Representatives of Simi Valley’s Latino neighborhoods attacked...

Representatives of Simi Valley’s Latino neighborhoods attacked the City Council on Monday night for encouraging immigration officers to join police on unannounced probation checks of gang members’ homes.

Members of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, an Oxnard-based community group, accused the city of discriminating against law-abiding Latinos in their search for illegal immigrants during the gang sweeps.

Florencia Ramirez of the National Organization for Women called a Jan. 23 raid attended by Rep. Elton Gallegy (R-Simi Valley) “nothing more than police harassment of our Latino natives.”

“How can forcing our families out of our beds, rounding them up like cattle and taking them away from their homes protect the community?” she asked the council.

Councilman Paul Miller replied sternly that one of the two gangs in Simi Valley is made up mostly of illegal immigrants. He rejected accusations of racism, saying, “all law-abiding citizens are welcome in this city, whatever race, creed or color.”

Councilwoman Sandi Webb said: “My advice for those who don’t want to be picked up by the INS is just stay away from gang members. Don’t live with them.”

Councilman Bill Davis told the activists: “If we were in a foreign country illegally, Mexico or anywhere else, I wonder if we would get treated with as much courtesy as the INS treats you people with. . . . They’d put you so far back in the jail that they’d have to shoot beans to you with a peashooter. . . . If you’re here illegally, you don’t have any rights.”

Several of the activists stormed out of the council chambers.