Mansoor Calls Press Conference On Immigration Tomorrow

HE'S GOING TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION
Well, how's that for a bit of fortuitous timing? One minute past the close of business today, at 5:01 p.m., and not too long after I posted my last entry, I received a press release from the City of Costa Mesa announcing that Mayor Allan Mansoor has called a press conference at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 28th in the City Council Chambers to discuss immigration.

ARIZONA LAW A CAMPAIGN BOOST
In a campaign year when he's trying to take the big step to Sacramento, I guess the recent new law in Arizona has given him just the boost he needed to dredge up his favorite subject.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
According to the press release, Mansoor will provide an "overview the success of the City’s ICE program and outline additional proposals he will be bringing before the City Council for discussion and consideration." The press conference will be open to the public.

"ICE" SUCCESS AND NEW "OPPORTUNITIES"
Mansoor is quoted as saying, "I believe our City has set the example for communities nation-wide in terms of our commitment to support the upholding of immigration laws at the local level. The results of our efforts speak for themselves although there is much more that can and should be done. The purpose of this Press Conference is to highlight the successes, identify opportunities for more effective enforcement, and to highlight additional measures that I will be proposing to my fellow City Council members for further review and discussion."

BAD NEWS FOR LATINOS IN COSTA MESA
I expect there may be a packed house tomorrow because it seems he's going to thump himself on the chest about his "great accomplishments" with "his" ICE program. Of course, it really isn't the program he wanted - it's one he had to settle for. One never knows what he has up his sleeve, but when he tells us he's going to "identify opportunities for more effective enforcement" and that he will "highlight additional measures", you know this isn't going to be good news for the Latinos in our community.

A NEW COSTA MESA IMMIGRATION LAW?
I wouldn't be surprised if he will attempt to propose a new municipal ordinance along the lines of Arizona's state law that will permit Costa Mesa cops to stop anyone they choose to ask about their status in this country. Suffice it to say that we will make every attempt to attend this press conference to hear exactly what Mayor Mansoor has on his mind.

DOVETAILS NICELY WITH CCIR MEETING
And, of course, this dovetails nicely into his fund raiser at the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) meeting tomorrow night. Nobody ever said he wasn't an opportunist!

Orange County Register Immigration Report

REGISTER COMPREHENSIVE REPORT
Yesterday the Orange County Register began a three-part series on immigration, the result of a year-long effort by several reporters. Having read the first two installments, it looks like they've done a good job on the subject.

READ IT YOURSELF
I'm not going to attempt to paraphrase the articles, unlike another notorious blog operator here in town. Here are the links to the First Installment and the Second Installment. You can read them, review the charts and graphs provided and draw your own conclusions.

INSTALLMENT 2 CITES COSTA MESA
I will say, however, I think the authors captured the essence of the issue as it relates to Costa Mesa in the second installment. I've given my opinion on this subject many times over the past couple years. I'm convinced that our young jailer/mayor's initiative to cross-designate ever CMPD officer as an immigration screener two years ago was not to rid our city of "dangerous illegal alien felons", as he so frequently pronounced, but was designed as an attack on all immigrants of hispanic origin.

FOLLOW-UP COMING
Each article is lengthy, but worth the read. I'll likely provide an opinion of the series tomorrow, following the publication of the final installment.

MAX BOOT - MYTH BUSTER

MANSOOR'S THE REASON
You know, I really don't want to turn this blog into a venue dedicated to the illegal immigration issue. Despite the fact that Costa Mesa's young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor, has placed himself and our city squarely at the forefront of this issue and used it to get re-elected last year, I think it's been blown all out of proportion.

MAX BOOT NAILS IT!
Yesterday, Los Angeles Times columnist Max Boot, shown above, hit the nail right on the head. In a column entitled, "Immigrants are a boon, not a curse", he articulated how I have felt about this issue for a long time - only much better than I ever could. As an interesting aside, in the print edition of the Los Angeles Times the editors chose to entitle Boot's commentary, "End the immigrant hysteria". Regardless the title, the message remains the same and was stated concisely in the sub-title, "Republicans should stop treating millions of people who want to better their lives as a threat." Well said! You can read his column at this link.

Boot's a pretty smart fella. He's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Opinion section and the author of "War made new: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World."

MYTHS DEBUNKED
In his column Boot addresses many of the myths currently being foisted upon us by the more rabid anti-immigrant factions in this country, like Jim Gilchrist and his not-so-merry band of malcontents in the most recent iteration of his Minuteman Project - whatever they're calling it today. Among those are that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from "real Americans", and thereby stifling economic growth. Humbug! Read Boot's column!

AMNESTY?
He also addresses some solutions, among them the creation of a method of legalizing many of those illegal immigrants already here. Read Boot's column!

