The California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation has posted video its activists took of Minutemen protesting day-labor sites in the San Diego area. For his part, the founder of the San Diego Minutemen – who are seen in the video clips taking pictures of employers and arguing with or threatening workers and others – complains that “These camera people are getting in our faces.”
A few miles to the north, the city council of Escondido appears poised to pass a Hazleton-style anti-immigrant ordinance, including California’s first ordinance to target landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants. Even as cities that passed such measures – like Riverside, New Jersey and Valley Park, Missouri – are straining under the effects, more cities are looking to crack down on a certain part of their populations. Altoona, Pennsylvania approved such an ordinance Wednesday, and now Carpentersville, Illinois is looking to join in:
In what experts said was a first for the Chicago area, two Carpentersville trustees have proposed that the village punish landlords and businesses that “aid and abet” illegal immigrants.
The ordinance, expected to be formally introduced at Tuesday’s Village Board meeting, would also make English the official language of Carpentersville, a town whose population of 37,000 is almost half Hispanic.
“What we’re seeing around the country is local entities saying, you know what, folks, we have to take matters into our own hands,” says Minuteman Civil Defense Corps’ Illinois state director. “That’s the proper response, because they were voted in to protect American citizens.”
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has a list of anti-immigrant local ordinances.
