Illegal immigration continues to stir debate

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As the immigrant population continues to boom here and across the country, North County residents echoed national debates in 2003 about housing, voting rights, driver’s licenses and a new amnesty plan for illegals. Those debates could intensify in 2004 as new proposals related to immigration surface at the local, state and national level.

In council chambers and in the streets, immigration foes and advocates argued over housing for migrant farmworkers in Carlsbad and the lack of Latino representation in Vista’s government. Local groups marched in support of a law to restore state driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. And a local congressman proposed new legislation to legalize undocumented immigrants.

Framing the debate is the inexorable march of immigrants into North County and the nation.

Census figures released in March indicate the nation’s foreign-born population grew from 30 million in 2000 to 32.5 million in 2002. Although the Census does not collect information about people’s legal status, it estimates that about 7 million illegal immigrants are living in the country.

In San Diego County, one in five of the region’s 2.8 million residents was born outside of the United States ---- about 7 percent are recent arrivals who came to the country after 1990.

President George W. Bush, who had been working with his Mexican counterpart on overhauling immigration policy before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has recently suggested he will take up the issue again in 2004.

Among the suggestions is an “immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee,” Bush said in his year-end press conference on Dec. 15.

It is uncertain what that new policy will mean for the local region, which relies heavily upon migrant laborers to support some of the county’s largest industries, such as agriculture.

Although North County is home to many, largely invisible migrant farmworkers, Carlsbad has been the focus of their housing plight. Immigrants from Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s poorest states, have come to the city for decades, but the changing landscape in the coastal city makes them more visible ----- their migrant camps are often a stone’s throw away from million-dollar residences.

Early in 2003, an effort by the city council to find housing for farmworkers attracted Mike Wischkaemper, a prominent Carlsbad attorney. He led a group of residents who pressed city leaders to back a proposal for a temporary shelter for the workers.

“This problem is not going to go away for several years and needs to be fixed,” Wischkaemper said.

Though many hurdles remain, Wischkaemper said he will continue to push a project forward that would house about 60 workers near the strawberry fields north of Cannon Road.

The Carlsbad City Council voted in December to back the project, but proponents must now find the money to build the housing, create an organization to run it and get permits to build it.

In neighboring Vista, the city’s voting practices came under scrutiny in 2003, presumably because no Latino has been elected to the city council in its 40-year history. Other North County cities with large Latino populations have similar histories. For example, Escondido and San Marcos have each had only one Latino council member.

On the surface, Vista’s record seemed inexplicable because 40 percent of the city’s 89,000 residents are Latinos. However, upon closer examination, investigators with the Department of Justice dropped the case, probably because they found that of the 35,000 Latino residents in Vista, only a few are eligible to vote because the rest are either underage or not U.S. citizens.

Census figures suggest that the number of underage Latinos in Vista is much higher than the number of underage whites. Forty percent, or 13,968, of Latinos are under the age of 18, while just 21 percent of whites make up that segment of the population in the city.

Vista’s Latino population nearly doubled from 18,000 to 35,000 in the 1990s, according to the 2000 Census.

The Latino community also makes up a large part of the noncitizens living in the city, a category that may include illegal immigrants and legal residents who are not citizens and thus can’t vote.

In 2000, the Census counted 22,030 Vista residents who were born in another country, about a quarter of the city’s population. Of those immigrants, 17,204, or 78 percent, came from Latin American countries, compared with 1,430 immigrants who came from European countries.

Vista’s city council, which formed its own panel to investigate Latino participation in city elections, decided to continue efforts to encourage the community’s involvement in city government through a newly formed Community Outreach Committee.

While Vista debated how best to bring Latinos to the polls, another group in the city helped organize Latinos to raise their voices for driver’s licenses, which have been denied to illegal immigrants in California since the mid-1990s.

Hispanos Unidos in USA, a group not affiliated with the Hispanos Unidos newspaper, organized rallies that included dozens of illegal immigrants. They supported a controversial bill that was signed into law by then-Gov. Gray Davis and later was repealed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would have given illegals the ability to apply for state driver’s licenses.

During one of the rallies, Arturo Navarro, a construction worker from San Marcos, hung a license plate from his neck that had three traffic tickets attached, which he said were evidence of the unfairness of the law barring illegal immigrants from getting licenses.

Many of the protesters said they were unlicensed but drove regularly, out of necessity, to work, to doctor’s appointments, to pick up their children at school and to do other family chores.

“Because the state won’t give us licenses legally, we are forced to do things illegally,” Navarro said.

Leaders of the groups fighting for the licenses, including Vista’s Gustavo Munguia, organized a one-day economic boycott in which advocates asked Latinos not to go to work, school or spend money. By most accounts few people participated and their effort had little economic impact on the state.

However, the organizers say the issue is not dead. They say they plan more protests and boycotts in 2004. State Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, who authored the bill, said he was given assurances by the new governor to revisit the issue in the future.

With new proposed legislation and ballot initiatives, the new year promises no less a tumultuous year on immigration issues than 2003.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, is proposing his Alien Accountability Act, which would allow undocumented immigrants to register with the Department of Homeland Security. They would then be eligible to stay in the country for up to six years.

