An Immigrant and Foe of Illegal Immigration

He’s an Anaheim police officer who presides over the city’s high school district and crusades against illegal immigrants--though he is an immigrant himself.

Harald G. Martin, 44, has repeatedly offended many Latinos over his five years in office by tapping, critics say, into fear of change in Orange County’s ethnic makeup.

He goes so far as to call himself an ally of the Chiapas-based leftist rebels, who are fighting the Mexican government to keep their land. Martin blames Mexican leaders for “forcing the poorest of the poor out of their country and displacing them into the streets of gold in California and Arizona.”

Martin also intends to fight Mexico, but his war is about money: He has proposed billing Mexico--and all foreign countries--for the education of illegal immigrant students served by the Anaheim Union High School District. Though trustees have changed his resolution to seek reimbursement from the federal government instead, Martin’s proposal remains the focus of controversy. More than 30 activists have threatened him with lawsuits, and many more have branded him a racist.

None of it fazes Martin, who has championed the abolishment of bilingual education, expulsion of students believed to be gang members and the stationing of an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent at the Anaheim jail to deport illegal immigrants who are arrested.

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Born in Austria, Martin moved to Anaheim with his family when he was 2. At home, the Martins spoke German, listened to German music and shared German meals. But Martin thinks of himself as entirely American and believes all immigrants should assimilate completely into American society.

“To have an America of different groups, of different enclaves, is divisive and it is dangerous,” Martin said. “If you do that, you end up like Bosnia. There is no overarching sense of culture and language. I will fault anyone who takes the benefits of this country and does not become an American. I am not a German-American. I am an American of German heritage. There is a big problem in the world today with all this hyphenation.”

But it is Martin, critics say, who is being divisive. Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman University and a member of the county’s Human Relations Commission, said Martin’s proposal is reminiscent of other anti-immigrant measures promoted by conservative leaders in Orange County.

“It is just one of many scattered incidents which fit a pattern that reflect the overall anxiety that Anglos [have] about the increasing diversity in our community,” Smoller said. “Whether it’s this or Proposition 187 or people not wanting a Wal-Mart in their area, or supporting English-only education, it all stems from overall anxiety that people feel.”

Martin’s opponents view his ideas as attempts to divert attention from the school system’s failings.

Statistics compiled by Solevar Community Development Corp., an Anaheim-based nonprofit social service agency, show that 50% of the district’s estimated 27,000 students are of Mexican descent. But only three of the system’s guidance counselors and 6% of the teachers are Mexican American.

“The school board needs to concentrate on educating our children,” said Seferino Garcia, Solevar’s executive director. “Our children need role models.”

Martin has drawn complaints from the county’s Latino community before. He first proposed billing the Mexican Consulate for the education of illegal immigrants in 1995, but fellow trustees voted the measure down, calling it discriminatory.

“He just wants the limelight for the right-wing majority,” said activist Larry Luera of United Neighborhoods. “He thinks he’s John Wayne.”

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A 1972 graduate of Anaheim High School, Martin holds a bachelor’s degree in police science and a master’s in public administration, both from Cal State Fullerton. Now a senior master patrolman, he has served with the Anaheim force for 19 years. Martin is married and has two children, a boy attending high school in Anaheim and a daughter who recently graduated.

Martin first ran for the school board in 1994 when, as a police officer, he became tired of arresting Anaheim’s youth.

“Whether they were drug arrests or stolen cars or whatever, the consistent theme was that the kids in trouble were doing poorly in school,” he said. “They are kids who didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a selfish thing on my part. I figured that if I could make changes in education locally, I wouldn’t have to work as hard as an officer.”

Seven years from retirement as a patrolman, Martin--who won a second term as trustee last year--does not discount a future run for a higher office. His supporters include the Christian Coalition and Barbara Coe’s Coalition for Immigration Reform, which sponsored Proposition 187.

At a recent school board meeting, Coe strongly backed Martin’s immigration proposal. It “is very grotesque for lawbreakers to receive an education at our expense,” she said. “The only racists we know are the ones who use that word.”

Martin has drawn support from ordinary citizens as well.

“The governments . . . involved in this are not efficient with their own people,” said Costa Mesa resident Edward Klein, one of many who wrote Martin to back his cause. “I don’t think it’s racism. I think that passing this resolution would awaken these governments to the idea that they are not taking care of their own.”

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Martin says his opponents rely on the race card to push their own agenda. “My detractors are not what I would consider representative of the Latino community,” Martin said. “Or, at least, they are not representative of the Latino community which is here legally. They are after their own political gain, and they’re seeking a power base. Frankly, they are winning.”

And he worries that the movement that opposes him will lead to political chaos in California.

“We have a new culture coming into this country that does not want to become American,” Martin said. “From the Legislature on down, people are being encouraged to keep their culture. I envision a Bosnia situation in Southern California in the next 15 to 20 years if things don’t turn around. People will kill each other . . . because there will be no common language or common culture.

“And I’ll be the guy right in the middle of it--because I’ll be wearing the blue uniform.”