City’s Immigration Stance Disputed

At the beginning of the mayor’s recent $25-per-person fundraiser at a Costa Mesa park, the picnic area was marked off with yellow police tape.

Before long, six protesters arrived at Fairview Park, holding signs that read “Costa Mesa Under Siege!” and shouting, “Go home, racists!”

Backers of Mayor Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece, who shares his interest in the illegal immigration issue, shouted back until the two sides stood nose to nose on either side of the tape.

In Costa Mesa, the fight over illegal immigration has become a regular spectacle, dividing politicians and neighbors alike.

The council majority has made combating illegal immigrants a priority. But sharp resistance from those who see their leaders as intolerant, even racist, has made the medium-sized city a focal point in the national immigration debate.

Now, a group of influential former local politicians, residents and businesses -- among them C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, the family business that owns South Coast Plaza -- are pushing back.

They have formed a coalition, Return to Reason, to unseat the City Council’s anti-illegal-immigration majority, which they believe has brought national shame and ridicule to their once-quiet city.

“Things have deteriorated to where people are not mentioning the fine points of our community,” said former Police Chief Dave Snowden, who was the city’s top law enforcement officer for 18 years before retiring in 2003. “No one is for illegal immigration here, but there’s a right and a wrong way to fight it.... Costa Mesa should be known for many better things.”

The goal of the newly formed political action committee is to return to a time when the mention of Costa Mesa brought visions of South Coast Plaza, the Orange County Performing Arts Center and a quiet government that concentrated on filling potholes and building parks.

To defeat Mansoor and Leece in the November city election, Return to Reason is backing two opposing candidates and will launch a direct-mail campaign. The organization already has collected $15,000 and hopes to raise $20,000.

Return to Reason is “credible,” said Bruce Garlich, one of the candidates backed by the organization. “It’s a bipartisan group with a wide base. There hasn’t been a counterpoint until now.”

Mansoor has appeared on talk shows denouncing illegal immigration, and has the endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, leader of the controversial Minuteman Project, which monitors conditions at the Mexico border.

Led by the mayor, a majority on the five-member council voted to use local police to enforce some immigration laws, end the city’s Human Relations Committee and close a job center that helped dayworkers get jobs.

To prevent another job center from opening, Mansoor proposed requiring city permits for areas where large groups of people can assemble, an idea that raised eyebrows because it would also have required permits to open businesses such as restaurants. The proposal failed.

Even a recent drive-by shooting in Costa Mesa that left one Latino man dead and four of his friends wounded became fodder for Mansoor’s campaign against illegal immigration.

He told the Daily Pilot that the shooting “shows we still have work to do, but it takes time to remove the welcome mat. When you have job centers, soup kitchens and a high concentration of downscale rental units, it drives the city down....”

Leece, who has been endorsed by Mansoor, served on the school board and the city’s recreation commission, where she also stirred up controversy about immigration. At a recreation commission meeting last year, Leece suggested that police cite any group larger than 10 playing soccer in Paularino Park because permits are needed for group play.

“Why are we allowing people to openly break a rule?” Leece asked during a meeting. “It seems that is what gives structure and order to our society.”

Her opponents said her park proposal showed her to be more interested in running off Latino immigrant players than enforcing city codes.

Mansoor said the former politicians involved in Return to Reason were the very ones who allowed illegal immigration on the city’s Westside to flourish, and said they are out of touch with most residents.

The city’s November election, the mayor contends, will be a referendum on illegal immigration enforcement in Costa Mesa.

“People are waking up to the fact that this election will decide whether Costa Mesa upholds federal immigration law or not,” he said. “I’m simply trying to uphold our laws and get dangerous felons off the streets in our community. It’s hard to be against that.”

In 2000, Costa Mesa residents voted the city’s first anti-illegal immigrant candidate into office, a perennial contender named Chris Steel who had run unsuccessfully nine times. Steel lost his reelection bid in 2004.

Since then, a loosely knit group of residents called the Westside Improvers successfully backed similarly minded council members, among them Mansoor and Eric Bever. Council veteran Gary Monahan joined the two on many votes but will leave the council in November because of term limits.

Voter interest reflects a concern about illegal immigration “that is more symbolic than substantive,” said Louis DiSipio, associate political professor of political science and Chicano/ Latino Studies at UC Irvine. “Local office holders ... can’t do much about illegal immigration, but they could alert people in higher office.”

Return to Reason, which includes some former political enemies who have come together over this issue, believes the council should focus on local concerns -- whether soccer fields should be lighted, or the level of local taxes, for instance -- and not focus their attention on the federal immigration debate. City government also should operate more openly, with more public comment before council decisions, they said.

Before Mansoor and his majority ran the council “there was a sense one could disagree without being disagreeable,” said Paul Freeman, a spokesman for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. “We would like to see a return to a more focused, stable, civil approach.”

Freeman said his company supported Return to Reason because it brought together a broad array of local citizens, among them nearly every former mayor.

“It’s impressive,” Freeman said. “We’re not driving the bus at all, but we respect the people that are.”

Members include former Costa Mesa mayors Joe Erickson, Arlene Schafer and Mary Hornbuckle, and business ownersIvan Calderson, owner of Taco Mesa restaurants. The group is supporting council candidates Garlich and Mike Scheafer in November.

Newport Beach political consultant David Ellis said immigration was a topic that was “the flavor of the month” and one that could draw voters.

“There is a core of voters in Costa Mesa concerned about illegal immigration, and the mayor has that base to count on when it comes to election time,” he said.

Longtime resident Andrea Jacks is part of that base: “The changes that are happening are really dramatic as they relate to schools, gangs and so forth.... The federal government has not done its job, and we need to do what we can to protect our schools and hospitals.”

Mansoor said the focus on illegal immigration is helping improve neighborhoods in his city. The former site of the job center, for example, is now home to a taxpaying business, he said.

Opponents said Mansoor’s focus was too narrow, and stoked fears about immigrants, created a poor impression of the city and discouraged business.