Friday, June 27, 2008

Day laborer dispute brings out protesters from both sides
Minutemen chapter balks at those employing illegal aliens

By Adam Goldstein
The Aurora Sentinel

Friday, June 27, 2008


AURORA | Members of the Colorado Minuteman Civil Defense Corps chapter took to the streets in Original Aurora early this morning, waving signs and snapping photos of cars stopping to pick up day laborers. The incident drew protests from day laborers under fire in the area and their proponents.

The approximately 25 Minuteman representatives who gathered on corners between East Colfax and East 16th avenues in Aurora Friday morning voiced protests about illegal immigration, responding to crowds of day laborers who typically gather in the area early weekday mornings seeking work.

"It is against the law to hire illegal immigrants," said Connie Traux, a Minuteman member. "We don't have a problem with day laborers, but with employers hiring illegals."

The local members of the civilian patrol group gathered on the major intersections in the area, including Colfax Avenue and Dayton Street, 16th Avenue and Dayton Street and Colfax Avenue and Dallas Street.

The Minuteman representatives carried signs with phrases like, "Hiring illegals? It's a crime! We're watching." Meanwhile, the gathered day laborers and representatives from El Centro Humanitario Para Los Trabajadores, a workers' advocate organization based in Denver, responded to the Minuteman protests with their own signs, decorated with slogans like "We are community, too" and "Day laborers are part of the community."

Directors from El Centro have been trying to establish a facility in Aurora since December, a process that has stalled with questions of location and slow negotiations with the city council.

Commander. Jack Daluz of the Aurora Police Department said that the Minuteman members arrived at about 7 a.m., a time when day laborers typically begin to gather on the street. Daluz said the Minuteman protest was peaceful.

"We've had no complaints from anybody," Daluz said. "They were gentleman."

The day laborers that lingered near city park after the Minuteman protestors had left, however, said that they were interfering with peoples' right to work.

"They were harassing employers and trying to intimidate workers," said Jesus Orrantia, a project director at El Centro Humanitario in Denver. Orrantia and the day laborers said that Minuteman protesters had approached potential employers with cameras, saying it was illegal to hire workers from the crowd assembled on the street.

"The constitution says, 'We the people,' not 'We the citizens,'" Orrantia said.

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