Liliana is an illegal immigrant with a 6-month old son. She is married to Geraldo, a United States citizen. Facing deportation, she was granted sanctuary by a tiny 80-member church as part of the national New Sanctuary movement. Originally sheltered in Long Beach, the little church closer to her home offered her sanctuary so she and her son could be closer to her husband.

Save Our State, an anti-immigration group (that’s putting it kindly — a read of their home page leaves me of the opinion that they are fascists) , was unhappy that Liliana and her son are sheltered under the roof of the church, untouchable by authorities. So they decided to stage a protest. Here is a description of their efforts:

Dozens of angry, loud people stood on each side of a Simi Valley church’s driveway using bullhorns and overworked vocal cords to hurl insults at each other in an immigration protest Sunday.

and this:

Photo by Rob Varela
Ventura County Star

More from that day:

No arrests were made — citizen or otherwise — but Naui Huitzilopochtli of Westminster, an immigration advocate, was writhing in pain after being sprayed in the face with a chemical agent, allegedly by an opposing protester. He was taken by ambulance to Simi Valley Hospital. Simi Valley Police Capt. John McGinty confirmed the incident and said it was being investigated.

Yes that’s right, this takes place in Simi Valley, home to the Rodney King trial and home to more police officers per capita than anywhere else in Ventura County.

From Save Our State:

“We’re frustrated Americans,” said Save Our State spokeswoman Chelene Nightingale, “and we represent all of the millions of Americans that were calling on Congress to stop amnesty. We’re here to let other Americans know that we’re here fighting for our nation and for our children.”

Nightingale then reveals her full agenda:

Nightingale said Save Our State members wanted to make a citizen’s arrest but realized during the protest they weren’t going to get anywhere near Liliana.

So she asked group members to call a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hotline and demand Liliana’s arrest.

Photo by Anna Bakalis
Ventura County Star

Closely watched by about 15 police officers, the protesters ranged in age from an 18-year-old community college student from Simi Valley to 80-year-old Dee Barrow of Upland, who wore a wide-brimmed hat as protection against the sun. Police officers remained at the scene and the protest finally disbanded when the Save Our State folks figured out that they weren’t going to win a standoff on church property.

End of story, right? Wrong.

Three days later, the City of Simi Valley sent a $40,000 bill (PDF) to the church for services rendered in connection with police and public services dispatched to keep the peace. They billed over $35,000 in salaries alone, which breaks down to approximately $2,382 per officer for 8 or so hours work. Here is their logic:

Although the church was not a part of the protest, Simi officials said that by publicly announcing the decision to shelter an illegal immigrant, the church provoked the protesters to come and create a possible disturbance — one that required a police presence.

Evidently in Simi Valley they believe in punishing the victims. The church did not call the protest. The church did not invite the racist peace-disturbers to their front door, and the church has a right to protection just like every single other citizen of that city. The fact that churches are tax-exempt organizations does not exempt them from the same protections that others receive.

Simply put, the church neither instigated nor invited unruly protesters. If someone shows up at your front door hurling insults and demanding access to your home and you call the police, are you billed? Only if you live in Simi Valley, I suppose and if you happen to be sympathetic to illegal immigrants.

Setting aside the question of sanctuary and anti-sanctuary views for a second and looking only at the city’s actions, it’s clear that the city of Simi Valley is dead wrong in this. Dead wrong, as the ACLU has already pointed out.

“No matter what the sentiment of the Simi Valley City Council, no matter how loud the protesters are outside the church’s door, this church is constitutionally protected,” said attorney Peter Bibring at a news conference Friday afternoon at the church on Royal Avenue.

Why yes, it certainly is. Unless of course, you’re giving sanctuary to an illegal alien in a city that really, really doesn’t want any of ‘their kind’ within its lily-white borders. (I lived there for five years; it’s that bad, yes it is)

Now since the pushback from the ACLU, the city has agreed not to send any more bills, but it shows no intention of withdrawing the first bill either. WTF? I’m still scratching my head at the amazing salaries paid to Simi Valley police officers — I want a job where I get to work for 8 hours and earn $2,382/day. Let’s see, that works out to about $452,755 per year in annual salary per officer. Dang, where do I sign up? Ventura Sheriffs, who sent 43 officers have said they do not bill anyone for their services after the fact.