MY VIEW
As I've said many, many times on this blog, in my view the first thing that needs to happen is that our borders need to be secured. Anything else comes after that. Once the borders are secured we need to develop a method of "earned amnesty" - a way those illegal workers already here can pay some form of restitution and be granted immunity for their "dastardly transgression" - trying to make a better life for their families. It is also likely that some method of providing "guest workers" will also be necessary to fill the ongoing demand for labor that is being filled by illegal immigrants. This is not rocket science - it was done in the middle of the last century through the bracero program and worked just fine.

FEAR AND LOATHING
It is also my view that illegal immigration is not what drives our mayor and his motley crew. I think it's something much darker than that - an abhorrence of those brown skins among us - the illegal immigrants just make an easy target for their wrath. I've chronicled just why I feel that way from nearly the first words I wrote on this blog and it's predecessor more than two years ago and in newspaper commentaries before that. I won't re-hash all that here.

WRITE, BUT READ FIRST
I welcome comments on this blog, but before you go all apoplectic on me and melt the comments inbox with your rants, please take the time to read Boot's column. It will either provide you with some answers or give you more ammunition, depending on how firmly you've got your feet dug in. Remember, I'm the sole arbiter of what appears here. I'll publish your comments unless you use bad language or libel someone. Put a name on them, even if it is fictitious - no comments addressed as "anonymous" will be published. My blog - my rules.

The Politics of Immigration

Over the past couple of days the local news media has presented us with some very interesting and thought-provoking articles to consider on the subject of illegal immigration. I'll present the following comments and the links to the individual pieces for your consideration. I think you'll find the time reading each well spent.

MINUTECHICK REBUFFED
Right off the top, a judge backed the city of Laguna Beach on the issue of their day laborer center. You will recall that our pal, Eileen of Laguna - Minutechick Eileen Garcia - and her hubby with a different last name sued the city. This link will give you the information. It looks like our young jailer/mayor's favorite Minutechick will appeal this ruling. At least it might keep her occupied and out of Costa Mesa's business for a change.

MANSOOR FIGHTS BACK - KINDA
Next, the Orange County Register produced an editorial on November 16, 2007, which can be read here, in which they addressed the Costa Mesa illegal immigration plans, and the presence of the ICE agent in our jail. On November 25, 2007 the Register ran a rebuttal to that editorial produced by our young jailer/mayor, which you can read here. Based on some of the stuff he wrote, it certainly does appear that the mayor has issues with those in authority, probably due to his under-achievement in his chosen profession.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HEALTHCARE COST INCREASES?
The Los Angeles Times provided us with an interesting story of a study that appears to refute much of the argument that illegal immigrants account for a large percentage of the use of emergency rooms for health care. This study postulates that those here illegally don't use the emergency rooms because of the need for identification - that they fear deportation more than they need health care. If true, this takes much of the wind out of the sails of some anti-illegal immigrant factions. You can read the Times article here.

ORANGE DAY LABORERS AND MINUTEMAN JIM
The City Council of the City of Orange considered the subject of day laborers in their city at their meeting Tuesday night. Among the more than a dozen speakers was the ubiquitous Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project and the man who anointed our young jailer/mayor with the mantle of Minutemanship. Old Jim certainly does like to spread the wealth, so to speak. You'll find the Register's account of that meeting here.

GREELEY, COLORADO, MAYOR OUSTED
Finally, the Los Angeles Times provided us with a most fascinating story from Tom Tancredo country in an article about the ouster of Tom Selders, the mayor of Greeley, Colorado - a city similar in size and ethnic makeup to that of Costa Mesa - apparently because he was viewed as sympathetic to illegal immigrants. The link to that article is here. Rather than try to give you a "spun" version of the article, I'll leave it to you to read it and form your own comparisons to our situation.

IMMIGRATION POLITICS - WHAT'S NEXT?
Illegal immigration, and it's impact both locally and nationally, continues to be a ripe pimple on the nose of American politics, that will undoubtedly affect local and national elections next year. There seems to be no middle ground on the issue. The most vocal, rabid anti-immigrant activists - like Gilchrist and his frothing mob and some of Costa Mesa's own self-styled "improvers" - leap at any attempt at reasoned discourse like starving pit bulls, ready to rip out the throat of those with an opposing viewpoint and label anyone who tries to present a moderate view as "illegal immigrant lovers". As we've seen locally in recent years, attempts at dialogue end up being shouting matches - or worse. This is a truly sad commentary on our times.

