So near, yet so far apart

The headline on a story in last week’s Independent captured the crux of the matter well: “A tale of two cities -- and two job centers.” Indeed, events in Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa couldn’t be farther apart right now when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.

Costa Mesa has closed its long-running job center and is in the process of establishing new rules that would require city police officers to check the immigration status of people they arrest -- events even many in Huntington Beach likely are aware of, as they have made news nationwide. Opponents of the illegal immigration-enforcement proposal have banded together and are threatening to boycott Costa Mesa businesses that don’t join them in opposition. They continue to appear at Costa Mesa City Council meetings to protest the plan.

In Huntington Beach, however, the status quo seems to be serving the city just fine. City leaders haven’t considered closing the Luis Ochoa Job Center and, Councilman Don Hansen told the Independent, the job center is not an issue he hears about often.

What can we make of these differences, when by most accounts -- home prices, geography and location, breakdown of ethnicities and other socioeconomic factors (according to the 2000 Census) -- the two cities are largely similar? The answer seems to be simply that a few agitators managed to push the illegal immigration issue, which is simmering on a backburner for many people in California (and the rest of the United States), to the forefront in Costa Mesa city politics. City leaders then acted, and opponents reacted. Hansen even suggested as much when he said: “Costa Mesa is obviously sticking its neck out on this one.”

Huntington Beach city leaders, as well as the rest of the city’s population, shouldn’t get too comfortable watching the situation play out in neighboring Costa Mesa, however. The same forces that spurred the issue on just as easily could target Huntington Beach next. If Hansen and his council colleagues are not hearing about this issue because people in Huntington are comfortable -- even happy -- with how the city handles illegal immigration and day laborers, it might be time to rally and say as much.

Of course, that might be just the impetus that anti-illegal immigration forces need to begin showing up at Huntington Beach City Hall.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Should Huntington Beach change the way it handles its job center? Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4691 or send e-mail to hbindependent@latimes.com. Please spell your name and include your hometown and phone number for verification purposes.