Thread: Foes of illegal migrants shame employers via Web

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 3232.story

Foes of illegal migrants shame employers via Web
Photos of workers being hired and company names are shown. But who's illegal and who isn't? Companies are miffed.
By Jennifer Delson
Times Staff Writer

February 8, 2007

Activists fighting illegal immigration are using a time-proven method — public shame — to target employers who may hire undocumented workers, angering some business owners and federal authorities.

Instead of just protesting at day labor sites, activists around the country are posting on a website photos of people hiring the workers and the names of their companies, if that can be determined.

The website, http://www.wehirealiens.com , which reports 1 million hits a month, lists 2,920 employers in 47 states, including nearly 700 in California.

Founder Jason Mrochek, a 32-year-old Riverside County software developer, said the website was developed in 2005 because he and other activists were frustrated by the lack of action by the federal government in stemming illegal immigration. Mrochek's idea is to bring unwanted attention to those who hire illegal immigrants. For instance, he and others spent a recent Saturday in Capistrano Beach, snapping photos of anyone who tried to hire dayworkers congregating on Doheny Park Road.

Robin Hvidston, an Upland-based activist, said many employers looking for day laborers leave the worker sites when told they will be photographed.

The website "is one of our most effective tools in terms of targeting employers," she said. "No employer wants to see his company's name accusing him publicly before the world of breaking the law. It's very effective from that standpoint."

Mrochek said there was a "vetting" process that allows only postings with "reasonable suspicion" of wrongdoing.

Critics contend that the website activists, armed with flimsy evidence, act as judge and jury to punish a company that may have committed no crime by hiring Spanish-speaking workers.

"There is a McCarthy flavor to this whole thing," said Angelo A. Paparelli, an Irvine immigration attorney who represents employers and employees. "There is nothing wrong with punishing employers who do not follow the law, but there is no forum for them to defend themselves. This is grasping at straws. The whole thing smells."

Mike Amato, a general contractor in southern Orange County, was listed on the website after protesters took his photo and recorded his company's name from the side of his truck when he stopped last year at a day laborer site in Lake Forest.

The report on the website reads: "Day laborers quickly rushed the vehicle. Several got into the vehicle. We informed the driver and the man in the front passenger seat that we would be reporting what we observed to http://www.wehirealiens.com."

But no evidence that the workers were illegal or that Amato hired them was presented.

"How do they know who I was picking up?" said Amato, who continues to use day laborers. "I think it's wrong what they did, making accusations with no true grounds. I don't believe I'm doing anything wrong."

Defending the Amato posting, Mrochek cites a report by the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty that concluded that most dayworkers in the United States were working illegally.

Mrochek said he would remove information from the website if an employer called and proved the allegations wrong.

Republic Services, a trash collection company in Clark County, Nev., is listed on the site, which president Bob Coyle said was "very frustrating" because he participates in a federal program to check employees' immigration status.

Coyle said he believed a disgruntled employee made a post that says "almost all if not all the workers are working with false documents."

"It's blatantly false," Coyle said. "Anyone can post something to a website and then no one verifies it. Obviously, when you have 1,700 employees, every one of them is not happy every day of 365 days in a year."

Coyle said he wrote to the website asking that the post be removed but was turned down. Mrochek said he couldn't recall the specific case, but said he rejects many requests because employers are unwilling to engage in a dialogue about the allegations.

"It's very frustrating." Coyle said, "when you have spent a lot of time verifying lots of things when you hire people."

Mrochek said he knew that officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI looked at the site, "although they do not credit us for the work we do."

For example, he said, allegations about the hiring of illegal immigrants at Swift meatpacking plants were on his website six months before raids by the federal government in December.

ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said she could not say whether anyone from her agency ever looks at the tips.

Haley's agency maintains a hotline, (866) DHS-2ICE, to accept information from the public.

The agency would "like the tips on our telephone hotline, so as law enforcement agents we can evaluate it," she said.

ICE has to thoroughly vet the information to determine its veracity, and "we have to develop sufficient evidence to withstand scrutiny by a court of law before taking enforcement action," she added.

Mrochek, who was raised in San Diego, said he decided to become an anti-illegal immigration activist when he returned to Southern California after graduating from West Point and serving as a U.S. Army officer for two years.

He said he noticed an increased number of illegal immigrants in the area, a trend he linked to most of the state's problems in such areas as healthcare, education and pollution. He is also an activist with Federal Immigration Reform and Enforcement, a coalition that routinely participates in protests around Southern California.

"I have three small children and I am extremely concerned about what we are leaving them," he said. "Every facet of our life is affected by this."

I would love to add to that website. There are lots of places in South Florida that hire illegals and if I got together with some others we could easily have several hundred businesses. It's a great idea that needs to be publicized.

Originally Posted by swatchick

I would love to add to that website. There are lots of places in South Florida that hire illegals and if I got together with some others we could easily have several hundred businesses. It's a great idea that needs to be publicized.

They've been online for awhile. Anyone can submit a business just be sure you can prove they do use illegals for liability purposes.

Instead of just protesting at day labor sites, activists around the country are posting on a website photos of people hiring the workers and the names of their companies, if that can be determined.

EXCUSE ME?

Say WHAT?

Are they attempting to put Americans in a cage while allowing RACISTS to spew their hatred across the web unfettered?
Such as:
laraza
mecha
hispanic business
etc., etc.

{feel free to add to the list please!}

Amazing, simply amazing

What gets me is that many illegals in South Florida are hired by their own people unless they are working on a farm. It is very difficult for non Hispanics to get jobs if they are illegals.