Council may send Bush letter

As federal officials debate immigration reform, President Bush may be hearing from Costa Mesa. The City Council on Tuesday will decide whether to send Bush a letter detailing the city’s position on illegal immigration.

Councilman Eric Bever wrote the letter, which urges Bush to uphold federal immigration laws. He revised it late this week, removing a reference to “hundreds of hit-and-run accidents” in Costa Mesa that he said are among the effects of illegal immigration.

“Basically, I think the timing was right [to send the letter] because there is a debate going on at the federal level,” Bever said Thursday. He added that the city has a unique perspective on the issue because of a federal agent working in the city jail to identify illegal immigrants booked there.

Recent polls, including a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released Wednesday, have shown a majority of Americans support allowing illegal immigrants to become legal residents if they meet certain requirements. Bever said that doesn’t jibe with what people are telling him.

“In my experience, everybody I’ve talked to is interested in seeing enforcement of the law,” he said. “There may be some interest in revision of the immigration program, but certainly the border needs to be secured before any other actions are taken in terms of legalizing or legitimizing certain groups of people.”

As to the omitted sentence about a large volume of auto accidents caused by illegal immigrants, police statistics show no such trend.

They measure the number of accidents and the number of drivers with no license or a suspended license, but not whether the drivers are legal residents of the U.S.

A statement Friday from Costa Mesa Police Chief Christopher Shawkey states, “We are not able to draw any correlation between hit-and-run accidents, unlicensed drivers and illegal immigration.”

Bever said Friday his information was “based on anecdotal information from a police department source, and during my fact-checking it became clear that the relevant statistics were not kept, so that point was deleted.”

He said the letter may be further revised before the council discusses it Tuesday.

Letter to the president

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the text of a letter the Costa Mesa City Council will discuss sending to President Bush regarding the city’s stance on illegal immigration.

Dear President Bush:On behalf of the Costa Mesa City Council, I wish to convey our position on illegal immigration. We feel it is vital that local governments such as ours communicate our concerns in this area. Our community suffers significant social, civil and law enforcement impacts, which appear to be the result of unfettered illegal immigration.

Promoting the deeply flawed SB 1348 is an affront to all law-abiding Americans. Passage of such legislation would be a disaster for our community and nation. We strongly oppose amnesty by any other name; just making something legal does not set things right, and will not address the impacts Americans suffer.

Since December 2006, we have had an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent assigned to work in our city jail. In the last six months, an astounding 262 arrestees have been flagged as probable illegal aliens from points around the globe who will be subject to deportation after their jail time is served. This demonstrates at a local level that existing laws can work if they are applied.

The immigration system is not “broken,” the only thing that is broken is the will to uphold the law. Your administration’s lack of will to meet its obligations regarding immigration enforcement is disrespectful toward all American citizens and legal immigrants.

Please uphold the existing federal immigration laws. Please provide all federal, state and local agencies the necessary resources and training to assist where they can. Federal funding is also needed to reimburse local governments’ social, civil, and incarceration costs of illegal immigration.

Mr. President, we are weary of the massive local impacts of unfettered illegal immigration. We do not want amnesty for tens of millions of illegal aliens; we do want strong enforcement of our existing immigration laws.

Sincerely,

Allan R. Mansoor