Tijuana Speech by Ezell : Outspoken INS Official Urges Action by Mexico

INS Western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell brought his campaign against illegal aliens to Mexico Thursday, complaining to a group of Tijuana businessmen that the United States is being invaded by their countrymen and vowing to “kick out” aliens who gather on the American side of the border every night.

The 45-minute speech to businessmen at the Campstre Country Club featured the blunt outspokenness that has endeared Ezell to some and raised the wrath of others. A speaking appearance in Mexico by a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service official is unusual enough--particularly one who has been bitterly attacked in the Mexican press--but Ezell promised to come back and discuss the issue further with the group.

At one point Ezell said that the Border Patrol would one day “take back” a border hilltop on the U.S. side known as the Soccer Field, where hundreds of aliens wait for darkness each night before starting their journeys north through the rugged border canyons.

“We’re hoping to eventually take back some of the property that belongs to the United States and not to illegal aliens; the Soccer Field for one. That happens to be in the United States. It doesn’t happen to be in Mexico. . . . If we had 700 or 800 people standing on your side of the border every night, I think you’d get a little upset and you’d kick us out. That’s what I think we ought to do to the illegals down there. They don’t belong there. It’s not their property,” Ezell said.

Some officials, including U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) and San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy, have called for stationing Marines along the border to help the Border Patrol stem the flow of illegal immigrations. Ezell said that he opposes the call to militarize the border, but warned his audience that, if Congress does not enact immigration reform to slow down illegal immigration, there will be a backlash in the United States against legal immigration.

“Unless America closes the back door of immigration, which is illegal immigration . . . the front door would slam shut, which is legal immigration. My concern is . . . we must close the back door . . . or there will be an overreaction to legal immigration which I feel is not acceptable,” said Ezell.

As he has done frequently in the past, Ezell called for sanctions against employers who knowingly hire undocumented aliens and for a guest worker program.

He asked the group of about 20 businessmen to pressure their government to “help us with this problem.” But he offered no suggestions about what the Mexican government could do.

Ezell said that 70,000 illegal aliens were apprehended in San Diego County in April.

“If Mexico understands what we’re trying to say, I believe they will be supportive of immigration reform,” he said. “ . . . Your government must face the reality that they must provide the jobs.”

But he complained that the Mexican press has been distorting his comments on illegal immigration and charged that he has been the victim of inaccurate reporting that has branded him a racist. Ezell said that he wants to be interviewed by El Excelsior, Mexico’s most prestigious newspaper, printed in Mexico City.

“I trust that I do get that interview,” he said. “And I trust it is a reporter that is objective and is not trying to build a higher wall or a bigger gap between Mexico and the United States.”

In an attempt to assure the group that he is not racist and that he sympathizes with the plight of the Mexican aliens, Ezell referred to his boyhood in Wilmington, Calif.:

“I have many long and old friends who originally, their families were from Mexico. I understand the Mexican-American, because I probably spent more time in their homes and ate more tacos and enchiladas and chili rellenos with . . . families that I grew up with. So, I understand there is no difference between us.”

Later he tried to assure the audience that he does not harbor bad feelings “toward illegal aliens as people.” But he quickly added that he feels “strongly about the laws of America.” Later he called Mexicans a “wonderful people” and said, “God bless Mexico and every Mexican in Mexico.”

Ezell admitted that occasionally some Border Patrol agents abuse their authority and referred to last week’s indictment of two agents on charges of violating the civil rights of a U.S. citizen who was beaten in the desert last year. Such incidents are investigated by the patrol’s Office of Professional Responsibility, said Ezell, and he challenged the Mexican government to show “the same kind of integrity with her law enforcement people.”

Moments later, he said that illegal aliens prefer to be arrested by Border Patrol agents rather than by Mexican law enforcement officers, and suggested that Mexican officers are corrupt.

Ezell finished his speech by telling the group that they should thank him for the role he played last year in opening the lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry when U.S. Customs initiated a check of every vehicle entering the United States following the kidnap in Mexico of American drug agent Enrique S. Camarena. The checks resulted in massive traffic jams on the Mexican side of the border as cars waited to cross into the United States.

“I said, ‘We’re not going to find Camarena’s body by having 4,000 cars packed up down there.’ So, you should say thank you cause I’m the one that started opening up the lanes. Because I understand the impact on your businesses,” Ezell said.