Beatings Lead to Renewed Clashes Over Immigration Issues

They descended on downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, many of the same activists who fought it out over another volatile issue--Proposition 187--nearly two years ago. Now, 15 seconds of videotape has thrust them together to clash again over immigration and justice.

The immigrants rights advocates took the lead, filling the day with a series of protests and news conferences and a candlelight vigil to keep up the heat in the wake of Monday’s telecast beating of two suspected illegal immigrants by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

But when anti-immigration activists saw “the other side” step into the national spotlight, they decided that they had to get into the act as well. So, an hour after one of the immigrants rights rallies--this one at noon at the Roybal Federal Building--the anti-immigrant groups held their own, blocks away, at City Hall.

And no sooner had Glenn Spencer begun his remarks into two dozen microphones, warning that the United States was “being invaded” by illegal immigrants, than the inevitable happened--a confrontation between the two groups.

Waving a Mexican flag and chanting “We want justice!” several dozen Latino protesters invaded the event of the anti-immigrant activists, prompting prolonged shouting matches for the ever-present camera crews.

If the day resembled the high-tension rallies over Proposition 187 that divided California nearly two years ago, it was no accident. For while some law enforcement experts have said that Monday’s beating perhaps was best explained as the product of an “adrenaline rush” in deputies who were overreacting to a high-speed chase, the fact that the people beaten were Mexican nationals has provided emotional fodder for the same individuals and groups that had squared off in 1994 over the controversial ballot measure designed to deny government benefits to illegal immigrants.

Indeed, immigrants rights groups shaken by the overwhelming passage of Proposition 187 clearly relished the intense media focus on the Riverside County incident as a new opportunity to voice an array of old grievances. On Wednesday, they rallied in succession at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles, in Riverside County and then back in Los Angeles, 100 strong, carrying candles and paper crosses outside the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service offices.

In the first rally, about 60 demonstrators marched in front of the Roybal building, chanting in Spanish, “The people united will never be defeated!” and “Racism is not right!”

“Again we’re dealing with a [Proposition 187] issue,” said John Fernandez, director of the Mexican American Education Commission.

Fernandez, a history teacher at Garfield High School, helped organize anti-Proposition 187 demonstrations in 1994 and is now helping to set up an Oct. 12 march on Washington intended to be the Latino answer to black groups’ Million Man March.

Some demonstrators focused on the issue of law enforcement conduct, including a small group carrying a sign in memory of a 19-year-old friend they said was shot by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies last year. “We want justice for our friend,” said Eric Estrada, 21, of East Los Angeles. “It’s all connected--all of these peace officers are getting out of control.”

But Fernandez said his group hoped to use the demonstrations to highlight a range of issues important to Latinos, including the creation of civilian police review boards, raising the minimum wage to $7 per hour and easing citizenship rules. He said he expects the demonstrations to continue for several days, culminating in a rally Saturday on Olvera Street.

The counter-rally at City Hall also was the work of veterans of the Proposition 187 fight--but on the other side. Spencer, the president of Voice of Citizens Together, had led a caravan to New Hampshire during the primary campaign to draw attention to illegal immigration. With him was Barbara Coe, the Huntington Beach grandmother who was a co-founder in 1992 of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.

Both said they wanted to be heard after listening to the immigrants rights advocates use the Riverside County videotape to advance their causes. “They’re looking for any excuse to disarm us,” Spencer said. “The premise is all white guys are racists trying to destroy the minorities.”

Spencer and Coe had a handful of supporters with them as they prepared for their news conference outside City Hall--while twice as many TV crews waited to take in their words.

Spencer declared: “This issue is not one of race. . . . The issue is the sovereignty of the United States. . . . Millions of Californians voted for 187. . . . They want illegal immigration stopped!”

He complained that the repeated playing of the beating videotape ignored the misconduct of the suspected illegal immigrants in the pickup. “What is going to happen is the police will be punished and we’ll end up paying [those beaten] millions of dollars,” he said.

At that point the heckling started.

“They are human beings!” shouted Anna Perez, 26, of Sun Valley, who had come downtown to join the protests of the beating. “Just because they’re illegals, you’re trying to justify it!”

Within moments, a larger group came marching over from the federal courthouse, hoisting the Mexican flag and all but drowning out Coe, who had stepped to the microphones to ask, “How many [of those in the truck] have criminal records?”

Someone in the crowd asked, “Are you saying they deserved what they got?”

“I did not say that,” she replied.

Soon Coe and Perez were yelling at each other, amid random shouts from bystanders, including “I’m an American too!” and “You’re the real wetbacks--go back on the Mayflower!”