Thread: Day Labor Center in Derwood videotape protesters

Protests hit day laborer center



Day laborers at the Day Labor Center in Derwood videotape protesters.

By Drew Pierson

Staff Writer


With police watching, a group of about 25 people met in front of the Derwood day laborer center Saturday morning to protest what they said was a county-funded building that helped illegal immigrants find work.

The protestors held picket signs and traded jeers for three hours with a larger, and bullhorn-equipped, group of counter-protestors across the street.

"I'm impressed with the turnout," said Brad Botwin, director of Help Save Maryland, a Derwood-based anti-illegal immigration group, and the protest organizer. "[This] is terrific."

The Derwood center, like the other two in Silver Spring and Wheaton, provides shelter and a central location for day workers while they wait for employers to pick them up. Just a doublewide trailer in the County Service Park off Crabbs Branch Way, this latest center, like the others, is funded by Montgomery County. The County contracts the day-to-day operations of centers to CASA de Maryland, a non-profit organization primarily aimed toward the Hispanic community.

Critics complain that the centers do not perform criminal or immigration-status background checks on the day laborers. Botwin and others said that this means many immigrants who have come to the United States illegally may be using the centers' services.

Members of the Maryland Minutemen joined Help Save Maryland on Saturday, bringing large picture displays of recent trips to the Mexican-American border and more picket signs. Ken Aldrich, Maryland state operations director for the Minutemen, wore a shirt that read, "Be a patriot and not a criminal: hire only legal workers."

"These people have broken the law to come here," Aldrich said, referring to the day laborers. "They do not have a right to work in this state or anywhere in America. They're taking jobs from Americans, and our goal is to get [Montgomery County Executive] Ike Leggett out of office. We'd like to get him in jail."

A handful of officers from the Montgomery County Police Department stood next to the protestors, blocking them from entering the driveway to the center. Across the street, about a dozen more police officers stood in the shade, occasionally coming over to the center's supporters, who stood on that side, when one of them would edge onto the street.

Between 30 and 40 people at its peak, the pro-center group held banners and signs, one of which read, "Solidarity with the workers!" and they chanted, "No human being is illegal!"

"These people are not criminals," said one of the supporters, Marco Del Fuego, referring to the day laborers. "They are decent people who continue to work hard. Where is the crime? Because they want to work hard and feed their families?"

Another supporter, Michael Canning, a senior at American University, said he thought the protestors' motives were racist.

"I feel like these people [the protestors] are trying to take back the clock of time," Canning said. "I feel like they want to turn back the progress that has been made as far as any kind of racial justice goes, or even just human justice. These people [the day laborers] are coming here to work, contribute to the economy, to try to make a life for their families at home, and these people [the protestors] are trying to prevent them from doing that."

Cattycorner to the supporters, across the driveway from the protestors, stood two members of the National Alliance, a white supremacist group. One of them wore a shirt that read "Viva La Raza Blanca," or "Live the White Race." Both declined to give their names. They spent most of the protest quietly videotaping the workers and police.

The day laborer center remained open during the protest, which began at 8 a.m., and at one point nearly 30 workers exited en masse to mow the center's front lawn and plant flowers. Members of CASA de Maryland also provided slices of watermelon to the center's supporters, who cheered appreciatively, as well as to the protestors, most of whom declined.

One of the day laborers, Antonio Mendez from Guatemala, said via translator that the protest upset him.

"It's really upsetting," Mendez said. "It's clear they don't want us here."

But, Mendez added: "So far, it's worth it."

Photos by Marketa Ebert
http://princegeorgecounty.bits.baseview ... 645185.php

On the logal news either last night or this morning they did a small piece saying the latino population in PG county is growing and that the middle class is leaving.Another conquered town.