City prepares for immigration protest

Costa Mesa Police are preparing for as many as several thousand demonstrators at a Saturday protest of the city’s immigration enforcement plan and a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration.

The rally will begin at 10 a.m. at Costa Mesa City Hall. A demonstration last weekend in Los Angeles drew an estimated 500,000 people, and some of the groups behind that event are helping organize the Costa Mesa rally.

The subject of the protest is the Costa Mesa City Council’s December vote to train police to check the immigration status of people arrested for felonies, as well as proposed federal legislation to build a border fence, make illegal immigration a felony and crack down on those who help or employ illegal immigrants.

“It’s going to be a mass protest. We’re not sure what form it’s going to take, but it’s going to be peaceful,” said Nativo Lopez, a Santa Ana activist with the Mexican American Political Assn. and Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana. “It will be within the law, but it’s going to be boisterous.”

Although law enforcement officials and organizers said they don’t expect the turnout seen in Los Angeles ? Lopez estimated “a couple thousand” for Costa Mesa ? police intend to be ready for those who do come by offering traffic and crowd control, as well as portable toilets.

“As far as the number, that’s really kind of a slippery thing,” Costa Mesa Police Capt. Ron Smith said Thursday. “We’ve had some organizers say it could be in the hundreds or the thousands. They don’t know.”

Police anticipate congestion on streets around the Orange County Fairgrounds and the Orange County Marketplace between 10 a.m. and noon, and they will close off Vanguard Way.

Smith wasn’t sure how many officers will be working the event, but he said the department has talked with neighboring cities including Huntington Beach and Newport Beach in case more officers are needed.

All police agencies in Orange County have a standing mutual-aid agreement to assist one another in the event that one agency’s resources are overwhelmed, said Costa Mesa Sgt. Marty Carver.

The Newport Beach Police Department will be ready to help if need Saturday, said Newport Beach Sgt. Bill Hartford.

“We would be prepared to assist another allied agency with their request for service,” Hartford said.

A north county SWAT team will also be available, Smith said, but Costa Mesa officers won’t be wearing riot gear.

“We’re hoping that this will be peaceful just like it was in L.A.,” he said. “The organizers say that’s what their intent is.”

Lopez said groups participating in the rally will include the Service Employees International Union and other labor groups, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and Los Amigos of Orange County.

He anticipates most of the protesters will be Costa Mesa residents, but others said people may come from around Orange County and possibly beyond.

“I’m expecting a lot of people from outside Costa Mesa to go there to support the Costa Mesa residents,” said Gilberto Flores, executive director of the Orange County LULAC Foundation.

The Collectivo Tonantzin, a group that has been protesting at Costa Mesa City Council meetings since December, will assemble at Placentia Avenue and 19th Street on Saturday morning and march to City Hall, said group member Coyotl Tezcatlipoca.

News reports have attributed the huge crowds at the Los Angeles rally to promotion of the event by Spanish-language radio deejays, but that doesn’t appear to be happening with the Costa Mesa rally. Organizers said they’re not aware of any on-air plugs for Saturday’s event.

Police said they’ll be prepared for counter-protests, but it’s unclear whether there will be any. Supporters of the Aliso Viejo-based Minuteman Project have shown up for council meetings and demonstrated outside a local restaurant, but some in the group will be miles away on Saturday.

Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist said Thursday that his group will visit the Mexican border this weekend to kick off a 30-day monitoring project.

“We’re going to ignore them,” he said of the Costa Mesa ralliers. “That’s their day in the sun and we’ll have ours later.”

Lopez said Thursday he could still announce a boycott of Costa Mesa businesses that don’t display a sign to show they oppose the city’s immigration plan.

He originally called for the boycott in February when he first announced this weekend’s protest, but local business owners have largely declined to put up the signs. They said they don’t want to lose money by forcing customers to choose sides, but some have written letters to council members opposing the immigration policy.dpt-31-nativo-CPhotoInfoB01PGDIS20060331hh0s4okf(LA)Nativo Lopez