Controversy Is OK With Him : New Monterey Park Mayor’s Views Stir Up the Residents

Barry L. Hatch, who favors a ban on immigration into the United States for a year and advocates that English be declared the nation’s official language, Monday became mayor of Monterey Park, the nation’s first suburban Chinatown.

In assuming the position, which rotates among the five City Council members, Hatch promised to “stand tall and loud” on the issues that brought him to office two years ago and prompted an unsuccessful recall against him last year.

Praise comes from those who like it when he speaks his mind. But Hatch’s critics say his views on immigration are inflammatory in a city where more than half of the 62,000 residents are of Asian ancestry and another third are Latino.

Hatch, 52, is so uncompromising that he sometimes shocks his supporters, drawn to him because of his blunt demands for controlling growth and change in a city whose character has been dramatically altered in the last decade.

“I don’t know of an elected official in the United States that is doing what I am doing,” said Hatch, a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher in Bell Gardens.

He said the one-year moratorium on immigration would give the nation time to address problems with illegal aliens. He wants to organize a march along the U.S.-Mexican boundary and protest what he considers the shoddy control of borders, which he said affects life in Monterey Park.

Succinct Bumper Sticker

A bumper sticker on his 1981 Datsun sums up what he considers the most important statement he can make in his city of immigrants: “Control Immigration Now!”

That and other stands have made him one of the most controversial councilmen ever to serve in the San Gabriel Valley city, where Anglo voters still hold the political power.

He drew fire for referring to illegal immigrants as “hordes of invaders” in a letter sent on city stationery to six dozen candidates for state and national office. Defending the letter, Hatch said, “Here comes the world into our back yard, and we’re all saying: ‘All is well in Disneyland.’ ”

Some of the issues Hatch raises, such as the amount of English on business signs and whether English should be the nation’s official language, had been dealt with by the council before Hatch joined it.

The previous council had required that all commercial signs include at least some English and had rescinded under pressure a resolution calling for English as the official language.

Hatch proposes that at least two-thirds of a business sign be in English.

He also has questioned the proposed gift of a Taiwanese man, who is sending 10,000 Chinese books to the Monterey Park Library.

Evoking the language of former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, Hatch says he speaks for the silent Americans who are afraid to speak publicly.

“When Barry talks, he talks for two out of three people in Monterey Park, and I’m one of them,” said George Ristic, a former city planning commissioner.

‘Barry Bashing’

Hatch’s backers, including some Asian-Americans, complain of “Barry bashing.” His supporters say their man is accused of racism because his opponents cannot accept his speaking the unadorned truth.

“I’m pretty damn touchy about racial discrimination, having gone through so much,” said George Yano, who during World War II was confined in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans. Hatch, Yano said, is no racist.

But his critics worry about how Hatch’s ideas may influence his leadership during his nine months as mayor, a position that is largerly ceremonial, except for running the council meetings.

On many issues, Hatch tends to be the most extreme and insistent member of the council. While some of his colleagues share his concerns on such things as foreign language signs, none brings up the immigration-related points that form the core of Hatch’s message.

U.S. Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-Monterey Park), a former mayor of the city, complained that Hatch’s letter on immigration contained “unabashed bigotry.” A local newspaper mentioned Hatch’s name in the same editorial breath as the Ku Klux Klan.

In a profile of Hatch, a San Francisco-based newspaper, AsiaWeek, wrote that he “may rank as one of the most hated men in Chinese America.”

Judy Chu, the only Asian-American member of the council, has clashed with Hatch over immigration-related issues.

“I never thought I was going on the City Council to discuss foreign policy,” she said.

Others on the council are less critical but are sometimes cautious in how they speak about his stands on social issues. Nevertheless, Councilwoman Patricia Reichenberger said that Hatch’s being on the council “is one of the best things that have happened to this country.”

As Monterey Park has become nationally known as the first suburban Chinatown, journalists and broadcasters from throughout the country have focused on Hatch because of his views on immigration. In the process, Hatch has developed into a national speaker, appearing on talk shows and at conferences. He has even formed his own group, American Citizens Together.

Immigration has not been his only issue.

A strong no-growth advocate, Hatch would like to see condominiums torn down and replaced by single-family houses in the city where he was born. He remembers it as a place of wide-open spaces, free of apartments, mini-malls and traffic. Now, with condominiums, he calls it “a chicken-coop community.”

Hatch said he will encourage his critics to meet with him and discover that “Barry Hatch is trying to keep the greatest nation on Earth just that.”

“No man should be tainted as a racist because he wants the sovereignty of the country ensured,” he said.

Hatch, who learned to speak Chinese when he was a Mormon missionary in Hong Kong, has noted that his own forebears came from Wales and England and helped found Utah with Mormon leader Brigham Young.

Such people “created this nation,” he said.

“We are going to hold this nation. And people who come: ‘Welcome.’ But don’t overpower us with your traditions, customs, loyalties. Don’t dare overpower us,” he said.

Hatch said of his opponents: “Some very devious, sinister people . . . are trying to destroy me. . . . That’s why there is such an urgency in what I do. It’s because I see the silent Americans’ concerns are being overwhelmed.”