Encinitas is urged to limit laborers

[Brian503a]

http://www.signonsandiego.com

Encinitas is urged to limit laborers

By Angela Lau
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 21, 2006

ENCINITAS – Members of a group that monitors illegal immigration have begun a campaign to pressure the City Council into keeping day laborers off the streets.

But so far, there are no takers among the politicians, most of whom said the city's hands are tied by federal laws that protect the civil rights of migrant workers who stand by the roadside waiting to be picked up for odd jobs.

Furthermore, the council members pointed out that the last time Encinitas tried to prohibit curbside hiring in 1990, a federal judge blocked the ordinance. The city later repealed the law.

Yesterday, none of the four council members interviewed wished to enter into another ordinance that would be tied up in litigation.

The Minuteman Project's request came Wednesday night, the last meeting before the City Council's summer recess.

Saul Lisauskas, a Minuteman Project member and founder of the Encinitas Citizen Brigade, asked for an ordinance similar to a law Vista passed recently that regulates curbside hiring by requiring would-be employers to register at City Hall. Vista officials have said the law is aimed at discouraging employers from curbside hiring.

“We the people want the return of this city (Encinitas) back to the citizens,” Lisauskas said. “We want law and order re-established.”

The Vista ordinance, which will go into effect July 28, already is being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union and California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. The groups argue that it violates free speech and equal protection rights.

The lawsuit, however, did not deter Lisauskas, who promised to return before the Encinitas council after the recess ends Aug. 23.

He also urged the council to forbid loitering on the streets, punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and prohibit stopping or parking where day laborers gather. The sites include the entrance to a shopping center on Encinitas Boulevard west of Interstate 5, the corner of Encinitas Boulevard and Manchester Avenue and areas around Home Depot on El Camino Real.

Tom Haggerty, another Minuteman member, told the City Council on Wednesday that he was accosted at Home Depot by migrant workers who were angry at him for not hiring them. They slammed his car door on his leg, he said.

Council members did not comment Wednesday night because the issue was brought up during public comments and was not part of the agenda.

Yesterday, they said there is little they can do.

“Is there really anything that we can do? I don't know,” Councilman Jerome Stocks said. “If there is anything that can be legitimately, legally and effectively done, it certainly merits a look. But I don't want to squander tax dollars on lawsuits. I am not willing to do something dumb just for the sake of being righteous.”

Councilman James Bond said anything the council tries to do would trample on the rights of migrant workers.

“We've tried all those things,” he said.

Mayor Christy Guerin said: “We'll just have to monitor it and watch what happens to Vista.”

Sheriff's detective Sgt. Ron Morse said deputies can arrest migrant workers only if they committed a crime, not for gathering in public places or on immigration charges.

The Minuteman requests angered Claudia Smith, director of the border project for the nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

She said any effort to restrict curbside hiring would be challenged in court. Her organization was one of the parties that sued Encinitas in 1990 for banning curbside hiring.

“Everybody is talking about the eyesore of day laborers but nobody has turned their sights of the ugly Minuteman conduct. They are very disruptive,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, Home Depot spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher said the Encinitas store prohibits soliciting in its parking lot and has hired security guards.


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Angela Lau: (760) 476-8240; angela.lau@uniontrib.com

[Brian503a]

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07 ... _21_06.txt

Saturday, July 22, 2006
Last modified Friday, July 21, 2006 10:48 PM PDT


Activists want Encinitas to curb day laborers

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer

ENCINITAS ---- Anti-illegal immigration activists are lobbying the City Council to prohibit day laborers from soliciting jobs on city streets, but council members interviewed Friday said they would not respond with a local ordinance similar to a new law in Vista.

"I think it's important to realize that Vista has already gone there and done that, and they have two lawsuits pending," Mayor Christy Guerin said. "It's obviously a very sensitive issue, and for the most part, it's a federal issue."

Guerin added that an effort to restrict day laborers in the city more than a decade ago ended in failure.

In the early 1990s, the City Council passed a controversial curbside hiring ban that the courts later struck down. The city also established a hiring hall for legal workers and appointed a transient-issues coordinator, but the hall and the position were short-lived.

At Wednesday's council meeting, four speakers who said they belonged to the San Diego Minutemen demanded that Encinitas adopt an ordinance similar to Vista's. The Minutemen oppose illegal immigration.

Vista's controversial law, which takes effect Friday, requires employers of day laborers to register with the city. Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and the California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. of Oceanside filed a lawsuit claiming the ordinance restrains free speech and is discriminatory.

"The people in Encinitas are getting fed up with the situation," said resident Saul Lisauskas, founder of the Encinitas Citizen Brigade, a group that opposes illegal immigration. "We the people want the return of the city back to the citizens."

Council members did not address the issue Wednesday because the issue was not on the agenda for discussion.

Speakers ---- two from Encinitas, one from Vista and one from San Marcos ---- complained that "illegals" trespass, litter and camp illegally.

Encinitas resident Craig Nordal, president of the North Coast Republican Club, said that a vote to restrict day laborers would help any council member seeking re-election in November.

That would apply to Councilman Dan Dalager, who said Friday he wouldn't mind losing votes for not taking action on the call for an ordinance.

"I speak more Spanish in a day than English," said Dalager, whose small blade-sharpening service serves gardeners and tree workers. "I've got a number of friends who may or may not be illegal. I really don't check people's IDs. In general, somebody who's trying to work and put food on their kids' tables ---- I'm not predisposed to kicking 'em."

Dalager's colleague, Jerome Stocks, said Friday that he isn't interested in squandering taxpayer dollars on "ineffective solutions that will just result in lawsuits."

"If someone can show us mechanisms that a local government can do to help resolve this national problem that would be effective and legal, I'd be willing to look at that," Stocks said. "So far, nobody has shown me anything."

Three informal hiring sites exist in Encinitas. One is at a shopping center entrance on Encinitas Boulevard just west of Interstate 5; another is at the Encinitas Boulevard intersection with Rancho Santa Fe Road; the third is near the Home Depot on El Camino Real.

At the council meeting, Tom Haggerty of San Marcos told the council that he and a friend felt threatened when a group of day laborers approached their car at the Encinitas Home Depot. He said one of the men slammed a car door on his leg.

Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation said Friday that the Minutemen have become increasingly hostile on recent weekends at a hiring site near the Home Depot. She said they have taken to harassing brown-skinned customers as well.

"They think day laborers are indistinguishable from any other Latino customer," Smith said.

Kathryn Gallagher, a Home Depot spokeswoman, said the company prohibits any kind of solicitations at its stores. She said Friday that the Encinitas store has hired more security guards to enforce that policy.

Encinitas Sheriff's Station Capt. Gary Williams said Friday that he is aware of the escalating tension between day laborers and their opponents.

"We're sensitive to that, of course, but we have not had to respond to any confrontations or demonstrations up to this point," Williams said.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.

[Ladydrake]

I have a question about those day laborers who hang out ona street corner or in front of a business.

Why are they not considered to be loitering and/or soliciting?