Encinitas Intensifies Efforts to Drive Migrants From City Land

After rising pressures from local business operators, Encinitas has dramatically stepped up its efforts to close a migrant encampment on a small tract of city-owned land by increasing its “clean-up” of the area from twice-monthly to daily, officials said Thursday.

In a decision made Tuesday by the Encinitas Sanitary District, which owns the 18-acre parcel of eucalyptus, bamboo and thick brush behind the Big Bear Market on Encinitas Boulevard, a city- hired crew has become an almost constant presence on the property--waging daily, four-hour clean-up patrols that began this week.

Target Services of Vista was hired by the city last year to visit the camp twice a month, not only to haul away trash and clean up feces, but also to dismantle makeshift shanties and hooches erected by the 100 or so Guatemalans who live there.

The decision to step up the patrols, Sanitary Board members said, came after repeated complaints from area businessmen that the migrants were not only causing a nuisance and driving away revenue but had threatened several customers.

The newest cleanup efforts are part of a “three-pronged approach” to finally rid the area of the migrant camps, said Councilwoman Marjorie Gaines, who has been outspoken on the migrant laborer issue.

The Sanitary District, made up of the city’s five council members, is also seeking permission from the Coastal Commission and state Department of Fish and Game to “de-vegetate” or strip away the gnarly brush in which the migrants conceal their homes, Gaines said.

Next month, if the daily cleanup efforts fail, the district’s board will consider hiring a security firm employing no-nonsense methods such as armed patrolmen and round-the-clock helicopter patrols to spread the message that the migrant camp will no longer be tolerated in the heavily commercial area.

“We’ll have our choice of armed or unarmed guards, or a firm that employs surprise, nighttime raids,” Gaines said. “We’ll have lots of options. But, whatever we decide, we want it to have the maximum effect.”

Perhaps the most critical step being considered by the City Council is an ordinance to bar any residents--including migrant laborers--from loitering or seeking day labor on city streets, Gaines said.

Official talk of the ordinance could come as early as next month when the council will be host to a special meeting to hear public testimony on the migrant issue, which officials fear has begun to divide the town along distinct battle lines.

A city official who asked not to be identified said the council is prepared to pass the ordinance--similar to ones that have been attacked on constitutional grounds and are the target of ACLU lawsuits in at least two cities in the Los Angeles area--and ask the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to enforce it until otherwise ordered.

The Guatemalan camp issue has become a major test for this North County coastal city in its efforts to control the influx of migrant laborers from Mexico and Central America, whose hastily constructed camps stand in stark contrast to--and often within several hundred feet of--upscale housing tracts and condominium complexes, city officials acknowledge.

“We have tried gentler measures, such as the hiring hall. We’ve done all we said we were going to do in regard to this issue during the first year,” Gaines said. “But overall, it hasn’t worked. It hasn’t solved the problem. Business people have suffered. They’ve lost money. The action we take now has to be firm.”

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s decision, officials say, sends a message that the city indeed means business in shutting camps that are believed to be causing a nuisance or violating health and safety codes.

“The crews are going to step up their efforts to not only pick up trash but also tear down hooches, fill spider holes and remove personal belongings they find in their way,” said Mort August, director of public works for the city.

He said signs in Spanish and English have been posted informing migrants that their personal possessions are subject to seizure. Migrant advocates have questioned that precaution, however, saying that many of the Guatemalan residents of the camp speak only faltering Spanish.

“Very simply, we’re going to let them know they’re not wanted on the property,” August said, “and that, if they’re insistent on being out there, we’re going to be out there on a regular basis, too.”

North County migrant advocates have called the city’s newest cleanup efforts “Gestapo tactics.”

“It’s terrible. It’s like having the Gestapo going in, treating people like that,” said the Rev. Rafael Martinez, executive director of the North County Chaplaincy in Encinitas.

“There might be certain incidents of mischief now and then by certain individuals, but you can’t treat everyone the same way because of a few. That’s like the Latino people saying that, because of a few alleged incidents of racism by two Anglo store owners in Carlsbad, that all Anglos are racist.

“You don’t go after the group, you go after the individuals.”

Martinez said his group and other migrant-advocacy organizations will be prepared to take the battle to court if the city passes an ordinance making it illegal for migrants to solicit work on city streets.

“It would be a dark day in Encinitas if that became law,” he said. “And it would be challenged, attorneys would look into it. It sounds like the same harassment of these migrant people that Encinitas has become notorious for.

“It just discredits the City Council when it loses its head just because powerful people come and complain.”

Charles Bell, executive vice president for the Wendy’s Restaurant chain in San Diego, said the migrants pose a growing threat to businesses and their customers.

“Many of them are drunk, and they have used the areas as a hangout,” he said. “They’ve taken showers in the bathroom of our restaurant and have wandered through the dining room picking up food from people’s plates when they step away from their tables.”

The migrants have also broken outdoor sprinkler heads on the premises for showers, causing more than $60,000 in damage and maintenance, he said.

“We used to open at 6 a.m. and do a good breakfast business. But because of the migrant presence, we don’t open till 10 each day,” Bell said.

Bell said local business owners met two weeks ago at the Wendy’s after a woman was reportedly assaulted outside a coin laundry. He said they presented to sanitary district board members a petition bearing the names of 450 area customers who would want an ordinance enforced to stop the loitering.

“My store manager out there sees this every day, and he’d just as soon send the bombers in to take care of that camp,” Bell said. “What you’re seeing from business owners is that their patience is wearing pretty thin.”

But, as the city gears up for its most stringent, get-tough migrant policy yet, some officials are advising caution.

Anne Omsted, a City Council and sanitary district board member, said the long-range plans “have not been thought out that carefully” and said she has brought up those concerns with other board members.

“I’ve asked the question, ‘What are we really doing here?’ ” she said. “The desire is to get these people to leave Encinitas or at least Sanitary District land.

“But, if they can’t stay on public land, then aren’t we forcing them into private property? And shouldn’t we consider all the implications before we move these people out?”

Omsted said that, in a past Sanitary District meeting, she and staff members have suggested that portable toilets be provided on the lot to cut down on the large amount of human feces found there.

“But the message from other board members was delivered loud and clear that putting the toilets on the property was like saying it was OK for these people to be there,” she said.

“And it’s not OK for them to be there. But they’re still there. At least for now.”