Let’s review this one more time:

• In attendance: 9 Skinheads, uninvited; 120 protesters, not all of whom were even from the area.
• The goal: To force authorities to enter the church and arrest a young woman with a 6-month old child.
• The victims: Rev. June Goudey and her 80-member congregation, who are living their faith by trying to keep this young family intact.
• The rapists: The City of Simi Valley
• The hatemongers: Save our State

If the City Council of Simi Valley had half a brain cell working in their tiny little pinheads, they’d immediately rescind the bill and issue a heartfelt and sincere apology. If they are stupid enough to press forward and insist that the church pay that bill, they will be deep, deep in debt to all the lawyers they’ll have to hire to defend their sorry asses all the way to the Supreme Court. I will be the first in line to send a donation to that little church and to the ACLU to push ahead with this court case and see to it that their efforts to set yet another racist precedent are thwarted.

With all the ugliness we have in the world — a war in Iraq, saber-rattling with Iran, a federal government who daily tries to stroke our basest fears and make us all a little uglier, is it really necessary to persecute this young lady and her infant son by forcing their family to break apart? It should go without saying, but how can a conservative “values-based” community like Simi Valley justify the destruction of a family at all? Oh, that’s right…they can because that little family has the misfortune to be illegal and to be Mexican.

Just for some perspective, my first encounter with Simi Valley values came in the early 80’s, when I wrote a scathing letter to the editor of the now-defunct Simi Valley Enterprise after discovering that the local Jaycees barred women from joining or participating. They were permitted in one meeting per year — to serve food for the men. That was it. For all I know, it’s still that way. This was the eighties, not the fifties. Just a little flavor of how narrow and truly ugly the attitudes were then, and evidently remain now.

Here’s my message to Simi Valley:

Related Articles:

• 9/17/07 Ventura County Star: Protesters Target Simi Valley Church
• 9/20/07 Editorial: 1st Amendment? It will cost you
• 9/20/07 Ventura County Star: Simi Urged to Withdraw $40,000 Bill
• 9/25/07 Ventura County Star: City Won’t Bill Church for Future Protests

Technorati Tags: Simi Valley, illegal immigration, ACLU, racism, sanctuary, Save Our State

Sticks, on illegal immigration:

His other memorable quote:

Good thing he said it after he was home safe and sound and recovered from the icky stomach bug that came home with him.

(And yes, I stood up and cheered inside on the first quote)

Technorati Tags: immigration, travel, Mexico, Baja

Photo Credit: Steve Broggee

[We now interrupt our regularly scheduled posting for a special bulletin...]

Thanks to you all for the nice comments you’ve posted. I usually am better about answering them but I’ve spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME this week handling ones from spammers.

Even though Wordpress has one of the best spam filters I’ve ever seen, a few are sneaking through the net for me and others.

I’ve closed comments and trackbacks on the “spam magnets” in the hopes that it’ll slow down and I can have more fun joining the discussion from those of you who take the time to comment here. I really appreciate them and feel badly about not responding this week.

[And now, back to our normal programming...]

…where I hate reading the newspaper.

A couple come to the US from Guadalajara, Mexico 20 years ago to help an ailing relative, scratches and scrapes to make it here, pays their own way, pays taxes, starts a business, buys a home…

During that time, they had three more children and got driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers.

Jose went from working in the strawberry fields to starting a construction business, saving $11,000 for a down payment on a $180,000 home.

…tries to secure legal resident/citizen status but are taken by a Tustin immigration lawyer who actually puts them straight in the radar of INS, until finally…

Jose Nuñez was getting dressed for work when five Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers knocked on her door July 25. They wanted to take both parents, but when they realized four young children born in the U.S. were involved, they took only Jose and told Abigail she had a few weeks to get her affairs in order and leave the U.S.

It’s a scenario that could start to play out more and more as Immigration and Customs Enforcement increases efforts around the state.

