The city of Escondido has postponed a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday on a proposed migrant youth shelter.
The City Council was supposed to hear an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision to deny a permit to open a 96-bed shelter for immigrant youth caught crossing the border illegally. But city officials announced on Tuesday that they were delaying the hearing until Oct. 22 at the request of the ACLU, which filed the appeal.
A news release on the city's website says the ACLU asked for more time to submit additional materials for the city's consideration.
The shelter proposal has reignited tensions over immigration issues in this city with a growing Latino population.
Earlier this summer, the Planning Commission rejected a proposal to locate the shelter in a former nursing home on a 7-0 vote. The American Civil Liberties Union appealed that decision on behalf of Southwest Key, a government contractor that runs dozens of shelters for migrant children across the country, including two small ones in San Diego County.
Hundreds of people attended two Planning Commission meetings in the summer to show opposition or support for the shelter plan. At the time, Central American children were arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border by the thousands — adding fuel to the debate.
The flow has since slowed to less than a third of what it was in June, but Southwest Key still wants to open a shelter in Escondido. The City Council must now decide whether the Planning Commission relied on solid land use concerns to deny the permit.
The ACLU argues that the shelter would provide a service to the community by creating more than 100 jobs and preventing the now-vacant nursing home property from deteriorating.
Security has been a major concern for those opposed to the shelter, even though the Escondido Police Department initially expressed no concerns. However, in a report to City Council, Escondido staff noted that the controversy and heavy media attention surrounding the shelter could create new public safety problems.
