Immigration was pushed onto agenda

The headline on a story in Saturday’s Daily Pilot captured the crux of the matter well: “Tale of two job centers.” Indeed, events in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach couldn’t be farther apart right now when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.

Costa Mesa closed its job center and is in the process of establishing new rules that would train city police officers to check the immigration status of people they arrest -- events that have made news nationwide. Opponents of the illegal-immigrationenforcement proposal have banded together and are threatening to boycott Costa Mesa businesses that don’t join them in opposition. They continue to appear at Costa Mesa City Council meetings to protest the plan.

In Huntington Beach, however, the status quo seems to be serving the city just fine. City leaders haven’t considered closing the Luis Ochoa Job Center, and Councilman Don Hansen told the Independent the job center is not an issue he hears about often.

What can we make of these differences, when by most accounts -- home prices, geography, location, demographics, and other socioeconomic factors (according to the 2000 census) -- the two cities are largely similar? The answer seems to be simply that a few agitators managed to push the illegal immigration issue, which is simmering on a back burner for many people in California (and the rest of the United States), to the forefront in Costa Mesa politics. City leaders then acted, and opponents reacted.

Hansen even suggested as much when he said, “Costa Mesa is obviously sticking its neck out on this one.”

The question the statement raises is whether most people in Costa Mesa want their city to be out front on this issue, or whether most feel like residents apparently do in Huntington Beach: not terribly concerned.

Though it may be too late for the City Council to reverse course, its members would do well to make sure they have touched on a policy that the silent majority agrees with, rather than just a vocal minority.

Another question also remains: What about in Newport Beach? What are the attitudes there? Is it really not an issue there at all?