SOUNDING OFF:

Recently, Mayor Eric Bever professed an interest in opening a new job center in Costa Mesa.

In a recent “That’s Debatable” segment on these pages, Councilwoman Wendy Leece expanded by saying she wanted to investigate using the same model the city of Orange recently adopted.

“Orange’s resource center provides a central place where people, who must provide legal documentation of citizenship, can seek employment,” she wrote.

Leece is wrong. Workers at that facility are not required to be U.S. citizens. The city of Orange requires a valid form of identification and proof they are authorized to work in this country.

I have been a strong proponent of our job center and the solicitation ordinance that was adopted when it opened. That system worked, but it was closed when a small knot of residents who fancied themselves “improvers” convinced the council majority that it was a magnet for “undesirables” and it needed to go. The closure of the job center was just one of the many steps taken by the so-called “improver” majority aimed directly at the disenfranchisement of the Latinos in our city.

I read the ordinances implemented by the city of Orange several months ago. Our elected leaders should tread very carefully before they just follow willy-nilly.

For example, and without trying to replicate the entire ordinance here, Orange’s solicitation ordinance — which is under review for legal challenges — creates a situation where property owners and business operators of convenience stores and strip malls may be deemed to be criminals. Any city location that permits five or more people to congregate and solicit work constitutes a “job center,” which requires the property owner to obtain a conditional use permit and meet a litany of other very stringent requirements.

The ordinance will force every owner of properties that might possibly be a job site to be proactive in discouraging job solicitation on their site.

I know there are people in Costa Mesa smiling and salivating at the specter of such an ordinance being implemented here.

Councilman Allan Mansoor stated, “I will say that Costa Mesa is an enforcement city and that strengthening this ordinance and the ICE program are two ways we can make that known.”

Of course, we all remember that if Mansoor had his way, every Costa Mesa police officer would be deputized as an immigration screener.

If such a draconian ordinance is passed, I envision cadres of police officers sweeping through town, snatching up every group of five or more people at your local 7-Eleven, fast-food restaurant parking lot, paint store or Home Depot and dragging them to jail for ICE screenings These tactics scream “Gestapo” to me.

What’s next, teaching our police officers how to do the goose-step?

GEOFF WEST lives in Costa Mesa.