Costa Mesa mayor says he plans to crack down on workers and drivers without proper papers

In the shadow of a national debate on immigration and Arizona’s controversial new law targeting illegal immigrants, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor announced this morning that he’s looking to crack down on undocumented workers and drivers.

“Costa Mesa is not a sanctuary city and is in fact, a rule of law city when it comes to immigration,” Mansoor said at a press conference inside City Council chambers.

Mansoor said there are “loopholes” in local, state, and federal laws that can keep illegal immigrants in this country even when they’re contacted by police.

One example, Mansoor said, was when police accept a Mexican ID card as valid identification when they pull someone over. He said many unlicensed drivers are illegal immigrants and outside of the foreign ID, there’s no way to verify who they really are and other means to check their identity “need to be explored.”

Police currently take unlicensed drivers into custody if they have no means of identifying them. Mansoor would not say if he would advocate taking people into custody who only have a foreign ID.

The city should also explore requiring all current and future businesses operating in the city to use E-Verify, a free federal program that checks the eligibility of potential employees and the validity of their Social Security number, Mansoor said.

The mayor, a candidate for the state Assembly, said the timing of Wednesday’s announcement months ahead of the election and only weeks after Arizona passed the most stringent immigration law in the country, had nothing to do with either.