Yeah, we’re safer today and our economy is certainly better because this family has been deported and banished for 10 years.

Technorati Tags: INS, oxnard, immigrants

Our strawberries are ripening, but the workers aren’t there. Immigration Protest Day left the fields silent and empty. I hope the point is one the politicians get.

Technorati Tags: immigration reform, farming, farm workers

Regarding the scandalous treatment of farm workers in Somis in the 1980’s:

In the end, the Mexican laborers got a good hard look at how America does and does not work.

The government fought on the side of men who were in this country illegally because slavery is not what this country is about.

The Somis flower ranch affair should be a lesson to people on both sides of the issue.

Where there is fear and desperation, the ground is fertile for exploitation.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, farm workers

On tonight’s local news I heard someone say something so utterly outrageous that it literally jerked my head up from the computer and caused me to utter an epithet I usually restrain myself from actually saying…something about the person and the horse they rode in on. The comment concerned a demonstration of people concerned with “protecting our borders”, and the commenter said, in essence, that she supported those who love America and not those dirty people crossing our borders who hate America. Her petty, small-minded, close-bordered rant literally makes my blood boil. It makes me want to hang my head and deny any association with her by virtue of our commonly-held citizenship in this country.

I suppose it would do no good to point out to her that 100-150 years ago this country was built on the backs of those “dirty Irish” that came to escape the potato famine. They were the Mexicans of their time, and had the Civil War not brought the need for cannon fodder, they’d have had to fight and scratch for their citizenship, too. My great-grandfather was the child of an Irish emigrant, and he was naturalized as a result of his father’s service, though I’ve not been able to pinpoint who his father was and where he served.

Others are speaking out about illegal immigration, too.

Joel Sax over at Pax Nortona has an excellent point:

The underlying agenda of the anti-immigration movement is having the power to decide who is a citizen…If they get to change the 14th Amendment, then they can decide that you are not a citizen. If your parent crossed the border illegally, you could be denied your rights and turned into a person without a country. They could carry this back to your grandparents or farther if they wished.

Colleen Cason’s column in today’s paper:

I would argue Mexico’s greatest asset is its people. We here in Ventura County see how hard they work, whether it’s picking peppers until their hands swell or hammering roofs under a withering sun.

If only they had the tools in their country to better their lives by their sweat and tenacity.

The U.S. Senate next week will resume debating an immigration-reform bill. Our representatives can point fingers, rattle sabers, threaten, bully, bluster. They can even believe they have power over this situation.

We can declare everyone who enters our borders illegally a criminal. We can arrest anyone who provides them aid. We can build a wall.

Sure we can put our foot down, but until Mexico puts its house in order our toes will be trampled by desperate people pouring across our border.

The world must take a stand and hold the Mexican government’s feet to the fire.

I think this topic will be a recurrent one here, in hopes that perhaps there is a way to have a rational discussion of the topic instead of the hysterical rants of whackos who think passing a law will really close a border.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, border closure, Mexico

Related: Illegal Immigration: The Other Side of the Coin

This is a strawberry field behind our church. It looks just like the strawberry fields that surround our community, Sticks’ school, and are the pride of this little niche of the world. Out here, the strawberries are like garlic in Gilroy, festival and all.

The fruit in this field is ready for harvest, which means hand-picking berries directly into flats. It must be done quickly once the fruit is ripe, and with all the rain we’ve had lately the farmers are concerned. Very concerned.

While we were eating our strawberry shortcake for dessert, these folks were picking the berries for the next round of shortcake. Out in the fields at sunrise, they were at it when I drove by shortly before sunset. Easter is a huge holiday in our Hispanic community (in any Hispanic community!), and seeing these folks in the fields really drove home the sacrifice they were making to put food on their table and contribute to our local economy.

I’m reasonably certain that the workers in these fields were a mixture of legal and illegal immigrants — they usually are. Our local economy would be in a heap of trouble without workers, illegal and legal, who are willing to go out and pick the berries. If it were left up to those of us who consume them they wouldn’t be picked.

The next time you hear about what a drain illegal immigrants are on our economy, remember these folks.

Technorati Tags: illegal immigration, farm workers, society, politics