The mayor of El Cajon on Wednesday called for “the immediate shutdown of the U.S. border to Palestinians,” citing supposed national security threats posed by groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
In several morning tweets, Mayor Bill Wells said the apprehension of 169 individuals on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist was cause for major concern.
“This comes in light of three Democrat Congressional members considering allowing Palestinians into the United States through the Temporary Protected Status,” Wells said on X, formerly Twitter.
The East County mayor echoed a similar sentiment by fellow Republican Jim Desmond, North County rep on the county Board of Supervisors.
On Sunday, Desmond on X said the southern border was “in chaos,” adding: “This isn’t about partisan politics, this is about the safety of our country. We must shut it down, until we can get a system that allows Border Patrol to vet people and protect our region.”
Would a resolution to ban Palestinian border-crossers be placed on an El Cajon city agenda?
“I’m not asking the council to look at this as [we] have no jurisdiction in regard to federal border policy,” Wells told Times of San Diego via email.
The Wells tweet stood in contrast to two other actions announced Wednesday — one by the city of Poway and another by local Christian leaders.
At its Tuesday meeting, The Poway City Council unanimously approved an urgency ordinance banning the distribution of hate litter — materials “intended to frighten, intimidate, harass members of any protected class.”
“We said it back in April of 2019 when the Chabad tragedy took place – hate has no place in Poway,” Mayor Steve Vaus said at the meeting, referring to the shooting death of Lori Gilbert-Kaye. “That still stands today.”
“I strongly believe we need to implement penalties to discourage such cowardly acts,” he said. “Hate litter … will not be tolerated in Poway.”
Violators can be fined as much as $1,000 and jailed up to six months, according to Ordinance No. 863.
On Wednesday afternoon, San Diego’s Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran leaders issued a 470-word “Statement of San Diego Christian Bishops on the Rise of Religious Hatred in Our Midst.”
“The twin hatreds of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, so embedded in our history and so vicious in their virulence and poison, have now been awakened once again in our own land,” said Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Bishop David Nagler of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Right Rev. Susan Brown Snook of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego.
They concluded:
Here in the San Diego area, we call on all people of faith to stand with us and our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters to oppose hate, to console one another in their suffering, to protect and support the innocent, to listen to each other’s experiences, to pray for an end to violence in the Middle East, and to work for a just and lasting peace in the land that all three of our religious traditions cherish so deeply.
Wells apparently was triggered by a factual Daily Caller report on three House members writing a letter to their House and Senate colleagues to designate the Palestinian territories for Temporary Protected Status or authorize Deferred Enforced Departure for Palestinians present in the United States.
“TPS and DED offer temporary relief from removal and work authorization for eligible foreign nationals already in the United States who are unable to return safely to their home country,” the letter said.
Social media reaction to the Wells tweet was quick and frequently critical — and mocking.
“Gazans can’t even leave Gaza — how do you think they’re going to hurt you in El Cajon?” said the “San Diego Socialist Rifle Association.”
Said another: “Come on Bill. You know well that 50% of Palestinians are children. Ashamed of you. Be better.”
San Diego’s Alex Wenzel responded: “The alleged CBP memo on which you are basing this rhetoric was fabricated, according to the agency itself.” He linked to a Fox5 San Diego report debunking fear of Hamas terrorists seeking to cross the border.
“The CBP office in Washington, D.C., sent a statement to Border Report saying, ‘There is no indication of Hamas-directed foreign fighters seeking to make entry in the United States,’” Fox5 said.
Longtime San Diego politics observer Carl Luna, the Mesa College political scientist, told Times of San Diego:
“As far as making real policy goes, Mayor Wells’ comments on banning Palestinians at the border is about as impactful as declaring that the moon will be mined for green cheese. You can say it, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in the real world.”
He conceded Wells made politically provocative statements like this as a way to shore up his conservative GOP base “who are always against immigrants of any hue.”
But Wells also sought to reach out to those in shock by the horrific Hamas attack on Israel in an effort to show himself on Israel’s side, “potentially trying to peel away voters from his congressional opponent next year,” Luna said.
In March, Wells announced he would run against Rep. Sara Jacobs in the 51st Congressional District.
“Of course, the whole [message] is demagogic by nature, presenting an unworkable policy as a knee-jerk reaction to people that have gone through a terrible trauma and are reeling emotionally,” Luna said.
“The whole thing harkens back to Donald Trump’s proposed Muslim immigration ban, which ultimately did not go well either politically or legally.”
UC San Diego political science professor Thad Kousser said he read the tweet as a clear expression of Mayor Wells’ views on the issue, “which may both win him support from some constituents and lose him support from others.”
“It is unlikely, however, to affect our nation’s immigration policies,” Kousser said.
