Planning in the Face of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

While land use legislation no longer explicitly targets specific populations based on race or ethnicity, specific practices and uses of space have become the focus of planning—often discriminating against low-income communities of color and immigrant populations. Recently, these local policies have included the passage of hundreds of local ordinances across the US that specifically target immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants. ¹ The most common are ordinances prohibiting employers from hiring, or landlords from renting to, undocumented immigrants. ² These policymaking choices serve directly or indirectly as border checkpoints inside cities and towns, not only for undocumented immigrants but also more generally for people of color. Many Latinos feel that checking identification to verify citizenship is based on what a person looks like and unfairly targets people of color. While urban planners may not be directly involved in these explicitly anti-immigrant policy choices, anti-immigrant sentiments find their way into land use decision-making. This chapter examines three cases of land use controversy in Orange County, California and describes how anti-immigrant sentiment works its way into the planning process. ³ In addition, this chapter identifies the ways in which planners, and by extension the larger planning process, respond to race, class, and citizenship. This chapter concludes that land use conflicts represent more than a disagreement about the use and meaning of space; rather, these struggles represent a fight for the right to the city. ⁴