Border Patrol Sweep Nets 100 in Costa Mesa

In a continuing crackdown on street-corner hiring centers scattered throughout Orange County, federal agents rounded up an estimated 100 suspected illegal aliens Wednesday during an early morning sweep in Costa Mesa.

The raid, which targeted the area around Newport Boulevard and Rochester Street, caught city officials and police by surprise, however.

“We were a little miffed that they didn’t at least notify us of what was going on,” Vice Mayor Mary Hornbuckle said Wednesday afternoon. “We called INS, but they said they hadn’t done it. It was the Border Patrol.”

Citizen Complaints Cited

The targets of the operation were numerous men “who have been hanging out each morning, loitering, in hopes of getting hired for day or piecemeal work,” said Wayne Kirkpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

Kirkpatrick said the sweep by 10 Border Patrol agents from the San Clemente checkpoint, El Cajon and Temecula was requested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s western regional offices, “based on complaints filed by citizens and businessmen in the area.”

The raid began at 6:30 a.m. and was over by 10 a.m., Kirkpatrick said. Those taken into custody were transported to the San Clemente immigration checkpoint, where they were processed for return to Mexico, he said.

Wednesday’s raid was similar to others staged in Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim and Laguna Beach since the first of the year.

In each instance, groups of men milling on street corners to await potential employers were gathered up in early-morning sweeps.

The Costa Mesa City Council has appointed a special task force to address problems that they believe such gatherings create.

“Based on legal advice from the city attorney, the city is not in a position to conduct raids,” Hornbuckle said. “Nor can the city stop people and ask for proof of citizenship. We’re just not going to get into the issue of whether they are citizens.

“What we are dealing with is large numbers of people who are looking for work, so we’re attempting to manage and deal with such large groups of people,” she said.

According to Hornbuckle, the task force has nearly completed drawing up a series of recommendations that is expected to be presented to the council next month.