Migrant Camp a Battleground : Alpine: Latino laborers become targets of anger, assaults as residents’ resentment escalates.

It started out as a typical Friday evening, with men lounging in small groups along Alpine’s Tavern Road--some sipping beer, some waiting to head home to Mexicali after a week spent pounding nails or pulling weeds, camping near a trash-lined creek bed at night.

But on this evening, the migrants’ routine rhythms were jarred by a towering white man who showed up swinging a baseball bat and screaming racial epithets.

“Three of these f------ Mexicans raped my wife. I’m gonna bust some heads,” he spits. He said his wife was raped by three Latino men the night before--Thursday, Sept. 24--and to him that makes one more reason why the Mexican laborers who camp in Alpine should be cleared out for good.

The man retreated without harming anyone. But on Thursday, six days after the confrontation, six to eight men described as white and armed with baseball bats went to the camp and bashed the heads of three migrants, two of whom were sleeping. All suffered major injuries and one had to have surgery.

Throughout San Diego County, tensions have surfaced over migrant encampments, with householders blaming the homeless workers for everything from increased crime and lowered property values to unsanitary conditions. But unlike other areas, the conflicts in Alpine have resulted in a grand jury report recommending that sheriff’s deputies clear out the camp, in a book kept at the grocery store to record “Mexican incidents,” and now in life-threatening racial violence.

Law enforcement officials in Alpine and migrants themselves counter that the fears in Alpine verge on the hysterical and serve to scapegoat all Mexicans as criminals. They point out that the men will stay in Alpine as long as contractors pull up to the curbside and offer them work.

Sheriff’s Lt. Sylvester Washington--the Alpine substation chief--says the dozen migrants whom the man accosted on Sept. 25 may have had nothing to do with the rape of his wife, which occurred a short distance from the creek bed where migrants have camped for several years. But mounting hysteria over the migrants’ presence has now boiled over.

“People are very quick to jump to conclusions. Any incident where there are Hispanic males involved, the first thing that comes to mind is the encampment, which isn’t always the case,” Washington said. “We don’t know who these (rape) suspects are.”

While racial tension has been simmering in Alpine since migrants began camping there several years ago, the rampage is the first racial attack of that scale.

Compared with the more established migrant encampments of North County, Alpine’s gathering spot for day laborers--which attracts contractors from all over East County--is relatively new. And the creek bed that serves as home is right in the middle of town.

Proposals to provide housing or a job bank for the homeless migrants has met with strong opposition from many Alpine residents, and a year and a half of community meetings about the migrants tapered off inconclusively last year.

“What everybody else is in an uproar over is the fact that they don’t want these people, period. That’s the bottom line,” said Washington, who attended a few of the Alpine migrant worker meetings. “We could never get anything resolved because the residents of Alpine aren’t willing to spend one red penny on any kind of housing.”

The issue was recently revived, however, by the San Diego County Grand Jury in its 1991-92 report--at the urging of a jury member who lives in Alpine and has worked for years to rid the town of the encampment.

The report links the migrants to everything from theft and drug use to murder, laments the “declining moral restraint” in the migrant community, and recommends that sheriff’s deputies periodically “sweep” the camp and repeatedly cite the men for trespassing on private property.

Those recommendations are criticized as unrealistic by Lt. Washington and the district attorney’s office, who say deputies would have to cite the same people three times before they could be booked into County Jail, and then chances are they would be released immediately. Besides, Washington says, his deputies--two per shift for a 103-square-mile area--lack the time and resources to spend hours every day at one spot.

Even grand jury foreman Richard MacFie said the recommendations are somewhat shortsighted, and don’t address the demand for migrant labor from contractors--who pay $5 an hour or less, for work in gardening, construction and painting.

But the migrants are breaking a law by camping on private property, and deputies should send a message that trespass laws have teeth, he said.

“Our recommendation, we thought, was made with full recognition that this is not something that could be done on a steady basis. But maybe an occasional sweep, some occasional bookings and jailings, just to let them know it can be done, might dissuade some of these people,” MacFie said. “You don’t have to be a Phi Beta Kappa to realize there’s a problem across the Southwest with uncontrolled immigration.”

But the migrants--many of whom are legal residents--say the troublemakers are a minority.

“We don’t have problems here because we came here to work. We come back at night, go to the bathroom and go to sleep,” said Julio Perez, 56, a legal immigrant and father of 11 dressed in neatly pressed blue jeans.

