Grand Jury Urges 3-Year Ban on U.S. Immigration

In an extraordinary expression of frustration over the nation’s porous borders, the Orange County grand jury called Wednesday for a nationwide, three-year moratorium on all U.S. immigration to ease the drain on government programs.

The recommendation was contained in a 13-page report calling for a sweeping study to determine the cost to local government of providing services for those who enter the country illegally.

“If somebody didn’t say this, it probably never would get said,” said Tom Dalton, co-chairman of the grand jury’s Human Services Committee, which wrote the report. “We know that a recommendation like this might never get enforced, but having not said this would have been a disservice as a grand juror. The problem is that bad.”

Dalton said jurors were told by County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider that Orange County spends more than $200 million annually on social services, health care, law enforcement and legal services for illegal immigrants. The figure is apparently the first estimate ever made of those costs.

“We’re in no way trying to bash any group of people,” Dalton said. “What we are trying to do is make the public aware that this money is being spent. What (the public) wants to do after that is up to them.”

The grand jury serves as a watchdog over county government operations and has no authority to enforce its recommendations.

Nevertheless, its report states that the huge influx of legal and illegal immigrants to the United States, which the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates at nearly 4 million a year, has overwhelmed public health care resources, jails, public education and welfare services.

“Sanitation cannot be controlled and disease flourishes,” the grand jurors wrote. “Hepatitis, tuberculosis and AIDS are on the rise at a rapid rate within the county. This county could be looking at an accelerated death rate. Diseases do not recognize borders.”

The influx of illegal immigrants is also blamed for the county’s “failure to win the war on drugs.”

The report brought instant criticism from immigrant rights advocates, some of whom questioned the jury’s motives.

“This is a wild report,” said John Palacio, Orange County leadership program director for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “This is clearly a political hatchet job that’s designed to promote anti-immigrant hysteria, and that’s really unfortunate.”

Palacio said the study was one-sided and its data skewed. Dalton acknowledged that the report did not consider the benefits and contributions of immigrants.

“Nobody really has a problem with the immigrants in good times,” Palacio said. “It’s when you have bad times that the immigrants get blamed for everything.”

Mai Cong, president of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., took particular exception to the call for a moratorium.

“This country was developed by immigrants,” Cong said. “This country, which is recognized as a superpower, is built by immigrants.”

INS spokesman Ron Rogers said the grand jury’s report represents a growing frustration with the nation’s apparent inability to control its borders during a time of severe economic hardship in California and other areas of the country.

“This is not a racial issue,” Rogers said. “This is a population issue. What we’re seeing here is an example that immigration issues are at the forefront of public consciousness.”