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Small protest targets day-labor site

TEMECULA: About 60 gather near Old Town to make a statement about illegal immigration.

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 26, 2006

By NATHAN MAX
The Press-Enterprise

TEMECULA - Jaime Lopez-Rivera had hoped he could make a little extra money Saturday after earning just $241 during the week as a part-time construction worker.

To find a day-labor job, the 51-year-old Lopez-Rivera, who has legal status to be in the United States, went to a dirt lot near the intersection of First and Old Town Front streets, quickly becoming a popular spot for day laborers.

But there was no work for Lopez-Rivera on Saturday.

About 60 flag-waving protesters with the group Citizen Activists for a Secure America, or CASA, caused most people looking to hire day laborers to leave. And that didn't sit well with Lopez-Rivera.

"They call us criminals, but we're not criminals," said Lopez-Rivera, who said he has a wife and two children. "They say, 'Illegal, illegal,' but they're not correct. I don't have a pistol. I don't have a knife. I'm only here to work."

The protesters had little sympathy.

Holding up signs, the five-dozen protesters held a rally on the edge of the city's Old Town.

Temecula City Councilman Chuck Washington has said the city has received few complaints about the site, and there is no proof the majority of the laborers are undocumented.

But the organizer of the protest, 60-year-old Murrieta resident Arne Chandler, believes otherwise.

"The majority are illegal," Chandler said. "These day-labor sites are magnets and they grow. Our goal is to eliminate the magnets that attract illegal aliens."

Chandler said his group's goal was also to educate employers who hire day laborers, and he brought handouts to give to them. The protesters also photographed vehicles that drove up to the group of less than a dozen day laborers Saturday.

Correspondent Rick Davis contributed to this report

Reach Nathan Max at 951-375-3736 or nmax@PE.com