Critics Say Entrapment Possible : Costa Mesa Sting Snares 12 Alleged Job Seekers

As a measure of Costa Mesa’s commitment to enforcing a law against dayworker job solicitation, a police officer masqueraded as a construction contractor Wednesday in an undercover operation that netted 12 Latino men accused of illegally seeking work at a city park.

At about 8 a.m., police deployed Senior Officer William Ellwood--wearing a white cap, a shirt and blue jeans--to drive around Lion’s Park in a Dodge pickup loaded with irrigation pipe and a wheelbarrow turned upside down. When he stopped and parked, Ellwood said during a brief interview at the scene, a man walked toward him, and “I told them, ‘I need 10. I need 10.’ ”

When several men ran to the truck and hopped in the back, four Costa Mesa patrol cars carrying six officers immediately converged and made arrests under an ordinance that makes it unlawful to solicit work from a motor vehicle or for a vehicle to stop for the purpose of soliciting. Even showing an “intent to solicit” is unlawful in certain areas, particularly around Lion’s Park, which is on 18th Street near Harbor Boulevard.

The police tactics, as well as the city’s dayworker solicitation ordinance, drew pointed criticism from lawyers experienced in defending immigrants’ rights.

“You have to look at each case individually,” said Deborah Carrillo, an Orange County deputy public defender, “but I certainly think there is a good argument for entrapment in many of these cases.”

Carrillo also criticized Costa Mesa’s dayworker solicitation ban.

“It’s about as fair and legal as drafting an ordinance that states it is illegal to be a Hispanic, or a person with brown skin, in the park. That is the unwritten ordinance.”

Operation Defended

Costa Mesa Acting City Atty. Eleanor Frey strongly defended the police operation.

“If we thought this constituted entrapment in any way, we shouldn’t be doing it and we wouldn’t be doing it,” Frey said.

To prove entrapment, Frey continued, a defendant must show that he was induced or tempted to commit a criminal act. “And in our situation we are far from that,” Frey said. “It would be up to the defendant to prove that he was not inclined to commit a crime but that the police tempted him to do it.”

Police Lt. Alan Kent said officers are confident that they are carrying out the letter of the law.

“We have no problem with it,” Kent said. “We have consulted all along with the city attorney’s office, and they have endorsed the procedures we have chosen.”

After reviewing a videotape of Wednesday’s arrests, made by officers in a nearby unmarked vehicle, Kent said that Ellwood only pulled his pickup over after several men ran forward to offer their services.

“That has been the procedure on all of our operations, including (Wednesday’s),” Kent said.

To date, 35 men have been issued citations under Costa Mesa’s job solicitation ordinance. As a misdemeanor infraction, violations carry a maximum penalty of $100 in fines for a first offense and $500 for a second.

In 1988, the City Council established a public hiring hall at 1697 Placentia Ave. after residents complained that idle dayworkers were causing problems by congregating on street corners. The job center, which officials say is frequented by more than 50 men on a daily basis, was praised by federal immigration officials as a national model.

Open to Legal Residents

However, the center is open only to dayworkers who can prove that they are in the United States legally. So, even though it remains unlawful for employers to hire illegal aliens, many undocumented workers still seek jobs on city streets, which prompted the council to also enact the anti-solicitation ban.

Earlier this year, the council added the controversial provision that made it illegal in certain sections of the city to even show “intent to solicit.”

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit last week to challenge the “intent” provision. A judge agreed to hear the case next month but declined to issue a restraining order against the city’s enforcement in the meantime.

ACLU attorney Rebecca Jurado contends that the entire solicitation law is questionable.

“Federal courts have ruled that . . . if a car is out of traffic, basically people can do what they want to do,” Jurado said. “Police do not have the right to determine or limit the types of speech they can be engaged in.”

Of the 12 men apprehended in the undercover operation Wednesday, each was arrested and issued a citation for allegedly soliciting employment from an occupant of a motor vehicle, police spokesman Kent said. The defendants were directed to appear in Municipal Court in Newport Beach on Oct. 16.

Among those arrested was Jose Amaya, who said he was an unemployed construction worker from Mexico.

“Hey, I’m just looking for work,” Amaya said as he was being taken into custody. “But I get stopped by police, get put on a curb and I have to appear in court. They think I’m a criminal.”