Grand Jury Seeks Input From Ethnic Groups : Diversity: Unprecedented invitations by a subcommittee are prompted by negative reaction to the jury’s recent report calling for a national three-year moratorium on immigration.

The Orange County Grand Jury, stung by criticism of a recent report on immigration as unfair, has begun inviting key members of the county’s ethnic communities into its chamber for advice on issues facing minorities, officials said Thursday.

“It’s a positive step toward trying to address the issues in this county on diversity,” said John Palacio, a director of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The invitations, extended by members of a newly impaneled grand jury subcommittee on special issues, represent an unprecedented outreach by the panel, Latino leaders said.

In June, members of a previous grand jury issued a controversial report that recommended a three-year moratorium on all immigration nationwide and linked illegal immigration to a host of social ills. The report was called insensitive and one-sided by Latino and Asian leaders.

As a result, the League of United Latin-American Citizens, a civil rights organization, filed a complaint to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights seeking an investigation of the grand jury. A decision is pending.

Leaders of Latino advocacy groups met with Presiding Superior Court Judge Hugh Michael Brenner, who oversees the grand jury, to express their concern over the report and demand greater representation on the grand jury.

Statistics show that the average age of current grand jury members is 64. Fifteen Anglos, two Latinos, one African-American and one American Indian are on the panel.

According to the 1990 U.S. Census, Orange County is 64.5% Anglo, 23.4% Latino, 10% Asian and 1.6% African-American.

Brenner has been working on setting up a mechanism that would allow the grand jury to hear from members of Orange County’s ethnic communities. “I know the (subcommittee) has asked these people and others to come in and talk,” the judge said Thursday, “because I gave them names of all the Hispanics that I spoke to regarding the immigration report.”

Brenner said the subcommittee members suggested the idea of talking to leaders of ethnic communities. However, the judge said the grand jury is an independent panel and what the members decide is entirely “up to them.”

“I don’t know what their inquiry will cover,” Brenner said. “And, it’s possible that as they hear those witnesses, they may decide to do anything within the scope of their duties.”

He added that the list of names he gave to the subcommittee included key members from the Vietnamese, Korean and African-American communities.

“I think it’s good they’re doing this and I congratulate them,” Brenner said of the subcommittee.

Palacio, who said he has been invited to speak before the subcommittee Tuesday, said it was his understanding that the subcommittee is willing to hear from individuals. He said they wanted to hear ideas on how to add more ethnic diversity to the grand jury and learn about important issues facing the county’s Latino community.

“I myself will be talking about how to reform the grand jury, at least bringing some suggestions of reform,” Palacio said. “And I want to discuss any issue that impacts the Latino community that has not previously been covered by a grand jury.”

Zeke Hernandez, who as state LULAC director forwarded the complaint to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said he had mixed emotions about speaking to a grand jury. However, after he spoke with Vahia Wilson, the subcommittee’s chairwoman, it was his understanding that there would be a “free flow” of information, he said.

“I told them I wasn’t too comfortable with meeting with a subcommittee with the parameters of what a grand jury does,” Hernandez said. “It’s intimidating. They said that I’ll have 15 minutes to talk and that it would be a free flow dialogue.”