CITY EATS SELF, FILM AT ELEVEN

The City of Escondido will again this week discuss an ordinance to prohibit renting apartments and condos to "illegal aliens." Oh, but don't worry, its not going to be a witch hunt, because it will be "complaint driven." Oh, and don't worry, it won't be race-based, because any "complaint" about "Mexicans" or "Spanish Speakers" or pick-your-pejoriative-term-for-people-south-of-the-border won't be investigated- those complaints are "invalid." Gee, sure glad we fixed all the potential discrimination glitches with that language. No. How this will work is that someone, ANYONE apparently, can lodge a "complaint" about alleged "Illegals" living in an apartment, and the City's Business license division will then take it to the Federal Government (not sure who,where or what part of it yet) and ask them to "determine" if the complaint is true. Then if it appears to be, a charge will be issued to the owner of the building to prove residency of the challenged resident(s) or face suspension of the owner's city business license. Without a business license, once cannot legally collect rents or evict anyone. So simple right? What part of "illegal" can't you understand, right? How about the illegality inherent in the ordinance. It is illegal because it is unconstitutional. The only way for property owners to have any hope of compliance with this thing is to be proactive - to require "proof" of citizenship from renters. Now, ignoring for the moment who carries sufficient "proof" on them at all times (LOST for example, a pasty white creature from the nether reaches of Los Angeles County by birth and an non-world traveler has neither a Passport nor a recent copy of his now 4 and a half decades old birth Certificiate) who do you suppose will get asked more frequently for this "proof?" People surnamed "Smith," "Jones," "Thompson" or "Reed?" Or will it be people surnamed "Gomez" or "Hernandez?"

The minute that this starts to happen, that landlords and property owners start asking Spanish surnamed, darker skinned people for "proof" more frequently than Anglos, a disparate impact of the ordinance begins to fall on people solely because of their race or suspected ethnic origin. In these United States, that has been offensive to the Constitution since the days of President Garfield, (1880's).

The real pusher behind this Ordinance is a Councilwoman, Marie Waldron, who has made her ambitions for higher office most clear. She ran for State Assembly last Spring and lost. While doing so she received heavy support from the Minutemen, a group of middleaged Rush O'Hanitwits convinced that the Brown-gay-God-and-gun-haters are spilling over the border to create "Aztlan" and take back the West. Well, Waldron is again being backed by these deep thinkers in pushing this ordinance. Her speech in Council Chambers back on October 4, 2006 included a reference to her 55 "classmates killed in the World Trade Center in 2001" just in case anyone had doubts about her political motivations in this exercise.

But with a Constitutionality problem as big as Montana (LOST only touched on the 14th Amendment equal protection gurantee - this beast has problems with federal preemption and the "Supremacy clause" of the Constitution as well), pushing this ordinance into "law" will do nothing more than line the pockets of whatever outside law firm the City hires to defend its circled wagons at $250 to $300 an hour. The City will be burning up cash at an alarming rate, to watch this ordinance go down in flames. The densest of the dense in the City will turn and blame the ACLU in unison, all on Talkradio cue, but in truth will have only themselves to blame. This immigration situation is a mess. It needs to be addressed as a problem, with a multifaceted solution, on the Federal level. The City should arm twist and bug the Federal Government about it. The nitwits should (pay someone to help them) write their congressmen and Senators repeatedly; if they won't take action, vote new ones in and keep them on a short leash. Encouraging vigilante style local government is a doomed exercise.