Council Orders City Study : Costa Mesa Debates Purge of Illegal Aliens

After an emotional three-hour debate on whether to purge Costa Mesa of illegal aliens, the City Council voted 3 to 2 Tuesday night to refer the issue to the city manager and the city’s Human Relations Commission for study.

The action was a compromise of the original motion “to eliminate illegal aliens” from the city’s western barrios and from Lions Park downtown, which had been made by Councilman Orville Amburgey, a former city police lieutenant. Amburgey cited citizen complaints that Latino men gathering at the park were harassing and intimidating neighbors and park visitors.

In the end, Amburgey voted against the compromise motion by Mayor Donn Hall, as did Councilman Dave Wheeler, who said he considered fears of illegal aliens to be exaggerated. Hall and council members Peter Buffa and Mary Hornbuckle voted for the compromise.

“I don’t think we can afford, or allow, to let illegal aliens in our country--and especially not in the city of Costa Mesa,” Amburgey said.

He said aliens who have entered the United States legally “should be helped to gain employment,” but he proposed that the city manager be ordered to do what is necessary to rid the city of illegal aliens.

Motion Opposed

Council members Hornbuckle and Wheeler opposed Amburgey’s motion, and their exchanges with him were sometimes testy.

Hornbuckle asked Amburgey what measures he was proposing that the city staff take, and Amburgey declined to specify. “I feel I don’t have to tell them how to do their jobs. They’re professionals,” Amburgey replied.

Hornbuckle then described the problem as “more visual than real.”

“Other than the fact that we wouldn’t have to look at them in the park, I don’t see the benefit of eliminating them,” she said. Following Amburgey’s proposal “could set us back 20 years and destroy the trust” built up between police and the Latino community, she added.

Out of Proportion

Wheeler said the problem has been blown out of proportion. “Basically, these are just people sitting around in a park, which is what a park is for,” he said. “People are afraid of people they don’t know or understand. But that’s their problem.”

Amburgey, however, recounted complaints he had received. He said men waiting for day work opened the car door of one woman driving by the park, apparently thinking she was looking for workers. He said another woman said she did not feel comfortable taking her 1-year-old daughter to the park because she feels intimidated by the workers.

About 30 to 40 people appeared in the Council Chamber for the discussion.

Frances Reed of Costa Mesa said she has a Latino man, Heriberto Cervantes, living in her home. “Our community needs these workers,” she said. The city police cannot enforcement immigration laws, which is the work of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, she said.

Cervantes--speaking to the council members in Spanish, which was translated by Reed--said some of the illegal aliens would like to return to Mexico, “but cannot return empty-handed.”

“They can see people here don’t like them and have hatred because of their nationality. . . ,” he said. “People get afraid seeing Mexicans in the park. But not all of us are bad. . . . The children are asking their parents for food and ‘where is the money tonight?’ ”

Pat Dolan of Costa Mesa, who described himself as “anti-illegal alien,” said such aliens have degraded property values and hurt local businesses. He said the workers who gather in the park make catcalls and harass women who pass by, a remark that received applause from the audience.

Betty Davis, whose home overlooks the park, said 40 to 80 men wait there each day for work. “Our park has gone downhill since this has been happening,” she said. “They lay around on the lawns, and it just looks awful for our city.”