Thread: Carlsbad uses 'hawking' ordinance to ticket day laborers

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/06 ... _16_07.txt

CARLSBAD ---- The Carlsbad Police Department recently started using an anti-solicitation ordinance aimed at newspaper hawkers to cite day laborers asking for work on city streets.

For many years, large groups of day laborers have gathered in Carlsbad along El Camino Real near the Country Store. In an attempt to curb hiring in the area, Carlsbad police said they have issued about 20 tickets to day laborers in the last two months.

Advocates for the workers, many of whom are immigrants, have questioned whether the law was being properly applied and say it could violate the workers' rights.


City officials say the tickets are appropriate.

Police Capt. Mike Shipley said the department has received numerous complaints from homeowners in the area about day laborers.

"The migrant issue is a broad issue. Part of our job is to respond to complaints," Shipley said. "The El Camino Real and Carlsbad Village Drive area is an extremely high complaint area."

Several North County cities have implemented various strategies to curtail curbside hiring. Last year, the Vista City Council passed an ordinance that requires employers to register with the city before hiring people off the street. Civil rights groups are challenging the law in court.

Carlsbad is using an ordinance that was first adopted in 1980, then modified in the late 1990s and 2000 to address concerns over hawkers selling newspapers on city streets.

Critics, including the immigrant rights advocates, say the ordinance is vague and possibly violates the workers' constitutional rights.

One man said he was cited twice and is due in court this week. Margarito Bustamante, an 82-year-old legal immigrant from Mexico, said he was cited April 30 and again May 9 in Carlsbad. He said he goes to day labor sites looking to supplement his Social Security income.

Bustamante, who was seeking work at a Bonsall day labor site Tuesday morning, said few people are willing to hire him at his age and he's not sure how he will pay the fines and court fees.

"Without work, how is one to eat?" he asked. "How am I going to pay?"

Carlsbad's deputy city attorney, Paul Edmonson, said the ordinance does not specify a fine, but that a judge last week ordered a day laborer to pay $192, including court fees.

Law meant for hawkers

Carlsbad announced in 1999 that the city would begin enforcing the law against newspaper hawkers. The North County Times donates newspapers to the Alpha Project, a Vista-based nonprofit agency that employs hawkers who use the sales as a source of income.

The Carlsbad law prohibits people from distributing materials or soliciting "business or contributions from any person who is traveling in any type of vehicle" along roads with a speed limit of 35 mph or higher and on some streets with lower speed limits.

David Blair-Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties, said the citations raise legal questions about whether the law violates the day laborers' free speech rights.

The civil rights organization is suing Vista over its day labor law.

"The ACLU is looking very hard at this," Blair-Loy said of Carlsbad's use of the hawking ordinance to cite laborers. "We have very serious concerns."

Advocates for the day laborers, many of whom are immigrant Latino men, said people have a free speech right to ask for work on public streets. But Edmonson said the city has a right to regulate the practice where safety is a problem.

Carlsbad officials said the city has installed signs telling day laborers about a hiring hall, partly funded by the city, where they can find work. But many continue to seek work on the streets, particularly in the Carlsbad Village Drive and El Camino Real area, police said.

Carlsbad day labor sites and others around North County have also attracted the attention of anti-illegal immigration activists, who say that the majority of workers are illegal immigrants. The San Diego Minutemen and other groups have protested at day labor sites seeking to discourage people from hiring the workers.

In March, about 500 people attended a meeting at St. Patrick's Catholic Church with Carlsbad police Chief Tom Zoll on the subject of immigration. The predominantly Latino crowd expressed concerns about police cooperation with immigration authorities.

Claudia Smith, a long-time immigrant rights advocate in North County, said Carlsbad has taken some of the toughest enforcement actions against day laborers in the region.

"The Carlsbad police have not limited themselves to ticketing those on public sidewalks, but have tried to run the day laborers off the parking lots where ostensibly they have permission to be as long as they remain in a circumscribed area," Smith said.

Neil Turner, Carlsbad resident and member of the San Diego Minutemen, said he did not know the city was using the ordinance to cite the day laborers, but he agreed with its use. He said the day laborers, many of whom he said are illegal immigrants, bring crime to the area.

"I'm in favor of anything (police) can do," Turner said.

Advocates for the workers, many of whom are immigrants, have questioned whether the law was being properly applied and say it could violate the workers' rights.

THEY ARE I L L E G A L

One snippet in the article grabbed my attention.....the fact that an 82 year old LEGAL immigrant is forced to go to a day labor site trying to find work so he can make ends meet.

He can thank some illegal who swiped a job he may have otherwise gotten at a fast food restaurant or some other place where senior citizens needing to supplement income, used to be able to find work.