Thread: Freehold NJ reluctantly settles with day laborers

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Freehold settles with day laborers

SOARING LEGAL FEES IMPETUS
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/14/06
BY ANDREA ALEXANDER
FREEHOLD BUREAU

FREEHOLD — Denying that the agreement to end the three-year-old lawsuit against the borough over its treatment of day laborers was a victory for the workers' advocates, the Borough Council agreed unanimously Monday night to pay up to $278,000 to settle the case.

Mayor Michael Wilson and the Borough Council offered harsh words for groups representing the laborers but said they approved an agreement to put a stop to skyrocketing attorney fees.

The borough agreed to pay $245,000 in legal fees to the groups that brought the lawsuit against the town in 2003. The Borough Council also agreed to establish a $33,000 fund to reimburse fines that were assessed against the day laborers.

Councilman Marc LeVine offered the most stinging critique of the settlement and said he was "reviled" by the vote he cast and "got nauseous" thinking about the action the council had to take to resolve the litigation.

The agreement reignited antagonism between the day laborers and residents who blame illegal immigrants for overcrowded housing and schools, high taxes, loitering and excessive noise.

"This case and the feelings from advocates from outside this community be damned," LeVine said. "We are going to steamroll over this issue, and we are going to make this a town that is desirable to young families that are going to come into this community and not be transient."

LeVine said residents are going to take a stand to make sure the borough does not become "some depot for people who come in here to take advantage of the town basically for their own good, so they can hire $5- and $6-an-hour employees or house eight or 12 or 15 people in a house and profit from it.

"That doesn't help any of us," LeVine said. "We will win this war by using prosperity as our tool."

No muster zone


Wilson said the day laborers' advocates failed to succeed in any of their goals in the lawsuit, namely forcing the borough to establish a permanent muster zone.

The day laborers and their advocates "wanted a special place to gather to look for work," Wilson said. "They didn't get it."

Groups representing the day laborers, however, hailed the agreement and said the terms could mark a positive turning point in the relationship between the town and Latino workers.

"Day laborers won't feel like outsiders," said Pablo Lopez, 33, a Latino worker who has lived in Freehold for 12 years. "They will feel like part of the community."

The agreement "reaffirms the rights of day laborers to solicit employment in public places," said Alan Levine, special counsel to the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represented groups that filed the lawsuit.

"Given the fact that many communities around the country have sought to prohibit day laborers from doing that, it is especially important to have a community like Freehold, where the dispute has been so highly visible, to agree that day laborers have that right," Levine said.

Groups advocating for the day laborers, including Monmouth County Residents for Immigrants Rights, El Comite De Trabajadores Por El Progreso Y Bienestar Social (The Workers Committee for Progress and Social Welfare), and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, filed a class-action lawsuit against the borough in December 2003 for shutting down the muster zone on Throckmorton Street near Rhea Street.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the borough rescinded an ordinance that prohibited loitering on public property to comply with a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that found such measures were unconstitutional.

In March 2004, a judge also ordered the borough to reopen the muster zone on a publicly owned portion of the site.

But as part of the resolution of the lawsuit, borough officials and groups representing day laborers all acknowledged that the majority of the area on Throckmorton Street where workers currently gather is not public property, and trespassing is not allowed there. Conrail owns most of the property that has been the site of the disputed muster zone.

State and federal laws do not require towns to provide muster zones, Daniel J. O'Hern, a retired state Supreme Court justice appointed as a mediator in the case, said in a prepared statement.

"Had the case gone to trial, the federal court could not have ordered the municipality to provide a muster zone, nor could it have ordered Conrail to allow the use of its property," O'Hern said.

Keeping pressure on


The day laborers and their advocates will continue to push for an area where workers are allowed to gather, said Stan Organek, Monmouth County Residents For Immigrants Rights spokesman.

The mayor "seems to take pride in the fact that the muster zone was lost," Organek said. "He doesn't seem to get it. . . . This community needs an area for the day laborers to gather together."

In Lakewood, township officials have been struggling with similar issues as they try to clear downtown streets of the laborers who cluster there each morning.

Lakewood recently opened a muster zone three miles from the downtown. But a month later, workers still gather downtown.

The agreement to end the litigation does not resolve concerns for many borough residents, said Gail Trojan, 59.

"We are still going to have garbage on the streets," Trojan said. "We are still going to have overcrowding in the schools and overcrowding in residents' houses."

Staff writer John Vandiver contributed to this story.

[quote]The mayor "seems to take pride in the fact that the muster zone was lost," Organek said. "He doesn't seem to get it. . . . This community needs an area for the day laborers to gather together.[quote]

No Mr. Organek, you don't seem to get it! America is sick of accomodating illegal foreign nationals! They broke the law and should not be in this country!!

My question is, why hasn't the mayor requested an ICE raidd in the area the illegals are mustering. I'd bet a dime to a donute that 2-3 routine ICE raids would resolve this issue.