“There’s agricultural work in the valley near Mexicali, but it pays hardly anything,” said Hector Almada, who prefers to seek out day labor in Alpine during the summer before moving on to the Imperial Valley for agricultural work. “I’ve been coming here since 1971.”

The focus of all the vitriol is a stretch of dry creek bed surrounded by oak trees and heavy scrub. The area--private property--has been home for almost five years to groups of day laborers that range in size from 20 to 60, but it lacks the stable aura of agricultural encampments farther north: There are no tents or makeshift huts of cardboard and plastic. Only an occasional mattress and an even layer of trash and empty beer cans give away the camp’s nighttime function.

The small canyon is across the street from Alpine’s main shopping center and directly below the strip of curb that draws contractors from a range of communities--Alpine included--in search of cheap labor.

U.S. Border Parol agents have made more sweeps in the area recently and the numbers of men have dwindled, but the Border Patrol reports that more than 60% of the camp’s residents are in the United States legally.

Almada got his papers in 1987 under the amnesty program. Now he crosses the border legally, bringing back money to his nine children in Mexicali’s Colonia Carranza on weekends. But he is accompanied by familiar faces in his international commute to Alpine: a large group of the men who have become camp regulars are Almada’s Mexicali neighbors.

The urban, more sophisticated nature of the migrants sets Alpine apart from agricultural encampments farther north. Some Alpine residents find the migrants overly aggressive and belligerent; for example, the migrants know when law officers are prohibited from asking for identification and show no qualms about refusing.

“They are more assertive. And I think that may be a bit of problem in Alpine,” said Claudia Smith, regional counsel of California Rural Legal Assistance.

When angry residents posted signs near the roadside that read “Curbside Hiring Encourages Homelessness. Please Don’t!” in the summer of 1991, the migrants notified immigrant advocacy groups, who successfully petitioned the county to remove the signs.

But the men stress that life in a dry creek bed with no roof, running water, or toilet is not easy. Miguel Ruiz, a stringy 24-year-old with missing teeth and a torn shirt, has been coming to Alpine from Colonia Carranza since 1987, bringing money back to his wife and two daughters.

For years, Ruiz says, they have put up with racist remarks.

“Sometimes, especially at night, they drive by and throw lemons at us, or rocks. That has always happened. There are some very negative people here,” he said.

The men have fared no better with some employers. On several occasions Ruiz has worked for contractors who paid him nothing.

He and three other men worked a whole month for a Santee contractor who owed them $1,600. The man never paid and told them they had no proof they had ever done the work because they hadn’t filled out employment forms. A hiring hall could help prevent some of those hardships, he said.

Most of Alpine’s residents recoil at the suggestion, and lump all the men into one category.

“The community is outraged at their presence,” said Ken Dawson, president of the Alpine Planning Group. “Everybody terms them all illegal aliens. I don’t think as a whole the community cares (about their legal status) one way or another. It’s what they’re doing there, and the appearance it gives to our community. And the crime it’s causing.”

The Grand Jury report also homes in on the criminal element.

“Sheriff’s deputies report that incidents of assaults, petty theft, drug dealing, prostitution, extortion, auto thefts and murder have ultimately been linked to suspects who are trespassers living in the creek bed,” the report says. “Troubled Alpine citizens believe that the lack of a regular employer and the open defiance of laws has translated into a declining moral restraint in the migrant community.”

Many of the migrants concede that their camp at times has been a source of crime, including heavy drinking, brawls, drug use and shoplifting.

After a series of U.S. Border Patrol sweeps of the camp just before a recent Friday, nearly half of the 50 men at the camp were arrested. All of those left behind were documented. They say the most reckless crime is committed by younger undocumented migrants from Tijuana with “nothing to lose.”

“A lot of them would get drunk, and go and rob the store,” said Jose Luis Lopez, 39, who has worked regularly for a Santee motorcycle shop for the past year, and returns to Mexicali on weekends to see his wife and two young daughters.

Lopez, waiting at the curb on a recent Friday for a 7:30 a.m. ride from his boss because his car is broken, proudly hands out a business card for the Santee motorcycle repair shop where he is a mechanic’s assistant.

He was also one of the men severely beaten by bat-wielding men Thursday night, with several facial bones broken. Grossmont Hospital wrapped his wounds and released him Friday, telling him to see a plastic surgeon. Later that day, he returned to Mexicali to be with his pregnant wife and see a surgeon whom he trusts and who will accept gradual payment.