Herding Jackasses with Joe Bell and Byron de Arakal

The elected majority on the Costa Mesa City Council continues their display of ineptitude, most recently with their decision to write an inconsequential missive to President Bush deriding his support for the current potential solution for the illegal immigration situation in this country. This is typical of this trio, who see things only in black and white and fail to consider the broader views of their constituents when they make decisions like this one.

Today our local newspaper of record, The Daily Pilot, published a couple columns of great interest to those of us who live in Costa Mesa. Each of them addresses this issue one way or another.

The first of these, published on the front page, is the regular column by octogenarian writer Joseph N. Bell in his The Bell Curve. His is an open letter to our mayor, Allan Mansoor, and demonstrates what more than a half century of observing and writing about celebrities and near-celebrities can produce. You can read Joe's most recent contribution to the enlightenment and entertainment of our populace here. Bell, who will celebrate his 86th birthday on July 4th, continues to pump out prescient, provocative prose at an age when most of his peers are bemoaning the departure of Bob Barker from "The Price Is Right" and waiting impatiently for the Meals-on-Wheels truck to arrive.

The second is a commentary by Byron de Arakal in the every-other-Thursday rotation that he shares with Newport Beach's Barbara Venezia. Byron is a fourth generation American, business owner and dedicated community activist, who put his Itchingpost.com blog into suspended animation recently when he, once again, agreed to produce a commentary for the Daily Pilot a couple times a month. Today's effort, which can be read here, takes the entire illegal immigration issue to task and points out, as only he can do, the folly of the actions of most of our politicians, including those local leaders who seem to have lost sight of their real job - to manage the well being of their constituents by focusing on things over which they actually have authority.

Those of us who scribble the occasional thought for your consideration can only sit and marvel at the skill and insight these two talented men display at every at-bat. Oh, to have that skill...

So, when you visit those links above, take the time to read the accumulating comments taking each of them to task. Many of those will be written anonymously by cowards who don't have enough courage to put their names to their rants. Such is life in the wonderful world of blogging - where the courageous present a position and the cowards hide behind anonymity and throw mud without any attempt to enhance or amplify the debate of important issues.

This event, and other perpetrated by our ruling troika in recent months, reminds me of a particularly relevant quote with which I will close this entry.

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
-George Jean Nathan

Stable Bucks, Cart Retrieval Schmucks and More Stooge Yuck, Yuck, Yucks

Well, the June 19th city council meeting is behind us and we have a budget. As anticipated, the council agreed with most of the budget and passed it unanimously. That didn't surprise me, because the staff has consistently done an excellent job of translating the wishes of the council into a workable, balanced budget year after year.

The evening was not without it's noteworthy moments. During the debate of the Great Shopping Cart issue, pulled from the consent calendar for discussion by avid Mansoor supporter, Phil Morello, who was joined in his condemnation of the current program by a man who very much resembles my theoretical character, Your Neighbor. No surprise there - it was predicted here in an earlier post. The council moved to continue with the program as-is.

During the debate our young jailer/mayor proposed that a letter be written pointing out the offending markets - a suggestion/direction offered by Your Neighbor. As you might suspect, he was cautioned about doing that by council member Katrina Foley, citing the potential for law suits. The mayor, in his own, special way, replied that, "I simply want to bring attention to the fact of what's going on in our city." Yes sir, our "Great Communicator" in action.

Later in the meeting, during the budget discussions, the subject of a City Manager Newsletter, similar to the one distributed by Homer Bludau, City Manager of Newport Beach, came up. The mayor voted "no" on this issue, and stated during the debate that he felt we had plenty of communications with our residents now. Talk about inconsistent! Of course, he must feel he has plenty of communications with his "improver" buddies, so why bother with the rest of us? Fortunately, the rest of the council saw that it's a good idea and directed the City Manager to move forward with it.

The big topic, THE LETTER, was the last item on the agenda. After some heated discussion and public comments where all but one speaker spoke against Bever's epistle chiding President Bush for his stance on the current immigration bill, the council, to no one's surprise, agreed to send it off to The President over Mansoor's signature. Since it was clear that there were at least three votes, Mansoor included in his motion a condition to permit all those council members who voted for it to be included as signatories. So, all three of our municipal stooges, Mansoor, Bever and Wendy Leece, will sign the letter. Boy, that will sure get the President's attention! Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley voted "no".

So, as far as we know, the following is the text of the letter proposed to be sent to President Bush. The signatures are a little bit of literary license applied under the circumstances:

"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,

Moe, Larry and Curly"

I've seen it suggested recently in the Daily Pilot blogs that the council majority should quit trying to concern themselves with the national immigration debate and tend to their municipal knitting - the job they were elected to do. However, since at least one of them apparently sees a bright - if I can use that term in his case - future in the broader political arena for himself, I suspect we'll continue to see them poking their noses in places where they don't belong.