Under this law, immigrants would be allowed to leave the country and return, but they would not be able to qualify for permanent residency.

Other more restrictive proposals are being circulated, including a ballot initiative that would bar illegal immigrants in California from receiving any public benefits, except for education for children.

True. My Dwarf Nine Series Follows.

Bring It On

You wormy little weasels,
Who wish to do us harm.
You make your threats to the US,
And try to cause alarm.
Well here is what we say to you,
We’re waiting for you now.
So crawl out of your stinking cave,
And we will clean your plow.
But you’re afraid to stand up straight,
So we know you will creep.
Up in the dark behind our backs,
And hit us in our sleep.
So come on now, out in the sun,
And face us in the light.
We’re ready to defend ourselves,
You are not causing fright.
So stop the talk and walk the walk,
We’re sick of all your whine.
Your terror isn’t scaring us,
You democratic Nine.

Conspiracy Guy 10/20/03

Howie

Your comments really crack me up,
I’d have to say you’re funny.
As funny as a hemorrhoid,
Or as a nose that’s runny.
Saddam’s capture no big deal,
Your stance is still the same.
You’re really sucking big on this,
I’d say your brain is lame.
But tell me Howie, I must know,
These speeches, just who writes them?
Katie Couric comes to mind,
Or Michael Moore, is it him?
Well Doctor Dean you make me sick,
Malpractice, I will sue you.
Please get a clue, I’ll sell you one,
John Kerry needs a few too.

Conspiracy Guy 12/16/03

The Gen’ral

I‘d say that you’re invalid,
Even though you served.
The Clintons really like you,
That’s why I am unnerved.
You seem to be a sissy,
Too light in your old loafers.
I’d say it seems for Bill and Hill,
You’re just one of their gofers.
Retired your stars and that is best,
For you’ve not got a clue.
I’d vote for Sharpton, Gen’ral Clark,
Before I’d vote for you.

Conspiracy Guy 12/17/03

Ketchup Boy

You’re a Vet from Viet Nam,
My question is which side?
There is another problem too,
You’ll never get the ride.
It looks as though you’re in third place,
Behind both Dean and Clark.
Though there are nine dems in the thing,
Your fire is just a spark.
I have a plan to help you though,
So listen up to me.
Just offer pickles and ketchup,
To all the voters free.
You still won’t be the nominee,
But your point will be made.
Free condiments is so much more,
Than any plans you’ve laid.

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

Squeaky

Sometimes you sound conservative,
Then your whine starts running.
You’re fourth or worse among the nine,
So for you, no one’s gunning.
Take comfort that you have a job,
The dems aren’t picking you.
Your buddy Al’s endorsing Dean,
Count that a blessing too.
You couldn’t win as running mates,
Just tell big Al to stuff it.
Go Loserman should be your name,
From now on you must rough it.

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

Sharpton

Of all the nine I must conclude,
That you’re the only one.
That I can sit and listen to,
And you are having fun.
Your ideas are ridiculous,
Yes even for a dem.
A freeze in hell will happen first,
Before you’re on the limb.
So keep it up your mirth and wit,
It’s really entertaining.
To watch you bash the other eight,
I’m really not complaining.

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

Dimmest of the Dem

You’re living proof that life goes on,
Long after brains are spent.
For your best thought, if you had one,
No one would pay a cent.
Just how'd you ever got a job,
With an IQ so small.
Your EEG is a flat line,
No ups or downs at all.
But still you fit right in the nine,
You’re stupid as a plumb.
And by the way please change your name,
To Carol Mostly-Dumb.

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

Kucinich

I’ve really dug around a bit,
About you I can’t find.
A strong or weak opinion,
You’re on nobody’s mind.
To sum you up I’ll steal a verse,
From Popeye the sailor man.
I‘ll sing it now and move along,
This proves you aren’t the man.

Sung to Popeye’s theme.

“He’s nobody that I know. toot
He’s nobody that you know. toot
Eight strong to the finish.
They’ll all beat Kucinich.
He’s nobody no one knows, toooot”

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

Dull

I just read your BIO,
You really need some help.
I kind of thought of seaweed,
I think they call it kelp.
You’re from a state I like a lot,
But you sir are a yawn.
To choose to drink a beer with you,
I’d sooner mow the lawn.
MSN search drops the “s”,
To John Edward it goes.
A TV host I do not know,
But this is what that shows.
You are so dull and boring,
Folks don’t know who you are.
And when it’s time to re elect,
They may look for a star.

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

Gephardt

I loved your show on TV,
It really was the best.
Sci Fi always caught my eye,
The Seaview beat the rest.
The monsters and the Flying sub,
Were really, really cool.
My friends and I would talk about,
The show each day in school.
Voyage to Bottom of,
The Sea’s, still on my mind.
Among the nine you are the tops,
No better will they find.
Richard Basehart is the man to win,
Two Thousand Four.
Saay whaaat? His name is Gephardt,
Crap, show him to the door.

Conspiracy Guy 12/22/03

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