Costa Mesa Alien Vote Invites Discrimination

Last week the Costa Mesa City Council, in an action whose petty meanness was matched only by its impracticality, voted 3 to 2 to halt funding for various civic and social service groups that serve illegal aliens. Only health-care providers were exempted.

Whether their zeal to punish the least fortunate and most vulnerable among us is guided by an amoral allegiance to the god of cost accounting or simple indifference to the suffering of others, Costa Mesa has set a dangerous precedent for other cities in Orange County.

The net effect will be to make it more difficult for those charitable and civic organizations that represent part of what President Bush has called a thousand points of light to do their wonderful work.

These local Scrooges have threatened the funding of groups as diverse and useful as the Boys and Girls Club, the South Orange County YMCA, the Feedback Foundation and Opera Pacific, all of which get some city assistance because they help people in need, some of whom may be here illegally. Children and adults will now be denied access to food, shelter, educational experiences or a basketball court because their papers are not in order.

This is the City Council that has given police the power to arrest dayworkers who appear to be asking for a job on the street, even though they may not have been seen actually doing so, and that terminated the lease of Share Our Selves (SOS), a volunteer agency providing food, clothing and care for the needy.

Yes, there are social and economic costs associated with the presence of illegal aliens in Orange County. But the Costa Mesa action is typical of an approach that exacerbates rather than solves the problem. It is an approach that will succeed only in raising racial and cultural tensions and burdening those organizations that are, day to day, attempting to help all the indigent.

Last year the city disbursed $266,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds and general revenue sharing money to 30 such organizations. The federal government does not require that the legal status of recipients be proven, although it gives cities wide discretion in how the money is used.

There are several reasons, grounded in both practical and moral considerations, why Costa Mesa’s policy is unwise.

First, this move by the council endangers future federal assistance to the city, according to a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD has referred the matter to its legal department to see if the Costa Mesa policy violates federal anti-discrimination rules.

Second, as the council’s policy statement notes, Congress has enacted a law that establishes regulations with respect to immigration and people who enter the country illegally. That is where enforcement of immigration policy resides--with the federal government, specifically the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The new policy in effect makes any organization receiving city money an arm of the INS. It includes groups as diverse as South Coast Repertory, which will receive $29,000 from the city in fiscal 1989-’90, and Sunshine Community Pre-School, a $1,200 grantee. Both seem unlikely agents of the federal government.

Third, the city is opening itself up to legal action from civil liberties organizations and any other group with an interest in the action. In fact, legal action has already been threatened. This is both ironic and self-defeating, particularly in view of Mayor Peter F. Buffa’s plaint that the city’s position on this issue is untenable because Costa Mesa is being whipsawed between grant recipients and the possibility of resident suits over improper use of city funds. According to the city attorney’s office, no such suits are pending now.

The policy is also virtually impossible for the city to enforce. Even Mayor Buffa, who voted with the majority, concedes that. A procedural section that would have given the city access to the records of those accepting funds as a condition of receiving them was stricken.

That dumps the responsibility for enforcement back into the laps of fund recipients, most of whom seem dubious candidates for the job. And the city is no help here, for the policy provides no steps or outline as to how to ensure illegals are not among those being assisted. Lack of documents proving legal residence does not preclude it.

A fourth consideration is how this decision will affect the primary mission of the organizations involved if they assume the burden of enforcement. For the agencies involved to divert funds to checking clients means less money spent where it is more properly needed. The council has, in effect, said that it must forgo receiving revenues or expend a portion of them in a dubious battle.

The organizations in question provide services to residents. But that includes seniors, has included aerospace workers, and no doubt will include other “desirables” who are for one reason or another in tight financial straits. A de facto denial of funds because a few clients are in the country illegally punishes those who are residents. It is a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Finally, the council invites racial discrimination and bullying. A vast proportion of California’s illegal immigrants are Mexican. Will all Asians who seek shelter be asked for documentation of legal residence? Will blacks whose children need medical care need a green card? Will Caucasians with daughters who want to join the Newport Mesa Girls Club be forced to prove nationality? Don’t bet the ranch. Sad as it is to weigh, there will be those tempted to discriminate against any Latino-looking clients either in self-defense or because official city guidance now invites them to do so.

Certainly, the council may enact any course it deems fitting. But at a time when so many people are in need, even in affluent Orange County, people of good will and generosity should be able to unite and devise sensible solutions. This isn’t one of them.

Costa Mesa has not set a flattering example. Other cities with real or imagined problems of illegal immigrants may wait to see how this matter resolves itself or yield to baser instincts and erect similar barriers.

Mayor Buffa and Councilmen Ed Glasgow and Orville Amburgey, the last of whom fathered this step, now have an opportunity to cast another vote. They, along with their opposition, Councilwomen Sandra L. Genis and Mary Hornbuckle, should rescind this foolishness. It is a policy that recognizes neither right nor reality.