Proposed Immigration Ban Outrages Latinos : Minorities: Coalition of leaders calls the county grand jury’s report un-American and wants the group censured.

SANTA ANA —  A coalition of Latino leaders Tuesday demanded the censure of the Orange County Grand Jury for recommending a nationwide, three-year moratorium on all immigration to the United States.

The leadership said the grand jury report, published last week, inflicted “mindless injury” to thousands of local families and “blundered into unwarranted discriminatory insult.”

“Calling for a three-year moratorium on immigration is not only unrealistic, it is un-American,” said John Palacio, Orange County leadership program director for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Their recommendations add to the escalating anti-immigrant hysteria that is resulting in increasing violence and discrimination against all immigrants, as well as American citizens of color.”

Palacio and others said they would seek a meeting with Superior Court Judge Michael Brenner, who oversees grand jury operations, in an attempt to have the 13-page report publicly condemned.

Brenner was on vacation Tuesday and unavailable for comment. Judge John M. Watson, who is filling in for Brenner, said he doubted whether the demand for censure could be granted.

“I don’t know of any precedent that exists to tell the grand jury to be quiet,” Watson said.

Amin David, chairman of Los Amigos of Orange County, said the jury ignored all discussion of the economic advantages immigrants have brought to the United States.

“Every Orange Countian is an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants,” David said. “That includes every member of the Orange County Grand Jury. If they are ashamed of themselves or their parentage, we are sad for them.”

Alfredo Amezcua, immediate past president of the Hispanic Bar Assn. of Orange County, said that the report provided little or no support for its findings, among them that immigrants are placing an overwhelming drain on government services.

In its report, the grand jury linked immigration--predominantly illegal immigration--with the overcrowding of schools and housing, the spread of disease and the county’s failure to win the drug war.

“The Hispanic community is outraged,” Amezcua said. “According to this, it appears that the only thing immigrants are not to blame for are earthquakes. It is insane. We want to appeal to fair-minded people that they not pay any attention to this report.”

Tom Dalton, co-chairman of the jury’s Human Services Committee, which wrote the report, said the panel was “not going to back off from our report one bit.”

“If you want to frighten me, you’re going to have to put a gun to my head,” Dalton said.

In an interview the day the report was published, Dalton said the panel’s only goal was to make the public aware of how much services to illegal immigrants cost the government.

Dalton has said that the grand jury received estimates that Orange County is spending about $200 million annually on social services, health care, law enforcement and legal services for illegal immigrants. He said the the jury was “in no way trying to bash a group of people.”

Dalton has acknowledged that the panel has no power to enforce its recommendations on a moratorium. But he added, “If somebody didn’t say this, it probably never would get said.”

In its report, the grand jury called for a more detailed study by the Board of Supervisors to determine the exact costs of providing government services to illegal immigrants. An earlier county study found data insufficient to make those conclusions.

Board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder indicated Tuesday that further study would be too expensive. She characterized the grand jury report as “reflecting a lack of knowledge” on the immigration issue.

“I think they were shooting from the hip and hitting a lot of emotions,” Wieder said. “In poor economic times there will always be scapegoats.”