Vote to bar illegal immigrant rentals draws hundreds

Escondido council OKs immigration ordinance
By J. Harry Jones
San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

10:49 p.m. October 4, 2006

ESCONDIDO – The national immigration debate rocked Escondido on Wednesday night when the City Council passed a highly divisive ordinance that would prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.
Every chair in the 350-seat council chambers was filled and the meeting was broadcast live at a park next door where hundreds more watched the council debate the measure.

It was approved by a 3-2 vote and will be the first of its kind in the state. It will not become law until a second reading in two weeks, followed by a 30-day waiting period.

Speaker after speaker decried the law as racist and inhumane, only to be followed by speakers praising the council for standing up for Escondido and America.

Police lined the walls of the meeting room, and everyone who entered had to pass through metal detectors. Outside, officers formed a line to keep the two sides separated. City officials had about 200 officers from several jurisdictions in the county on hand.

The Escondido vote comes at a time when illegal immigration is one of the polarizing topics locally and nationwide.

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