Law Aimed at Migrants Faces Hurdle

A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that a voter initiative to crack down on illegal immigrants in San Bernardino needed more signatures to qualify for the ballot, a decision that could quash a measure that has divided city leaders and added fuel to the nationwide immigration debate.

Judge A. Rex Victor said the city used a flawed formula when it determined how many signatures the petitions needed. Joseph Turner, the author of the measure, will have 10 days to submit about 2,500 additional signatures, and on Monday he conceded that collecting them would be next to impossible.

“This is a case of an activist judge that took matters into his own hands,” Turner said after Monday’s hearing. “Obviously, it’s disappointing, but we have great momentum.”

Turner said his proposal was successful in reshaping the border-control debate that has preoccupied Congress and the White House and spurred rallies large and small across Southern California and the nation.

The measure would effectively ban day-labor centers, ban illegal immigrants from renting in the city, punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and require city business to be conducted in English.

It inspired a similar proposal in Hazleton, Penn., which is being considered by the City Council there.

Turner’s ballot measure turned San Bernardino into a flash point on the immigration debate, similar to Costa Mesa, where city officials were criticized and lauded for allowing police officers to check suspected felons’ immigration status. In Highland, which borders San Bernardino, the City Council recently strengthened language in municipal contracts that bans use of undocumented workers.

“In every respect, we saved ourselves from the emotional trauma of a fight that has no meaning,” said San Bernardino Mayor Patrick J. Morris, a former Superior Court judge who has denounced the proposal. “Mr. Turner said this would send a message. It’s like shooting ourselves in the stomach.”

Monday’s ruling prompted City Clerk Rachel G. Clark to ask the council to reexamine how the city handled initiatives. She wants the council to ask voters to amend the City Charter to clarify the confusing initiative process, something she had requested twice before.

The judge’s decision turned on the interpretation of a section in the City Charter governing voter initiatives. For an initiative to be considered, the number of petition signatures must equal 30% of voters who cast ballots “at the last preceding city election at which a mayor was elected,” the charter says.

Once that is done, the proposal must go before the City Council for an up-or-down vote. If the council rejects the measure, as it did Turner’s antiillegal immigrant proposal, the measure automatically goes on a citywide ballot.

A mayoral election occurred between the time Turner began the initiative petition process and when he submitted signatures. Which election, the judge was asked, should be used to calculate how many signatures Turner needed?

Clark had consulted the state Elections Code, which sets the number when the notice to circulate a petition is published -- in Turner’s case, November 2005. Based on the most recent mayoral election, a November 2001 ballot that drew a sparse crowd, she told Turner he needed 2,216 signatures.

But the judge ruled that the number of petition signatures required should have been set by a mayoral runoff election in February, which took place after Turner began collecting signatures but before he submitted his petitions to the city.

Using that election, which had a more robust turnout, Turner would need to submit 4,771 signatures.

In effect, the number of signatures a San Bernardino resident needs to put a proposal on a citywide ballot could change if a mayoral election is held while the resident is gathering signatures, Victor ruled.

“This enhances rather than restricts the people’s right to an initiative,” Victor told a packed courtroom, where immigrant-rights activists broke into applause at the ruling.

This month the council voted to ask for a judge’s assistance in sorting out questions about the initiative process, spurred by questions raised by attorneys representing San Bernardino resident Florentino Garza.

Armando Navarro, coordinator for the Riverside immigrant-rights group National Alliance for Human Rights, cautioned that Turner could still push for more signatures.

“We’re not home yet,” he said. “We’re victorious when Joseph Turner fails.... His racism has spread like a cancer.”