Panel Named to Ease Fears Over Orange Crackdown

Orange Mayor Jess F. Perez has organized a task force to help ease tension created in the city by continuing police crackdowns in the last month on undocumented workers.

Perez said there is a need to improve relations among the city’s undocumented workers, police and residents.

Nonetheless, he said, he and the City Council continue to unanimously support the police enforcement policy.

The task force--which includes residents, business owners, church leaders, police and civic leaders--met for the first time Friday morning.

Perez said he hopes the committee can help resolve what he calls a “public relations problem” that is in part caused by the undocumented workers’ distrust of the city.

Counseling, Education

“We need to improve relations between police and the undocumented worker,” he said, through a counseling and education program, but he said the city cannot support such a program because it would involve workers who are in the county in violation of federal law.

Perez said he is hoping that social groups such as Catholic Charities will help.

Undocumented workers need to understand “the community’s perception of them and the problems created by their number and unacceptable social behavior,” Perez said.

A mayor’s subcommittee is soliciting help from Catholic Charities “because of the high credibility the church enjoys with the undocumented worker,” he said.

But a spokesman for the Orange County Human Relations Commission who attended the meeting said relations within the city will not ease until the city ends its policy of selectively citing day laborers for minor infractions and turning them them over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service if they cannot show proof of legal residency.

“The tension is a result of the enforcement policy,” commission spokesman Rusty Kennedy said, adding that the commission, Catholic Charities and other organizations have already demonstrated a willingness to help with a counseling program similar to that suggested by the mayor.

Policy ‘Discriminatory’

But the first step to better community relations, he said, would be for the City Council to “go on record” in opposition to the police enforcement policy. “It is definitely a policy that is discriminatory,” he said.

Last week, the county commission sent a letter to Perez and City Council members calling for a moratorium on the police enforcement effort targeting the undocumented workers.

“I don’t think any of those things will stop the workers,” Kennedy said of the police action, “but alienating people in the community in terms of crime could backfire.”

Kennedy is concerned that people who are afraid of police will not appear as victims or witnesses after there is a serious crime.

Differentiating Police

“The undocumented worker must know that INS is not the same as city police,” he said.

Although Perez emphatically continued to support police policy, he said: “I don’t expect the Police Department activity to have the problem solved.”

Once officers leave, the problem will return, he said.

“I don’t plan to support this activity indefinitely,” the mayor said, noting that overtime pay may be straining the city’s budget. He has asked for a budget report on the pay.

“We can’t neglect other parts of the city,” the mayor said. “As soon as we don’t respond (to police calls) in a timely fashion, something will have to change. It’s a matter of economics.”

But, Perez said, the decision to change the police policy will be made by Police Chief Wayne V. Streed, not by him or the city council.