Militancy won’t help in debate

It’s conceivable that every Costa Mesa City Council huddle between now and the November general election will feature a fireworks blowout courtesy of Coyotl Tezcalipoca and his pro-immigrant group, the Tonantzin Collective.

If I’m right, and if history’s a reliable barometer, Tezcalipoca might want to take up a collection for bail. At both council meetings in which Tezcalipoca has stormed the stage, he’s been shown the door by a cadre of Costa Mesa police officers. In the second instance, he was arrested and cuffed.

These kinds of things happen when you call a sitting mayor an “(expletive) racist pig” and when you defy police commands to step away from the podium and leave the building.

While Mayor Allan Mansoor is the central figure in Costa Mesa’s controversial initiative to train part of the city’s police force to screen arrestees suspected of aggravated felonies for immigration status, Tezcalipoca is the militant voice leading the Latino community’s struggle against the plan.

He’s also the reason -- as near as I can tell from the community canvassing I’ve done -- that the Latino community isn’t winning a lot of sympathy in many quarters of Costa Mesa. And that’s true even among those I’ve talked to who oppose Mansoor’s immigration blueprint.

It’s not that there isn’t at least some understanding of the Latino community’s angst. There is. But it is unquestionably muted by Tezcalipoca’s strident militancy and his patent disrespect of the city’s elected representatives and its public proceedings.

Beyond Tezcalipoca’s flinty tirades, however, the Latino community’s hopes for engaging in a constructive dialogue of the immigration-enforcement proposal with fellow Costa Mesans is more significantly undermined by Tezcalipoca’s followers, who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of federal immigration law (including the congressional amendment authorizing local law enforcement participation with immigration officers) and the real concerns of many Costa Mesans that illegal immigration has tangible social and economic impacts on the community.

I’m only guessing, but when Costa Mesans who voted for Mansoor read protest signs calling their man a bigot, they’re likely not of a mind to want to break bread with you. When banners are shoved in their faces that read “Nobody Is Illegal”; “Immigration is not a crime”; “The United States Belongs to Mexico”; and “Americans are the Interlopers”; I’m pretty sure they’ll not be extending backyard barbecue invitations to their authors.

I fully understand the Latino community’s anxiety over the proposal. So do many of the people and families I’ve talked to. The problem is, I don’t believe that Tezcalipoca, the Tonantzin Collective and those who support them understand (let alone acknowledge) the community’s anxiety over the flouting of our immigration laws or the social and economic impacts of illegal immigration in Costa Mesa.

The immigration proposal legitimately addresses the concern a significant portion of Costa Mesa has about the effects of illegal immigration on its neighborhoods and schools. It also raises legitimate fears in the Latino community.

Costa Mesa should hash out those concerns and fears together. But, given the militant voices in the Latino community, I’m not confident it will.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a writer and public affairs consultant who lives in Costa Mesa. Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664 or contact him at byronwriter@comcast.net.

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