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Deputies
take on problems of creekbed squatters
By Billie Jo Jannen
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — Blocked parking at Rite Aid, litter both by the road and in the Alpine Creek canyon, and complaints from the management of the new Alpine Regional Center has deputies once again focusing on the neighborhood’s non-rent-paying inhabitants and would-be day laborers.
Made up primarily of green card bearers, according to deputies, the population of men residing illegally in the creekbed area has been slowly growing for years and has been the target of periodic clean-ups by deputies, property owners and CALTRANS workers.
The men come up from their seemingly permanent camps each morning to hang out near the intersection of Tavern Road and Alpine Boulevard. Until recently, that was in front of the Circle K, just west of Tavern Road. The construction of the new medical services building next door moved them across the street to the sidewalk and parking lot of the Rite Aid. Residents and construction companies coming to pick up day workers have clogged the parking lot, resulting in complaints from Rite Aid management and customers who can’t get in to shop, said Deputy Joe Sprecco of the Alpine Sheriff’s Substation.
That hasn’t stopped the men using both sides of the road and a doctor in the new medical center recently complained to The Alpine Sun that fires had been seen down in the creek and a patient had come in to her appointment very shaken one day. A fistfight between two of the men had blocked her road into the center. There have been numerous attempts to use the bathroom in the new building.
Earlier this month, Sprecco went down into the canyon, which is hidden from view of the road by trees, and says he found a large camp for some 30 men stretching along the meandering stream. Much of that has been cleared out, as has been done in the past.
Clearly, area residents are using the mens’ services, or the problem wouldn’t exist. “There has to be a demand,” said Sprecco, who has been dividing his time between patrol work and proactive community policing.
The cheap labor is enough of a lure, even for relatively affluent Alpiners, that many overlook the negative impacts of 30 people living, dumping trash, and defacating in the community’s only surface watercourse.
These behaviors are prohibited by both state and county health laws but enforcement in San Diego County is complaint driven.
Among the steps Sprecco has taken is to contact as many as possible of the some 20 owners of properties along the creekbed to get signed letters giving him permission to enforce trespass laws on their respective properties.
So far, he has six signed letters and hopes to get more: “The ideal solution would be cooperation from all the property owners,” Sprecco said.
Lt. Tony Salazar, who heads up the Alpine station, said he has attended numerous meetings where this issue has been raised. Any number of potential solutions have been tendered, including asking the county to provide a hiring hall for their use.
Even more ideal, Salazar said wryly, would be for locals to stop hiring them: “The practice of
picking them up should be halted.”
A portion of the area used for camps belongs to Caltrans, which recently hired a private contractor to clean up and Sprecco said he is posting warning signs in both English and Spanish.
He is also issuing verbal warnings and documenting the individuals to whom they are issued. Repeat offenders will be arrested and cited, he said.
Currently, he said, the group is moving somewhat away from the Rite Aid and clustering around a nearby rural bus stop.
Agent Antonio Carrillo of the U.S. Border Patrol said that longterm sponsors are no longer needed for most types of green cards, so, once a green card is issued under, for instance, an agricultural rule, there is no requirement for the recipient to remain in agricultural work.
Carrillo said he checks documents in the group from time to time and is often told that this or that man is only visiting for a few weeks and lives at a permanent address in Mexico. Carillo said this is virtually impossible to check out. “Our hands are tied,” he said.
Once obtained, a green card is generally revocable only if the holder is convicted of a felony type crime.
Misdemeanors, such as trespassing, loitering, drunk-in-public and the like, don’t count, Carrillo said.
Sprecco said he is available to discuss this and other community policing issues. He can be reached at 659-2600.
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Billie Jo Jannen
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