A Latino activist group and some residents of El Cajon are attempting to recall El Cajon City Councilmember Phil Ortiz, saying that he has undermined civil rights protections and ed what they call extremist policies, especially against immigrants.
Mairene Branham, president of Recall Phil Ortiz Committee, was one of 24 speakers at Tuesday’s City Council meeting and presented Ortiz with a notice of intent to recall, which she said was signed by 74 people. Most speakers at the meeting ed the recall, but several people spoke against it and in of Ortiz.
At the heart of complaints against Ortiz for many people was his of a controversial resolution ed in a 3-2 vote in February with Ortiz, Mayor Bill Wells and Councilmember Steve Goble in .
The resolution asserted the city’s commitment to comply with the enforcement of federal immigration law while also following California state law under Senate Bill 54, which restricts the role local law enforcement can play in immigration enforcement. SB54 does allow local law enforcement officers to work with federal officers to address violent criminals.
“You showed that your allegiance to Trump-style resolutions was more important to you than the well being of the people,” Branham said at the meeting. “And in doing so, you betrayed us.”
Violet Lombera of Latinos En Accion and the Recall Phil Ortiz Committee & Latinos En Accion also spoke at the meeting and earlier wrote an email to The San Diego Union-Tribune that Ortiz “let Trump use local police for mass deportations” and allowed U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers to “snatch children from churches, schools, and hospitals.”
Ortiz and other City Council have said such claims are an overly broad and inaccurate depiction of a resolution.
In an email response to the petition before the meeting, Oritz wrote: “I’m proud of my record helping our immigrant community. If a small group of extremists want to try and recall me because I want to keep El Cajon safe from people who commit crimes, no matter what their immigration status is, that’s all the public needs to know about their agenda vs my agenda.”
Ortiz also addressed people ing the recall at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Someone once said the strongest person in the room has nothing to hide, and I have nothing to hide,” he said.
In a 2019 profile in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Ortiz said he got his leadership skills from grandparents on both sides of his family who were immigrants from Mexico.
Ortiz also said that he himself had been subjected to racism, including by white supremacists who beat up his friends when he attended Santana High School.
“I’m not angry at anybody,” he said. “I don’t resent anybody here who is holding up signs. It’s been happening all my life.
Speakers in of Ortiz said he is a good person who cares about keeping the community safe.
People calling for his recall included Yusef Miller, executive director of Activist San Diego and North County Equity and Justice Coalition.
“This is not an issue of whether the community is safe or not,” Miller said. “That is a red herring. That is a smoke screen. We are tired of being painted as pro-criminal. Nobody is pro-criminal.”
The petition submitted Tuesday must be ratified by the city clerk, who will check for the appropriate number of signatures and whether they were done properly.
According to the Secretary of State’s website, a petition to start a recall in a city the size of El Cajon requires at least 50 signatures or five times the number of signatures required on the nomination papers filed by the person being targeted, whichever is greater.
If the signatures on the intent to start a recall are verified, the next step is to collect enough signatures to put the recall on the ballot. The number of required signatures is based on the number of ed voters in a city.
In a city with at least 50,000 but less than 100,000 ed voters, the petition must be signed by 15% of voters to qualify for the ballot.
The latest figures from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters shows El Cajon had 54,382 ed voters as of April 1. Under those numbers, 8,157 would be needed to qualify for the ballot.
This was the second recall attempt on a local elected official to occur in the past two weeks. Last week, a petition was submitted to recall Lemon Grove Mayor Alysson Snow. The petition did not have enough signatures to launch a recall, but the person who submitted the petition said he will try again.
Ortiz was elected in 2024 and his term expires in December.
