Immigration Debate Figure Ezell, 61, Dies

Harold W. Ezell, the pugnacious former federal immigration official who helped change the face of California by implementing a sweeping amnesty program but later spearheaded a contentious backlash against illegal immigrants, has died. Ezell, who had battled liver cancer for three months, was 61. He died early Tuesday at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, where he had been undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

“Those of us who knew him best will certainly miss him,” said Bill King, a close friend who barnstormed the country with Ezell to promote amnesty for illegal immigrants in 1987 and ’88 when they worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

King was with Ezell, along with Ezell’s wife, Lee, and other family members, the night before he died. “He was a fine man, and a great American who loved his country,” King said. “Sometimes he was popular, sometimes not, but public opinion never swayed him.”

Ezell was a key player in immigration issues in California during a tumultuous period that saw an unprecedented change in the state’s demographics, largely due to a surge of immigrants from Latin America and Asia.

A former executive with the Wienerschnitzel fast-food chain, Ezell served as head of the INS’ western region under President Reagan. In that role, he implemented the 1986 immigration reform law that granted legal residency to nearly 3 million illegal immigrants, allowing them to come out of the shadows and eventually become U.S. citizens. About half of those who qualified for amnesty lived in California.

Ezell, son of a pastor from Wilmington, took it upon himself to vigorously promote the amnesty provision of the law. In one controversial stunt, the longtime Republican donned a mariachi hat and sang as part of the “Trio Amnestia,” along with another immigration official and an immigrant radio personality.

The influx of immigrants to Southern California triggered deep public misgivings that would ultimately lead to the passage of Proposition 187, the 1994 state ballot initiative Ezell co-authored that aimed to cut public benefits to illegal immigrants

Barbara Coe of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, who also helped write the proposition, said Ezell’s name recognition and high-profile antics helped give the initiative credibility. “I think he was an integral part [of its passage], and for that, we are eternally grateful,” she said.

To his critics, Ezell embodied the hard-line immigration opponent who tried to use policy to resist the rapid, and perhaps inevitable, changes in California’s population.

Many were particularly outraged when he left his INS post and set up a consulting business that, among other things, used an obscure immigration law to helped wealthy foreign investors obtain U.S. residency.

To many immigrant advocates, Latino activists and others, Ezell was a demagogue who manipulated racial antipathies but used his personal charisma to disarm allegations of racism.

“A lot of the things that he did got media attention but played on racist sentiments, which were channeled against immigrants,” said Linton Joaquin, director of litigation at the National Immigration Law Center. “Unfortunately, I think he promoted some of the anti-immigrant attitudes that we’ve been afflicted with in recent years.”

But even Ezell’s critics conceded his considerable personal magnetism.

“He was very personable, very charming, and had a very outgoing personality,” said Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law and a co-counsel in the successful lawsuit blocking Proposition 187--and a sometime debating foe of Ezell.

“I think it’s just unfortunate that, under that charm and warm personality, were attitudes and beliefs that were extremely harmful to the immigrant and refugee communities.”

To his supporters, Ezell was an admirable opponent of an immigration policy gone terribly awry.

“He believed that the law ought to be enforced,” said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that supports reductions in immigration levels. “He believed that people who played by the rules ought to be rewarded, but that those who did not play by the rules should not gain by violating the law.”

In both his government and non-government roles, Ezell was at the center of contentious debates about beefing up border enforcement, granting amnesty for illegal immigrants, cutting public benefits to them and other immigration-related issues that made their way into the headlines.

But despite his image as an immigrant basher, Ezell always took pains to reassure often-leery illegal immigrants that the INS would not arrest them if they applied for amnesty at one of the dozens of centers set up for that purpose.

Always ready with a disarming quip, he clearly felt comfortable with the celebrity status that his immigration role brought to him. He was often provocative and seldom shied from controversy.

“I think he did relish the role somewhat, but no one would like the kind of abuse he was forced to endure,” Mehlman said. “I think it particularly became very vicious during the Proposition 187 campaign.”

In the early days of that 1994 campaign, Ezell was virtually booed off the stage during a debate at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

“They should call it the museum of intolerance,” the Ezell told a reporter later.

He had many run-ins with the media, often dismissing the “liberal press” as fomenting stories making him look bad. But Ezell almost always returned reporters’ telephone calls, even from overseas, and never seemed to take bad press personally.

Though implementation of Proposition 187 has been largely held up by a federal judge, Ezell lived to see many of the positions that he espoused become part of official policy.

Border Patrol staffing has more than doubled since Ezell began making his media tours of the U.S.-Mexico border zone near San Diego during the mid-1980s.

He was among the first to start the drumbeat about what he called an “invasion” of illegal immigrants--a position that is now largely recognized in U.S. policy.

Ezell’s assistant, Suzie Jones, said there would be a public viewing Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Saddleback Chapel, 220 E. Main St., Tustin. Funeral services are planned for Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Crystal Cathedral, 12141 Lewis St., Garden Grove.