NORTH COUNTY (California) TIMES

January 30, 2007

Police investigate alleged vandalism at migrant camps

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO -- Several migrant encampments in Rancho Penasquitos were allegedly vandalized over the weekend, according to immigrant rights activists and police.

At one camp, clothing was slashed, boots were torn, blankets were ripped in half and other belongings were tossed around the area. The makeshift camp, which was inhabited by three men, had no walls -- only shrubs to protect them from the elements.

Claudia Smith, a longtime immigrant-rights advocate, said migrant workers began calling her network of activists for help Saturday morning.

Standing among the remains of the camp on Monday, Smith said the incidents were more than just an act of vandalism.

"This was meant to send a message that their personal safety is at stake," she said.

San Diego Police Department Capt. Boyd Long said police are investigating the allegations.

Police said one or two individuals apparently vandalized the camps sometime between Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Migrant camps, such as the one in Rancho Penasquitos, have existed in North County for decades. They are home to migrant workers who work in local agriculture fields, restaurants, landscape companies and construction sites. But the camps have become a matter of controversy as expensive housing developments are built increasingly close to the wood and plastic-tarp sheds.

Julie Adams, a Rancho Penasquitos resident who supports removing the camps, said Monday she had not heard about the alleged vandalism. She denounced the action, but also expressed displeasure at the existence of the migrant camps, which residents say are dangerous.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Adams said of the vandalism, "but I don't like what they (the people living in the camps) are doing, either."

Hundreds of workers, most of them men and many of them illegal immigrants from Mexico, lived in nearby McGonigle Canyon. Anti-illegal immigration advocates and community residents pressed city officials late last year to remove the camps, raising concerns about crime, health and fire hazards.

Many workers left the area, while others simply moved deeper into hiding, advocates said.

In November, about 200 protesters attended a rally against the camps in McGonigle Canyon. A handful of human rights activists confronted them. A local talk-radio show publicized the event as a camp-out protest, but police blocked entrance to everyone.

Smith said migrant workers reported about six campsites at different locations that were damaged over the weekend starting Saturday morning. She said the incidents occurred while most of the men were away looking for work. They were left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, she said.

Police would not confirm the number of sites or locations that were vandalized.

At the camp near Rancho Penasquitos Boulevard, there was an empty suitcase on the ground and nearby a new pair jeans torn down the front. There was a leather belt cut in half with a the store tag still attached; a jean jacket cut as if by scissors into two equal pieces; and a set of pencils snapped at the middle.

Smith said some of the items were purchased to send to family members in Mexico. Nothing was taken from the camp, she said.

"If you can come out here with knives and do this, you have to wonder what's next?" she said.

Aristeo, a Oaxacan man who said he was friends with the people who lived in one of the shacks that was vandalized, said he could not understand why anyone would do such a thing. He is a legal resident who works as a day laborer and occasionally lives in similar camps. He spoke on the condition that his last name not be printed, out of fear of retribution.

"I'm saddened for my friends," he said. "I don't know why they do this. I don't understand."