Roundup of Aliens Raises Questions in a Divided Carlsbad

From her home, Mary Ann Grabo occasionally catches glimpses of the nighttime campfires flickering in the nearby canyons. At other times, the dark canyons yield gently strummed guitar notes and the lilt of foreign ballads.

In Carlsbad and elsewhere in northern San Diego County, there is little confusion about the source of the evening sound and light: For decades, illegal aliens who have come here in search of field work and other employment have camped out or built crude dwellings amid the canyons and chaparral. They have lived a sometimes uneasy coexistence with their suburban neighbors.

“You’ve got to feel sorry for these people,” Grabo says. “You know they’re out there in the open, even when it’s cold out.”

But sympathy is not the primary thing on the minds of Grabo and other Carlsbad parents these days. In several highly publicized, emotional meetings, parents have charged recently that illegal workers have been harassing school children. Parents have demanded that the workers be moved, although police and school officials say there have been no confirmed assaults.

Despite the lack of violent confrontations, the complaints have stirred considerable concern, spawned charges and counter-charges by politicians and other citizens, and, last week, were partially responsible for a weeklong Border Patrol and local police sweep that resulted in the roundup of almost 3,000 aliens who were sent back to Mexico or held for deportation.

The sweeps have cleared the workers from the streets and doused the flickering campfires--at least for now. But some residents fear the campaign may have left a more bitter legacy: They are afraid of the potential for an anti-Latino backlash in this pleasant suburban community.

“I’m afraid that . . . there is an anti-Mexican hysteria developing,” said Carlsbad Mayor Mary Casler. “People are afraid of anything different from themselves, even though it’s unwarranted.”

Although a full-fledged hysteria has yet to form, there are clearly growing divisions within the community over the presence of illegal aliens.

“We have no confirmed reports of any harassment of children,” said Dennis Meehan, a Carlsbad realtor who has spoken out on behalf of the illegals. “Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that Hitler had men in brown shirts, and he was a very popular politician, because he had a scapegoat. We don’t want a scapegoat in this community.”

Meehan and other residents agree that children should be protected, but they contend that exaggerated complaints against the illegals can only fan the flames of racism.

Parents who have led the fight to “protect” the children from the illegal immigrants insist that racism is not among their motivations.

“We feel very sorry for the illegals,” said Victoria Gubelmann, one of the most vocal parents. “But we can’t take care of the world’s problems . . . Our biggest concern is our children, our most precious resource . . . I’m tired of people accusing us of making this into a racial issue, because it’s not.”

“We’re not prejudiced; my husband is a Mexican-American,” added Tracy Trousset, a mother of three who lives in Carlsbad. “We just want our children to be safe walking to school.”

At a time when immigration reform legislation is only a presidential signature away from reality, the dispute in North County reflects how illegal immigrants have increasingly become an issue in the communities where they live, particularly in the U.S.-Mexico border area where the alien population is high. From Brownsville, Tex., to San Diego, the illegal immigrant population has been partially blamed for everything from spreading disease to hurting business to increasing crime--although others say there is no proof of such connections.

“The undocumented worker has become a convenient scapegoat,” said Jess Haro, a former San Diego city councilman who is chairman of the Chicano Federation, a rights group. “He has become the top priority suspect in everything.”

Politicians have been quick to take up the issue. When Clyde Romney, a candidate for county supervisor in northern San Diego County, issued a telegram complaining of “gangs of illegal aliens that line our streets, shake down our school children,” he was quickly condemned by Latino groups and others.

“Romney is creating an atmosphere of violence and hysteria,” a group of area Latinos said last week in a letter responding to the candidate’s claims.

The problem developing in North County stems in part from the sometimes tenuous relationship that exists there between permanent residents and the migrant workers. While considered a thriving, middle-class area, the region is also the seasonal home of thousands of impoverished illegal aliens who come to do farm labor and other work, often living in makeshift camps where conditions are deplorable.

“If these were dogs or cats living like this, someone would call the humane society,” Meehan said. “But since it’s only illegal aliens, people ignore it.”

Although the two distinct communities have coexisted for decades, contacts have been fleeting or largely of the employer-employee nature: The illegal aliens have been conveniently available to do yard work and other jobs for sub-minimum wages. In recent years, though, contacts between the the two groups have risen as North County population has increased sharply and tract developments have overtaken farmland.

