News That Ezell May Be Replaced Gets Mixed Reaction

Orange County Latino leaders greeted news of the imminent departure of regional immigration commissioner Harold Ezell with mixed emotions Friday. Some professed unrestrained joy while others who had battled Ezell expressed grudging respect for him.

Ezell was named the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service western regional commissioner by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. This week, a spokesman for the Justice Department described Ezell as a “short-termer” likely to be replaced soon.

Some immigrant rights activists who once would have reacted with glee to such news offered surprisingly mild assessments.

“Harold Ezell today is not the Harold Ezell that we knew when he first came into the position,” said Nativo Lopez, director of the Orange County chapter of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, an immigrant rights group. “Amnesty--the wave of people and the enthusiasm--had an impact on his public posture. He seemed to be more accessible, more compromising. He developed a different face.”

That is not to say that Lopez wishes that his old adversary would be sticking around under the Bush Administration.

‘Reaping What He Sowed’

“Ezell is reaping what he sowed,” Lopez said. “He did a lot of things that were outlandish, and that made him the target of much criticism.”

Jose Vargas, the Santa Ana Police Department liaison to the Latino community and whom Ezell once accused of transporting illegal aliens, prompting police to file a formal complaint against Ezell, said: “I think the man did some good . . . he was a hard worker. But some people did not agree with the kind of work that he was doing.”

One who most certainly did not agree is Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, a group of Latino business people.

“This is as important a day as Cinco de Mayo,” David said. “We celebrate with due cause. Never have we experienced the likes of an Ezell, who was outrageous both in his policies and practices as he was in his hypocritical style . . . or wearing our sacred Mexican hat.”

Ezell drew both criticism and praise for donning a sombrero and singing Mexican ranchero songs with the Trio Amnistia last year in an effort to publicize the federal government’s legalization program for undocumented aliens.

Ezell, now 52, become the first non-career INS bureaucrat in 20 years to be appointed to the western regional commissioner’s post. He used his position to argue for vigorous enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and for more Border Patrol officers. His frequent use of news conferences and other public forums enraged opponents who saw those actions as grandstanding.

David also accused Ezell of fomenting a fear of a Latino “invasion” and of foreigners in general through his actions and comments early in his tenure.

“It will take a long time to wear down, to where people will not be afraid of brown-skinned people in close proximity other than in their yards,” David said.

Manuel Pena, a founder of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, echoed David’s view that Ezell’s departure will not be mourned by the local Latino community.

“I think it’s a great day and another opportunity for the President . . . to appoint someone who is a little more sensitive,” Pena said. “We’ve had years now of dealing with Mr. Ezell and his calloused approach . . . . It’s nothing personal against the man, but I don’t agree with his interpretation of how things should be done.”

Pena said that Orange County Latinos were particularly incensed over the INS’s continuing its sweeps of street corners during the amnesty period and over the arrest of several illegal aliens in an Orange church during a Catholic Mass.

Last month, the INS sent a new community liaison to a meeting with Latino leaders in Santa Ana, hoping to establish closer ties, Pena said. But the consensus at the meeting was that as long as Ezell was in office, the relationship would remain marked by distrust.

“We listened to him for about an hour,” Pena said. “We made it clear we weren’t there to kill the messenger. . . . We said: ‘Look, we’ve heard the message . . . . We think it’s too little too late. We’ve already told them (the INS) what we want. It’s time for them to put a plan into action.’ ”

Father Jaime Soto, the Diocese of Orange vicar for the Hispanic community, recalled that Ezell assisted the church in bringing in from Mexico family members of Nadia Puente, the 9-year-old Santa Ana girl who was murdered earlier this year.

“There have been those situations on individual cases where he has demonstrated a spirit of compassion,” Soto said. “I have been appreciative of those moments. I regret it was not more reflective of the general policies and practices of the INS.”

Soto said he hopes that whoever succeeds Ezell will change what Soto sees as a generally restrictive attitude on the part of the INS toward immigration policy to a more open one.

“We have always been trying to amplify the opportunities that have been available,” Soto said. “With the INS--with legalization in particular--it’s always been a matter of . . . trying to interpret it narrowly.”

Laguna Beach Deputy Police Chief Jim Spreine, for one, said he would miss Ezell. The INS has swept through Laguna Beach on many occasions, apprehending illegal aliens along Coast Highway, but Spreine said the immigration agency has respected the Police Department’s policy to not assist in such raids.

“I’ll be sad to see him leave,” Spreine said. “We might have had some differences of opinion, but it never estranged the working relationship that we had.”