LULAC Dinner to Honor Ezell Angers Santa Ana Chapter

Harold Ezell, the top immigration official in the West, may have gained scores of new Latino friends with his sombrero-toting support of the amnesty program last year. But he probably could not find too many amigos within the League of United Latin American Citizens--or LULAC--some of whose members have been calling for Ezell’s ouster.

Unless, that is, the western regional commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service happens to be in Bellflower, whose local LULAC council is hosting a reception honoring him for “outstanding service in ‘bridging the gap’ between the Hispanic community and the INS,” according to a council statement.

Location Sparks Anger

The Bellflower LULAC council’s hosting of the event would be enough to rankle Orange County LULAC leaders, who are still incensed over the INS’s apprehension last year of several undocumented aliens inside a church in the city of Orange, and by continued roundups of casual laborers on street corners.

But what has them even more outraged is that the event honoring Ezell will be held in a restaurant in Costa Mesa, on the fringe of territory covered by the Santa Ana LULAC council, the most outspokenly hostile to Ezell of the nine LULAC councils in Orange County.

Zeke Hernandez, president of the Santa Ana council, fired off a letter to state LULAC leaders, asking that they coordinate action against the reception and the Bellflower group.

“Our community cannot be led to believe that LULAC has jumped into bed with Ezell and his ‘tigers,’ ” Hernandez said in the letter. “Have we not learned our lessons from previous experiences that the INS has mistreated many of our respectable Hispanic brothers and sisters?”

Margaret Pacheco, president of the Bellflower LULAC council, has a different view of the group’s relationship with Ezell.

“He’s been very helpful and instrumental in helping the undocumented to become legal,” Pacheco said. “I believe he’s gone beyond the call of duty in disseminating information and encouraging the people to apply and stay in the process until they become permanent residents.”

Ezell was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Worked With INS

The Bellflower LULAC council worked with the immigration agency in publicizing the amnesty program, conducting weekend fairs where applicants could get help in filling out their papers and receiving low-cost medical examinations, Pacheco said. And while other LULAC councils may have been critical of the Bellflower group for cooperating so closely with the INS, Pacheco said, her group now wants to show its thanks to Ezell and his staff for their help.

“A lot of times, the head man gets bypassed,” Pacheco said. “Harold Ezell is the man who did work with us.”

So why not hold the honorary reception in Bellflower and avoid ruffling the feathers of other LULAC members?

“There is not very much around here where we could hold it,” Pacheco said. So the $25-per-person reception is scheduled for Feb. 16 at the El Torito Grill on Anton Boulevard in Costa Mesa. Actor John Gavin, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, will be guest speaker.

Richard Jacques, a member of the Bellflower council, said the event is co-sponsored by the LULAC Community Education Group, an organization of LULAC members statewide that is offering English classes to amnesty applicants under Phase 2 of the amnesty program.

The group charges $250 for the course, and it obtained certification from the INS to offer the classes, Jacques said.

“We’re doing this to promote a positive working relationship with the INS,” he said. “I would just ask the people in LULAC, those other people out there, what did they do to . . . bring these people into the mainstream? It’s easy to throw stones.”

But Hernandez and other Santa Ana council members are not the only LULAC members angered by the Bellflower group’s initiative.

Anita Del Rio, LULAC’s vice president for the Far West region, has recommended that the group’s national leadership expel former national vice president Jose Pacheco--Margaret Pacheco’s husband and the Bellflower council’s liaison to the INS--from the League for improper conduct.

‘Not Sanctioned’

“The function is not a sanctioned league activity,” Del Rio said, referring to the action of the Bellflower council. “It (the invitation) says the league is honoring him, and it’s not.”

LULAC’s national president, Jose Garcia de Lara, said the executive committee has not yet formally considered its response to the Bellflower council’s action. But he said: “We have condemned Harold Ezell, and we’re asking for him to be fired, certainly not reappointed. . . . Certainly we don’t endorse this activity.”

Rose Jurado, LULAC’s Orange County district director, said she sent a letter on Monday to the Bellflower group, asking them to change their plans. But Margaret Pacheco said that no other LULAC leaders had contacted her so far about canceling or moving the event to another location.

“You expect that (opposition) . . . but we haven’t heard anything at all,” she said.

Santa Ana council president Hernandez said his group, along with other community members, would picket the event if it goes ahead as scheduled.

“It’s tough to air your laundry out in public, but you’ve got to air it out if you want clean laundry,” he said.