Packard Drops Call for Sweeping Illegal Alien Arrests, Backs Study of Problem

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) said Friday he will not ask the U.S. Border Patrol to increase its sweeps of illegal aliens lining the major streets and living in the canyons and fields in parts of North County.

Emerging from an hourlong meeting with three members of a group that had criticized his earlier tough comments about illegal aliens and crime, Packard announced plans to form a group to study various issues involved with immigration such as housing, health care and “assimilation,” as well as crime.

On Feb. 11, after meeting with North County elected officials and law enforcement authorities, Packard called for a task force devoted to dealing with the problem of illegal alien crime, which he said had nearly reached the crisis stage.

His comments brought immediate charges of insensitivity and “Mexican-bashing” by members of the newly-formed North County Coalition for Human Resources.

Packard met privately Friday with coalition members Ozzie I. Venzor, president of the Encinitas-based Friends of the Undocumented; the Rev. Rafael Martinez, affiliated with Solana Beach Presbyterian Church; and Gloria Carranza, a member of the Carlsbad civic task force on immigration.

The four then held a sidewalk press conference to announce formation of the study group, which will supersede the task force aimed at crime.

Among other things, Packard said he has dropped the idea of possibly calling for more sweeps from the Border Patrol, which plans to open an office in San Marcos next month.

“We talked about sweeps,” Packard said. “And I’m not sure that it’s in the scope of our (the study group’s) interest. I’m not interested in telling the INS how to do their technical work or a police department how to do their work. I think we’re going to look at overall, broad issues and meeting with them may help them make their policy decisions.

“But I’m not going to recommend that they do sweeps. I didn’t recommend they make sweeps. I said (Feb. 11) that it is an issue that should be looked at.”

Coalition members said they were pleased with the study group idea, and Packard’s apology for earlier characterizing the situation as a crisis.

“We are really looking forward to closing ranks and working together to solve many of the problems of our community, not only looking at issues of crime . . . but also the fundamental human problems that our immigrants, minority groups, and farm workers experience,” Martinez said.

Packard said that unlike a task force, a study group will take a continuing interest in the issue of immigration.

He said Martinez, Venzor, and Carranza will serve on the group, along with representatives from the Sheriff’s Department, Immigration and

Naturalization Service, and the city councils in North County. The organizational meeting is set for April 4.

Co-chairmen of the group will be North County Supervisor John MacDonald and San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau.

“We’re not just going to study the issue and drop it like so many thousands have done,” Venzor said. “It’s an on-going problem when you have a first-world country next to a third-world country . . . We’ll be in business for a long time.”

Packard said he hoped the involvement of federal and county agencies will help the study group to be more successful in finding solutions than similar groups established by the city councils in Encinitas and Carlsbad.

Even while he was making political peace--his Democratic election opponent Howard Greenebaum has been among those criticizing his earlier comments--Packard attempted to assure constituents that he is not backing down on his concern over their feeling of being besieged by illegal aliens.

“To my constituents who are struggling with some of the problems out there in their neighborhoods and their mobile home parks, to them it has been a crisis,” Packard said. “If I’ve used poor terminology, I apologize but that doesn’t lessen the fact that there is a problem and we all agree.”

Packard, seeking his fourth term in Congress, declined to respond to a comment made by Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner of the INS. During a speech to a North County mayors’ prayer breakfast, Ezell branded Packard’s critics as “loudmouths.”

“I have no need to comment on that,” Packard said. “I have not been in touch with Ezell or his office for about eight months. I am not going to get drawn into that.”