State border police initiative fails

By: ERIN SCHULTZ - Staff Writer | Monday, December 12, 2005 10:01 PM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- A proposal to create a state-run border police force won't be on the ballot this summer after failing to garner enough signatures to qualify for the June election.

The initiative would have created a California agency to help the federal government patrol the California-Mexico border and arrest illegal immigrants in nonborder communities like North County and Southwest Riverside County.

Backers of the measure fell about 100,000 signatures short of the 600,000 signatures required to put the initiative on the June 6 ballot, campaign director George Andrews said Monday, the deadline for turning in the signatures.

Supporters of the initiative, including some North County politicians and the Escondido City Council, said the state needed a border police force because the U.S. Border Patrol was not doing enough to close the border or to enforce immigration laws.

"The federal government has failed to properly secure our borders so we feel we need a state border agency to control illegal immigration," said Andrews, who vowed to continue to fight for stricter immigration enforcement but would not say whether he plans to try to bring a similar initiative to voters at a later date.

Opponents said creating a state-run border patrol would endanger civil rights and bring back the immigration "sweeps" that they say led to racial profiling and paralytic fear among local Latinos in 2004. More than 400 people were arrested during the sweeps, which were conducted by U.S. Border Patrol agents who stopped people on public streets to ask for immigration documents.

"Adding another layer of law enforcement would undoubtedly increase border-related human rights abuses," said Christian Ramirez of the American Friends Service Committee, which pushes for fewer border restrictions. "It's a relief to know this won't be on the ballot."

The border police force proposed in the initiative would be a state law enforcement agency designed to assist the Border Patrol, which is a federal agency, in enforcing immigration laws. According to the initiative, officers would be empowered to make arrests and would then transfer the suspects to federal immigration authorities. The state would then seek reimbursement from the federal government for the cost of arresting and detaining the suspect.

In North County and Southwest Riverside County, the debate over a state-run border police agency became most heated in Escondido, where historically conservative, anti-illegal immigration voters and a wave of first- and second-generation immigrants from Mexico have clashed over immigration enforcement.

Escondido's City Council voted in a split decision in October to endorse the initiative, and conservative politicians Marie Waldron --- a city council member who is running for the state Assembly ---- and Assemblyman Mark Wyland, R-Escondido, spoke in support of a state border police force.

"It's an enormous burden," Wyland said of illegal immigration in Southern California and the rest of the country. "We've read about the billions of dollars we're spending on subsidized health care, for incarceration, for crime, for education costs. ... All of us are aware this is having a negative impact on North County and everywhere."

The Escondido Human Rights Committee, a group that has opposed strict immigration controls, protested against the city council's support of the border police initiative, saying the council's support for the measure went against the city's goal of improving relations with the city's Latino community.

Ramirez, who is based in San Diego and worked with the human rights committee to demonstrate against the initiative, said he expects more debate about immigration reform in the months leading up to next year's Congressional elections.

"Because next year is an election year, I'm sure we'll be hearing about a lot of similar campaigns and initiatives, not just here, but all over the country," Ramirez said.

Contact Erin Schultz at (760) 739-6644 or eschultz@nctimes.com.