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Residents, immigrant advocates press mayor to retract remarks; council offers no immediate policy change
Summary
Speakers at the July 8 Lake Elsinore City Council meeting demanded the mayor retract statements they said targeted immigrants and asked the council to provide staff training and 'know-your-rights' materials; the council did not take formal action on those requests.
Voices from immigrant-rights groups and local residents confronted the Lake Elsinore City Council on July 8, urging the mayor to retract comments they described as anti-immigrant and asking the city for training and protections for immigrant residents.
"They deserve dignity, just like all of us here," said Eddie Torres, policy director with the Inland Coalition for American Justice, addressing the council and referencing an arrest of a day laborer earlier that day. Brian Sanchez, an organizer with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said the mayor's June 10 remarks had "caused harm" and asked the council to retract and apologize.
Claudia Bautista, executive director of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, urged the council to avoid local immigration enforcement and called out what she described as a misunderstanding of SB 54, California's California Values Act. "It is actually against public safety for localities to try to play immigration enforcement," she said.
The presiding official responded directly at the dais, saying he had once served as president of the local NAACP chapter and disputing the protesters' characterization of his earlier remarks. The mayor stated the only comment he had made was that "the city of Lake Elsinore is not gonna become a sanctuary city" and called the claims that he had been divisive "false." He declined to change his prior position during the meeting.
Councilmember Johnson said the city follows California law and that local law enforcement under the existing county contract does not enforce federal immigration statutes. She described formal declarations of "sanctuary" as symbolic and said they can create confusion. Several public speakers requested that council direct staff to provide 'know your rights' training and to work with immigrant-rights organizations; one speaker offered legal-policy assistance from SB 54 experts.
No formal motion or council direction to adopt sanctuary policy or a formal training program was made during the meeting. Several speakers said they would return to the non-agenda public-comment period later in the session to ask the council to act.
What happens next: Speakers asked the council to provide training for staff and to produce materials for immigrant residents; the council did not vote on those requests on July 8. Members of the public said they will press the issue at future meetings and offered to help the city's staff understand SB 54.
