Thread: City of Vista, California after the Riot

The City of Vista, California was one of the cities that experienced a tense standoff between immigration protesters and secure borders advocates.

City of Vista, friend of the working man

By: North County Times -

Our view: Proposed protection for day laborers is really aimed at protecting property values


Forget OSHA and the vast labor-friendly state bureaucracy: Now that the city of Vista is getting into the business of protecting American citizens from workplace exploitation, unscrupulous employers don't have a chance.

At least, that's what city officials say is motivating a proposed ordinance that would require would-be employers of day laborers to register with the city and provide a quasi-contract to potential hires.

In case you were wondering, they say that any connection to the illegal immigration debate roiling our nation and North County is purely coincidental.

Not buying it? Neither are we. Instead, it looks like pressure from merchants and anti-illegal immigration activists has prompted Vista officials to contemplate creating an unwieldy and intrusive bureaucracy whose motivations are transparent.

But Vistans beware if you contemplate hiring that kid down the block to mow your lawn, or the neighbor's daughter to baby-sit your kids. If you aren't standing on your own property when you make the offer, and if you dare to give your new employees a ride to your place, you may be running afoul of this proposed city law if you haven't registered first.

Vista's proposed ordinance, which went before the City Council last night, requires would-be employers to register with the city, display a registration certificate in their car window and provide would-be workers with a document spelling out the terms of the employment.

If enforced, this kind of regulation is sure to scare away most of the men and women who hire day laborers in Vista. Of course.

But City Attorney Darold Pieper says he drafted the ordinance not to hurt Vista's day laborers' chances of getting hired, but to help protect them from employers who otherwise might not pay the workers. Such "worker protection" is the noblest of the rationales cited by anti-illegal immigration activists. But that's not what's really pushing Vista to act.

Instead, it's the combined complaints of merchants around the Vons shopping center along Escondido and Santa Fe avenues and the Vista Citizens Brigade, a group of anti-illegal immigration activists. In February, the same corner hosted a tense standoff between hundreds of demonstrators on both sides of the illegal immigration debate.

But Vista officials say their ordinance doesn't have anything to do with that debate. Assistant City Manager Rick Dudley told us that law enforcement officers have told him that most of the day laborers seeking work in Vista are in this country legally.

This proposed ordinance may be a creative means of addressing a problem vexing local governments around the country. But that problem isn't the exploitation of day laborers, no matter what Vista officials say; it's the supposed hit to property values caused by congregations of day laborers.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006..._456_13_06.txt

I don't care how they do it, just get the job done![/url]

I would sure like to know how county officials know that the day laborers are in the country legally especially since fraudulent documentation is commonplace.

Quote from proLegal7:
I would sure like to know how county officials know that the day laborers are in the country legally especially since fraudulent documentation is commonplace.

Assistant City Manager Rick Dudley told us that law enforcement officers have told him that most of the day laborers seeking work in Vista are in this country legally.

They really don't know for sure- but most if not all of them ARE illegal.
Labor Ready (a temp agency) spokesman said at the Vista meeting last night that he has tried to recruit them to work for the agency, but they don't have the documents to prove they are here legally.
And besides, if they were here legally, they'd already be working at a regular job and be home drinking cervesas on weekends watching the World Cup Soccer games.