Latinos Protest 35 New Arrests in Costa Mesa

The recent arrests of 35 Latino dayworkers here may derail a carefully constructed truce between the Latino community and city officials, Latino activists said Wednesday.

While police called the arrests of dayworkers “routine,” Latino leaders described them as products of a “sting operation” that has harmed months of efforts to get immigrants to trust local government and police.

“We were just starting to make inroads, and the police make all these arrests,” said Roy Alvarado, founder of the citizen group Latinos Costa Mesa. “This was a slap in the face.”

The dayworkers were cited at Lions Park on Monday for soliciting work in a public area, Police Lt. Rick Johnson said.

Before the arrests, police said, an undercover officer posed as a potential employer, driving past the park in a truck and picking up the men before citing them.

Johnson insisted that the undercover officer’s action “was not a sting operation. This has been an ongoing situation.”

Johnson said the city has received many complaints about dayworkers who linger at the park, apparently looking for work, despite a city ordinance that outlaws such solicitation from public areas.

He said police were looking for employers as well as laborers, adding that the workers should have gone to the state-run jobs center on 17th Street and Placentia Avenue to seek work.

“There was no reason why the men had to be in the park for purposes of employment,” Johnson said. “They should have to go to the appropriate location.”

When the city operated the job center, illegal aliens were excluded from the site. The state began managing the center this year, with the policy of not checking workers for legal documentation to be in the United States, Johnson said.

Police officers have been at the park since last month distributing bilingual flyers about the job center, he said.

“People don’t feel safe in the park when they see 100 guys sitting in the swing set,” Johnson said.

Police were widely criticized by immigrant-rights groups when they conducted similar operations last year. Monday was the first day that officers cited dayworkers at the park since the flyer distribution began, police said.

The police action has shaken some community leaders who have been working with city officials to ease tensions.

Alvarado said he feels betrayed because he placed his reputation on the line when he told members of the Latino community to trust the city.

“This is dangerous for me as an advocate,” he said. “Here I am saying, ‘Build trust in the community.’ And the Police (Department) has this dragnet. It’s like a setup and makes you look bad.”

Hostility has been simmering for two years between city government and Latinos. It peaked last year when former Councilman Orville Amburgey proposed several ordinances that targeted illegal aliens in the city.

One of the measures, which was first approved by the City Council but never enacted, would have denied federal money to charities that aid illegal aliens. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp was eventually forced to intervene and enacted a policy barring discrimination in the distribution of federal money.

Tensions between the Latino community and the city eased somewhat after Amburgey lost his reelection bid in November.

Amin David of Los Amigos of Orange County, a prominent minority-rights organization, said city and community leaders have been meeting for months to find common ground.

“This is really something,” David said when told of the arrests. “I’m saddened by this. Can’t people just be at the park? Do the rules change just because of the color of the skin? Can’t anybody just have the right to be at the park?”

Mayor Mary Hornbuckle said she hopes that the arrests will not have a lasting effect on the efforts by city officials and local leaders.

“I was rather surprised by the arrests,” Hornbuckle said. “The arrests of dayworkers have been going on for a while. But I hope this won’t interfere with what we have been working on.

“Progress is never smooth and flowing, so this is like two steps forward and one step backward.”