Groups to protest immigration plan

Latino organizations, Minuteman Project set to square off over city’s plan to have police enforce laws.Sparks could fly tonight when supporters and opponents of a controversial immigration enforcement plan in Costa Mesa face off at a City Council meeting.

Two citizens groups that marched to the Costa Mesa police Department Dec. 23 to protest the immigration plan will rally before the City Council meeting, although there is nothing about the plan on the meeting agenda. Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist also plans to come to the meeting with supporters.

Last month the council voted, 3-2, to pursue a two-pronged plan to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to train about 32 police employees in immigration enforcement. Mayor Allan Mansoor, who spearheaded the plan, has stressed that enforcement would target people who are wanted for serious crimes, and no random immigration sweeps would occur.

The Tonantzin Collective and Atlachinolli Front are the groups protesting the plan. About 100 people came to the recent march, and “we’re expecting more this time for sure,” said protest organizer Coyotl Tezcalipoca.

He said he opposes the city’s plan because it’s too broad and would lead to racial profiling.

“How are these [officers] going to determine whether these people have violated immigration law, based on the color of their skin, their last name, what?” Tezcalipoca said.

Some also have worried the proposal will make members of the city’s Latino community reluctant to report crimes because they fear deportation.

Supporters of the Costa Mesa’s proposal plan to attend tonight’s meeting to commend the council, said Gilchrist, a co-founder of the Minuteman Project who in December lost a bid for a U.S. House seat representing Newport Beach. The Minuteman Project is a volunteer group that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border to combat illegal immigration.

Costa Mesa’s enforcement plan doesn’t go far enough, Gilchrist said, but “I think it’s an excellent idea. It’s too bad the federal government has failed the electorate. We shouldn’t have to be doing this.”

Costa Mesa police said a couple of extra officers will be posted at the meeting to make sure order is maintained.

The protests aren’t a surprise to Councilwoman Katrina Foley, who voted against the immigration enforcement training. She doesn’t think the council gave the public much of a chance to discuss the proposal before voting.

“We spend an enormous amount of time on issues such as lighting in fields that affects residents, beepers at Home Depot, and we’re talking about human beings here and impacts on people,” Foley said. “We’re not talking about widgets, so I absolutely think that we should have done a better job of working with the community.”

City officials are still working on the details of the proposal. Mansoor said no protests will sway his position.

“You’re always going to have a reaction, but I don’t see how anyone can protest taking dangerous criminal offenders off of the street. This is the very least that the American public expects from its elected officials and its law enforcement.”