Washington says that crimes such as loitering, public drunkenness and shoplifting are highly visible, but the migrants have not significantly contributed to a general rise in Alpine crime. Those accusations stem from fear, he said.

“Sporadically we will get problems of noise or fights. But for the most part, they don’t bother anybody,” Washington said. Mostly, the migrants drink, get rowdy, and fight among themselves, he said. Occasionally, Alpine women complain of harassment.

Deputies have conducted undercover drug operations in the creek bed, and several weeks ago, a few of the migrants from the camp were arrested on charges of burglarizing two Alpine real estate offices. Last year, two young migrants stabbed an older migrant to death in a fight over money that was believed to be drug related, Washington said.

At the grocery store directly across the street from the small canyon, shoplifting has increased, and manager Ned Holmes blames it on the Mexicans.

His employees even keep a log--the “Mexican Incident Book,” to record any suspicious incidents. “Record all Drunks, Shoplifters, Customer Complaints, Stabbings (Ha Ha),” is printed on the book’s yellow cover. Incidents date back to December, 1991, and include notes about confrontations that happened down the street.

Entries complain bitterly about the impunity of some of the migrants. “P.S. He laughed as he left the store,” reads one entry about a man who had been lingering in the shop and who was suspected of stealing. Another mentions that a man had money but refused to pay for the food he was caught stealing. An entry from June complains of a drunk “Mexican” in the parking lot, banging on car windows and bothering women.

“We have a real problem that is hurting business. Something has to be done right away. Jim and I feel the way things are going, we’re being forced to carry a gun,” an April entry reads.

Another entry hints at previous racial confrontations. An entry about a Mexican man stealing beer was followed by this: “P.S. Some white boy beat the s--- out of the Mexican down on Tavern Road.”

Holmes insists the book is not racist.

“There are a lot of nice people over there. The ones who come in here and buy nothing but beer and booze, those are the problem. The ones who buy tortillas and beans, and barbecued chicken, those are just working people.”

But the community backlash against the camp has hurt all its residents.

“If an American rapes somebody, does it get blamed on all Americans?” said Joel Paez, 28, a neatly dressed man from Mexicali. “If one person does something bad, they say all Mexicans are bad. It’s not like that.”

Those who steal from the store are not all drunks or violent criminals, the log book shows: About half the shoplifters caught in the supermarket between December and March--the coldest months--were stealing socks. Others stole meat, and migrants stole several blankets used to cover produce which were later recovered near the creek bed.

Migrant activist Claudia Smith said a number of migrants have reported that they are treated differently from other customers, asked to hurry up and shop, and then get out. And even before Thursday night’s attack, Ruiz of Mexicali said young white men would often drive by the curbside where the migrants wait for work and throw rocks or lemons at them.

Community solutions to the problem vary.

“There were always people who said just take a fire hose and go turn it on them. There are also a lot of people in town who hire these guys, and enjoy the benefits of paying them very little, and sometimes paying them not at all--and then there are a group of people who feel some sympathy for them,” said Ellen Holzman, editor of the Alpine Sun, who put together the committee to explore solutions.

But group members found very little common ground. At the last town meeting, Holzman said people finally agreed to a study, but no one has volunteered to conduct one.

“I ran out of energy on it. We had gotten to a point where people actually said, ‘Study housing and study a work hall.’ But nobody’s doing that,” she said.

But the proposal for a hiring hall, and one to require contractors to house the migrants they employed, ran headlong into householders’ stiff resistance.

“The community has been totally opposed to providing housing, or providing a hiring hall, the reason being, you don’t want to encourage more of it. You establish a place for them, and you’re just going to encourage more migrants,” said Dawson of the Alpine Planning Group. “And who pays for all that? Do we, as taxpayers?”

While Alpine’s migrant problem obviously means a lot to Alpine, Washington and others questioned whether the relatively small community of homeless migrants warranted a grand jury investigation.

“When you have something happening to you, to you it’s a major problem. But if you look at the totality of the situation, what’s happening here in Alpine is minuscule,” Washington said.

Migrant activist Smith agreed.

“The thing that’s so discouraging about Alpine is that it’s so manageable there. In terms of numbers of homeless workers, there are 40 to 60. And that’s a very manageable number,” Smith said.

But George Vanek, the Alpine resident and grand jury member who wrote much of the report and raised the issue with the jury, said Alpine is representative of a larger menace and was worthy of a grand jury study.

“The basic concept is, there’s an ongoing problem,” Vanek said, “not only in Alpine, but all over the county, all over the state and all over the nation.”