ESCONDIDO -- Two days before City Council elections and two weeks before an ordinance barring landlords from renting to illegal immigrants is set to take effect, community members and civil rights groups gathered in Grape Day Park to denounce the measure and educate Escondido tenants potentially affected by the law.

About 150 mostly Latino parents and children gathered to hear local lawyers explain how the law would work, if enforced, and what legal challenges are being organized to stop it.

Participants ended the afternoon walking to City Hall and placing white carnations -- a sign of peace -- in the doors of City Council chambers.

Nearby, a separate group of about two dozen protestors waved American flags and signs denouncing the housing ordinance at passersby. One sign read, "The devil is in Escondido city hall."

But most of the two-hour gathering focused on education and efforts to get Latinos to the ballot boxes on Tuesday.

David Blair-Loy, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties, reminded those in the audience that the law was not scheduled to take effect until Nov. 18.

In an effort to block the ordinance, the ACLU and other rights groups filed a lawsuit in federal court last week asking a judge to declare the ordinance unconstitutional. And the groups plan to file a request this week for a temporary restraining order to keep Escondido from enforcing the measure.

"If we prevail in court, it will never go into effect," Blair-Loy said, to a round of applause.

Already, the housing ordinance has created an environment of fear in the community, many in attendance said.

Adrian Godinez said he and his friends already have family members and acquaintances who have been asked to leave their apartments and have moved out.

Instead of moving out of the city, however, most have moved in with family members in Escondido, potentially creating more of the overcrowding the ordinance was supposedly meant to combat.

"Their jobs are here and their kids go to school here," Godinez, 21, said. "And it's their family, so people are going to say, 'Come stay with us.'"

Such stories are not unusual, according to Estela de los Rios, an El Cajon attorney who runs the Center for Social Advocacy, who said she has received more than 100 calls in the last week from families facing threats of eviction from their landlords.

"A lot of people are believing they have to vacate (their homes) now," De los Rios said. "We want to let them know they don't have to show your papers and don't have to move out of your house because you have rights."

De los Rios and others urged those in attendance to vote, if they are registered, or to pressure their relatives and friends who are eligible to vote to go to the polls Tuesday to support candidates that have said they support repealing the housing law.

Opponents of the measure, however, said in telephone interviews Sunday that trying to stoke voter turnout is fine, so long as they're not asking people to break the law.

"Our only concern from our side is that they're not encouraging illegal aliens to vote," said Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group.

Representatives from the San Diego Minutemen plan to observe polling stations in Escondido and Vista on Tuesday in order to report any possible voter fraud, Schwilk said.

Contact staff writer David Fried at (760) 740-5416 or dfried@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.