda Dixon and Gary Monahan did not return calls for comment Wednesday or Thursday.

Supporters of the proposal say since the federal government isn’t doing enough to enforce illegal immigration laws, local jurisdictions need to step in to fight crime in their communities.

“I think it would make the place much safer,” Westside resident Judi Berry said. “If I get stopped for drunk driving, I lose my license. But if I get stopped for drunk driving and I’m here illegally, I don’t really lose anything.”

Berry said that if illegal immigrants are arrested for crimes but don’t get deported, police sometimes have no recourse to punish them, and this would address that.

If council members approve the measure, they can count on support from their congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who said he supports the idea “100%.”

“It should be evident to everybody by now that they cannot rely on the federal government to do this job on its own, and the impetus for reform is going to have to come from the bottom and not from the top,” Rohrabacher said.

But others are deeply concerned that designating local police as immigration enforcers will rupture a carefully constructed relationship.

As Costa Mesa’s police chief for 17 years, Dave Snowden tried to gain the trust of the city’s Latino community to make sure crimes were reported and could be addressed, he said. Snowden is now the police chief of Beverly Hills.

“I think they’re making a huge mistake if they vote this in,” Snowden said.

“You work for years to build up a trust relationship where the Hispanic community now views the law enforcement community as a protector.... And then you do something like this, which is going to destroy, in my opinion, that trust. Basically instead of building bridges you’re burning them down.”

The police department will be overtaxed trying to enforce immigration laws, Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce President Ed Fawcett said, and the proposal is ripe for abuse -- not by officers, but by residents who call police every time they see someone they think doesn’t belong in the city.

“Don’t we have a multiple-tiered level of law enforcement?” Fawcett said. “It’s like asking a baseball player to play nine positions at the same time.”

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, an advocacy group, has seen proposals for local immigration enforcement fail, spokesman John Trasvina said.

The group sees the potential for racial profiling, and it would likely take more than the proposed 3 1/2 weeks of training for police officers to understand the different statuses of immigrants and what documents to look for, he said.

“It’s easy to say ‘enforce immigration laws,’ but you need a lot of training to do that,” Trasvina said.

Beyond the logistical concerns, Mansoor’s proposal cuts to the heart of a very old debate about who is welcome in the city.

Rohrabacher, for one, thinks all doors should be closed to lawbreakers.

“First of all, it’d be a terrific example for other cities, and it’s a terrific message that Costa Mesa would be sending to illegal immigrants, and that is, don’t come to our city,” Rohrabacher said. “If you’re not in this country legally, you’re not welcome.”

But others, like Fawcett, see the city as a more inclusive place that will be polarized by Mansoor’s proposal.

“If you’re going to build a wall to lock somebody out, it takes one brick at a time,” Fawcett said. “This is the first brick. More will be added later.”20051202iodyemkn(LA)Allan Mansoor 20051202h2yrnfn1(LA)Ed Fawcett 20051202i65y5ikf(LA)Katrina Foley