Encinitas Calls for Emergency Migrant Help

The City Council on Tuesday night made this the first community in California to declare a state of local emergency after failing to independently solve its migrant laborer problem.

“I think it’s obvious that this is a situation well beyond our ability to control,” City Manager Warren Shafer told the council. “We’re looking to call attention and get the support of the players who have an opportunity to get something done here.”

The declaration calls for the federal government to allot more resources to the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as provide jobs, education and emergency housing for an estimated 800 to 1,500 homeless migrants living within its city limits.

The document also calls on Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) and the rest of the San Diego congressional delegation to conduct hearings in San Diego County on how the immigration flow from Mexico and Latin America is affecting the region.

Among a list of 21 reasons for calling a state of emergency was the constant presence of undocumented workers who solicit work from parking lots and street corners, “creating traffic congestion, safety hazards, litter and disrupting business.”

Of particular concern are more than 680 Guatemalan refugees granted permission to live in the United States while seeking political asylum, but who cannot yet legally join the work force, city officials said.

Until recently, many of the Guatemalans had camped behind a Big Bear market, but the city recently enacted security patrols to drive them away.

On Tuesday night, Encinitas’ five City Council members took turns criticizing the federal government’s immigration policies.

“It’s obvious to me the U.S. government by its actions in Central America and by its omission in not defining its border policy has created a no-border policy,” said Councilman Rick Shea.

He said he is dumbfounded by federal plans to increase the number of lanes at the San Onofre check point rather than committing its resources to the San Ysidro border crossing.

That decision, he said, put the North County in a precarious position.

“We’re living in some sort of DMZ--somewhere between an imaginary border and a concrete border,” he said. “The federal government’s policies have created great numbers of poor people wandering from city to city in the North County. A state of emergency does exist. I’d like to accomplish one simple thing here tonight to get the federal government to do their job so we can do ours.”

Earlier in the day, however, several council members doubted that the city can get the attention of the entire Congress over what many representatives consider to be a regional issue.

“We’re trying anything we can,” said Gloria Carranza, the city’s transients issue coordinator who co-authored the resolution. “We’re hoping to call attention and increase public awareness in places we haven’t reached yet, namely much of Capitol Hill.

“We want the Congress to hold hearings in the North County to see for themselves just what impact this immigration is having on the entire Southwest.”

John Weil, an aide to Rep. Packard, delivered a prepared statement from the politician.

“Without question, our region is one of the hardest hit by immigration in the country. This issue has plagued Southern California for decades, and had defied our best efforts to solve it,” he said.

“Migrants with no place to live and no place to go have strained local resources. And, at the same time, they have gained the sympathies of the residents of our district--myself included.”

Packard explained in the statement that he had been assured by immigration officials that 200 new Border Patrol agents had been requested and many of them would be assigned to San Diego, in proportion with the area’s needs.

But he also had a warning for Encinitas officials in declaring a local state of emergency.

“Congress has shown little or no interest in addressing this as a serious national problem,” he said. “Rather, many members believe this is a regional problem, to be addressed at the local level.

“I ask that, whatever actions you decide to take, you try to coordinate them with the rest of the North County cities. Congress is more inclined to focus attention on North County’s plight if the cities present a unified front, showing that the damage to the area is widespread.”

Money or no money, several residents who addressed the council said they are primed for action.

“It’s time for the council to bite the bullet. Enough time has passed,” said Diane Fradin, vice president of the board of directors of the Encinitas community called Country View Collections.

More than 2 dozen people rose as Fradin waved her hand to the audience, asking for a show of all those in favor of the declaration.

June Bello added: “While we’ve been sitting around discussing the issue applying our little Band-Aids, this situation has worsened. The time for action is now.

In recent years, a rising tide of Third World immigrants has crossed the U.S. border, many settling at least temporarily in the North County, where their makeshift encampments sit in contrast to newly built mini-malls and affluent housing developments.

Although nearby cities in Orange County such as Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach and Dana Point have also struggled with a migrant presence, none have experienced the widespread encampments or the litter and sewage problems of Encinitas, Carranza said.

The state of emergency might eventually bring state and federal funds for housing and educational programs aimed at documented migrant workers, Carranza said.

But a spokesman for the state’s Office of Emergency Services said earlier Tuesday he knows of no available money for the city’s migrant problem.

“We normally deal with identifiable natural disasters, but this is something entirely new,” said Regional Manager Jim Alexander from his San Bernardino County office.

“I’ve been looking for funding sources, but I can’t find them. Maybe they can go to some state and federal housing programs for the homeless. But personally, I think it’s a long shot.”

Migrant advocates on Tuesday called the state of emergency declaration more rhetoric from a city that’s offered much talk and little action.

“This declaration is, to say the least, suspect,” said Claudia Smith, an attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, a migrant rights group. “The city hasn’t met even a threshold obligation to help bring its migrant residents out of their miserable living conditions. They just can’t seem to get past the hand-wringing stage.”