ESCONDIDO - As supporters of his vote for a controversial rental ordinance rallied at his gas station Monday, City Councilman Sam Abed announced that he was donating $500 of the profits from recent extra business to Escondido Charter High School.

"I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," Abed told a crowd of about 25 Monday morning. "This is not about Sam or Sam's business. This is about illegal immigration."

Last Wednesday, a City Council majority approved an ordinance that would prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. At first, opponents of the ordinance picketed Abed's Mobil station on Midway Drive and East Valley Parkway and announced a boycott of the station.

But supporters came to fill up from around the county Friday and over the weekend, apparently defeating the boycott.

Abed had sales records showing that the station's usual daily revenues had doubled, from around $6,000 to $12,000 and $14,000 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Inside the station, dozens of handwritten notes from customers expressing support were taped up around the cashier's desk.

"The money is just a symbol of support from the silent majority around the country," said Gary Walker of Escondido outside the gas station. He was holding a sign with the words "We love you" and pictures of council members Abed, Ed Gallo and Marie Waldron, who voted for the rental ordinance last week.

Waldron, who is running for re-election in November and proposed the rental ban, also stopped by the station Monday to hand out campaign signs.

She said business at the custom T-shirt shop she and her husband Steve own on Grand Avenue had been minimally affected since the vote. However, the shop had eggs thrown at it a few times before last Wednesday, Waldron said.

"My husband doesn't tell me half the time," she said.

Demonstrators waved American flags and carried signs with messages such as "Jail employers of illegal immigrants." Some drivers honked in support, while others yelled insults or said "Viva la Raza," an expression of cultural pride among Latinos.

Some of Monday's supporters came from Escondido, such as mail carrier Susan Baker. She said that she had seen the neighborhood she serves become more crowded and scarred by graffiti over the last few years, which she attributed to an influx of illegal immigrants.

Others came from elsewhere in San Diego County and from further away. Robin Hvidston, national rally coordinator for the Minuteman Project, described a series of rallies she was planning to attend around Southern California.

"We're really cranked up now," said Hvidston. She called Escondido's council majority "courageous" and said she would ask the city of Upland, where she lives, to pass a similar ordinance.

Reached by phone Monday, boycott organizer Daniel Perez said that he thought that despite the new customers who come in support of the rental ordinance, the effects of the council vote could be more long-lasting.

"I'm not trying to take away all (Abed's) customers," Perez said. "But people in the Hispanic community, who have been his loyal customers for years -- they will remember."

- Contact staff writer Quinn Eastman at (760) 740-5412 or qeastman@nctimes.com.