In some cases, conflict has developed. Carlsbad’s Kelly Elementary School, which has been at the center of the latest controversy, sits just three blocks from a gathering point for dozens of illegal aliens who daily line a central street, El Camino Real, waiting for farmers and others to pick them up for a day’s work. Many parents do not like the idea of their children walking by the waiting men.

“These people are making us feel uncomfortable,” said Gubelmann, a mother of two who heads a group called Citizens Concerned With Immigration Problems, formed as a result of the meetings at Kelly School. “We’re not used to groups of vagrant men hanging around our neighborhoods looking for handouts . . . More and more parents are not allowing their children to walk in the neighborhoods. I don’t care whether they’re Mexican or Anglo or anything. No one has the right to do that to us.”

Added Grabo, whose daughter attends Kelly School: “We’re prisoners in our own homes, at least our kids are . . . We’ve got to take over instead of letting the illegals take us over.”

Elsewhere, this kind of talk is seen as insensitive at its best, racist at its worst.

“We basically want people to be treated like people,” said Mario Manzano, a Carlsbad resident who was born in Mexico but spent most of his life in North County. “We don’t want them to be looked at as second-class citizens; they’re just looking for work . . . People don’t mind hiring these people to clean their yards for 20 dollars a day, but they don’t want to have to walk by them on the streets. I think there’s some hypocrisy there.”

Most pernicious of all, say Manzano and the others, is the likelihood that children will absorb the many negative comments directed at the illegal migrants and regard them--and possibly other Latinos--as somehow inferior.

“We have to be very careful of the example we set for our children, and I think we have to teach our children that all human beings, especially the poor and oppressed, have to be treated with respect,” said Meehan, the father of five. “The children need to know that their lives are as important as ours, and need to be treated as such.”

Not surprisingly, the area’s Latino population, a minority in this overwhelmingly white community of 50,000, has been particularly concerned.

“I’m fearful for what we’re creating in the minds of our children, the image that some people should be treated as second-rate,” said Gloria Carranza, a Carlsbad resident.

At Kelly Elementary School there is already evidence that some children may be picking up the wrong example. Some Latino employees have heard negative comments from children this year, said Carol Weise Herrera, the principal, who is married to a Mexican-American. Although the principal says she understands parents’ concern for their children’s safety, Weise Herrera is worried about the children’s perception: She has directed a school psychologist to instruct students about the illegal aliens, to explain their plight in a non-prejudicial manner.

“The seeds of racism can be planted,” Weise Herrera said during an interview at her office. “There’s a potential for prejudice and a sense of racism . . . The question is, ‘How do we deal effectively with it, and educate the children?’ . . . We really don’t know what these children are picking up.”

The principal acknowledged the “potential” of a problem because of the proximity of the gathering point used by the workers and said she wished they would gather elsewhere. However, she said there have been no known attacks on children by the laborers.

Parents, asked to give details on the much-publicized incidents of “harassment,” spoke of occasions when children were followed home from school or whistled at by the workers. One parent said she witnessed a worker urinating two blocks from the school on the first day of classes. Another parent said her girl was “terrified” after some illegal aliens apparently followed her on a city street. Such incidents caused parents to seek action.

“We could wait until some child gets hurt, but we’re not going to,” Gubelmann said.

Because of last week’s immigration sweeps, the groups of illegal workers normally so visible on Carlsbad’s El Camino Real were out of sight last week. Occasionally, one or two would peek out from the nearby brush, alert for both potential employers and la migra-- the Border Patrol. However, it seems likely the workers will eventually return once the pressure ebbs, and with them renewed fears of confrontations between them and the children.

“We’re not a group of hysterical mothers who have nothing better to do,” Gubelmann said. “I agree, these people (the illegal aliens) have a horrible life style. I feel sorry for those people but they don’t have any right to be here.”

For their part, the laborers say they prefer to keep a low profile. In fact, several workers said that beer-fortified teen-age boys from the area occasionally attempted to pick fights with them, but they avoid such confrontations.

“We come here to work, to look for a better life,” said Alejandro Gomez, 28, a Mexican citizen who was in Carlsbad recently looking for a job. “We don’t want to get into trouble with anybody here.”