Flag day for city

COSTA MESA ? American flags of all sizes far outnumbered the flags of Mexico and other nations Saturday during the latest, and largest, rally at City Hall.

The crowd of about a thousand people from around Southern California was colorful and sometimes noisy, but always peaceful during the three-hour event.

Demonstrators were objecting to proposed federal legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony and otherwise tighten immigration laws. They also called on Costa Mesa officials to abandon a plan to train police for immigration enforcement, to reopen the city-run day labor center that was closed Dec. 31 and to reinstate the city’s human relations committee.

Costa Mesa’s City Hall has been the site of frequent protests since December, when the council approved the plan to begin checking the immigration status of suspects arrested on felony charges.

Saturday’s event was a follow-up to a Los Angeles rally last weekend that drew more than half a million people and to student walk-outs around the state throughout the past week.

Many people said they came to Costa Mesa to show their support for friends, relatives and co-workers who would be affected by the proposed federal and local crackdowns.

“I’m an immigrant, and immigrants are not criminals,” said Humberto Sauri, a surgeon at Santa Ana’s Western Medical Center who wore his white coat to the rally. “Immigrants succeed at the highest levels of society. I’m an example of an immigrant that’s achieved the American dream.”

Sauri said his family brought him here from Mexico illegally when he was a year old, and a few years later they became legal residents. He wasn’t always involved in politics, he said, but he’s worried about federal proposals as well as Costa Mesa’s immigration enforcement plan.

“It’s frightening enough to me, being where I am in society, to make me show up here today,” he said, adding that people who are in this country illegally are probably even more afraid.

The rally didn’t look promising at first. Around 9 a.m., the rain-soaked a group of about 200 protesters who marched from West 19th Street and Placentia Avenue to City Hall, led by immigrant-rights activists in the Collectivo Tonantzin.

Passing drivers honked in support of the marchers and the growing crowd outside City Hall, which eventually swelled into Fair Drive and caused police to close the street. The clouds cleared up and the sun was shining brightly by 11 a.m.

The air was filled with the smell of hot dogs wrapped in bacon being cooked with onions and hot peppers on movable grills stationed throughout the crowd. Vendors sold flags, headbands and T-shirts, bearing the colors of both America and Mexico.

People played drums and other instruments, waved flags and chanted slogans such as “Si, se peude,” which means, “Yes, we can.”

Francisco Birrueta, who brought his family from Riverside to the rally, found an answer to critics of displaying the Mexican flag: he taped a Mexican flag and an American flag together.

“We love this country, but we have background” in Mexico, he said.

Diane Valentino and Mary Carter drove from Laguna Beach and wore supportive signs ? Carter’s said, “Irish immigrant in solidarity.”

Valentino said she thinks people are scapegoating illegal immigrants for problems that have other sources. For example, she said, American jobs are disappearing to other countries, not because Mexicans are taking them.

“I’ve gotten frustrated reading the letters to the editor saying, ‘Oh, look at the thousands of illegal immigrants marching in the streets. Who do they think they are?’” said Valentino, who is president of the Laguna Beach Democrats. “I’m not an immigrant, I’m an American citizen, and I’m in solidarity.”

About 20 counter-protesters kept a vigil across Fair Drive from City Hall, with police making sure the two groups stayed apart.

Two of the counter-protesters had harsh words for the federal government, which they said hasn’t enforced the immigration laws already on the books.

“Our government’s ignored this problem for over 20 years,” said Barbara, a Costa Mesa resident who wouldn’t give her last name. “They aren’t for the American people, they’re for big business and special-interest groups.”

She and Charles, who also wouldn’t give a last name, said they support the House bill that most of the protesters were opposing.

“I don’t think we should deport the 12 million illegals [who are here now], but what we should do is control the borders so when we do deport felons they don’t just come right back,” Charles said.

San Juan Capistrano resident Steve Nelson, a supporter of legal immigration, used a megaphone to spread his message from behind the chain-link fence of the Orange County Fairgrounds.

“If you come to our country legally, welcome!” Nelson said.

Police officers told Nelson he had to stop using the megaphone because he didn’t have a permit.

Some protesters said the debate isn’t just about immigrants’ rights, it’s about workers’ rights as well.

Patrick Kelly, secretary of the Teamsters Local 952 and a Costa Mesa resident, said his union wants a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants rather than a guest-worker program.

“Experience has shown that people that come in on working visas are very difficult to organize,” he said.

He criticized the council majority, led by Mayor Allan Mansoor, for closing the city’s job center and passing the immigration enforcement proposal. But he did credit Mansoor with stirring city voters to action.

“I think that’s the one positive thing Mayor Mansoor’s done ? he’s stimulated discussion and he’s going to stimulate voter registration,” Kelly said.

With Mansoor up for reelection this November, Costa Mesa will be an indicator of whether the marches and protests will evolve into long-term political change. While Mansoor will only say he’s considering a reelection bid, some activists have vowed to elect new council members who don’t support the immigration enforcement plan.

“I think it’s up to us to promote the second phase, registering and voting,” said Amin David, president of the community group Los Amigos of Orange County.

In response to the protest, Mansoor said, “We have a right to secure our border and uphold our laws just as Mexico and other nations have done, if that is what they are protesting then it is a sad day, and Americans need to wake up to what is happening.”

Asked whether he’s concerned about people vowing to prevent his reelection, he said only, “I’d like to just stick with my statement.”

One sign among many others pre-printed and hand-lettered, that perhaps deserves the most attention from elected officials in Costa Mesa and Washington, D.C., predicted, “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.”