Thread: Day laborer issue merges with immigrant debate

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Day laborer issue merges with immigrant debate

By CHARLES HAND/The Valley Chronicle



How to handle issues surrounding day laborers soliciting work in Hemet merged with the question of how Hemet can play a bigger role in apprehending undocumented immigrants at this week's meeting.

Deputy Police Chief Tony Margis sought guidance on what the called “the relatively small problem” of complaints stemming from people soliciting day labor, primarily in front of the Riverside County building on Menlo Avenue just east of State Street, but also at The Home Depot store on Florida Avenue.

A recent UCLA study found that approximately 75 percent of day laborers are undocumented immigrants from Latin America. The study also founds that 49 percent of those hiring the laborers are home owners seeking help for personal projects and that 43 percent of the hiring is done by contractors seeking temporary labor.

“It's not a new issue in Hemet,” nor is it a serious problem, Margis said.

When operators of the AM/PM minimart and gas station at Menlo and State complained of day laborers loitering in their parking lot, the department worked with them on making the environment less hospitable by removing shade and a public phone.

“What that did was move the problem east a couple of hundred yards,” he said.


In the past six months, Margis said the Police Department has received three complaints about day laborers and officers have initiated 49 contacts - though not all were with day laborers.

“We're also seeing homeless people using that area,” he said, and they create more problems than the workers, including public drinking and urination. A nearby dirt lot is often used for drinking, he said.

In the end, the issue is not whether undocumented workers will solicit business in the community, but where they will do it.

He raised the possibility of setting up a location where workers can register with a central authority for work, which would also provide a location at which those seeking workers could find them.

Councilman Eric McBride, himself a police officer in San Bernardino, likened that to setting up a drug house because there is no stopping the drug trade. “Many people say you can't stop the drug trade, but I don't advocate setting up drug houses,” he said.

Instead, he proposed “thinking outside the box,” perhaps requiring business licenses of those seeking day labor.

Not only would that create a system for regulating the practice, but could provide a means of locating and deporting illegal residents, he said.

McBride also said he would like the city to look into signing a contract with federal immigration authorities to increase the potential for undocumented residents who commit minor offenses being identified and deported.

Under the existing system, only those committing more serious offenses face residency checks - and those only when they get into the county jail system.

Most people who commit a misdemeanor are released on the street after receiving a citation or are released after booking at the police station.

In either case, undocumented people are likely to escape detection because no attempt is made to verify their identities, he said.

By hooking up with federal authorities, local officers can become, in effect, deputy immigration officers who can use the federal system to check identification.

Margis said two Southern California cities, Escondido and Costa Mesa, have tried the system and neither found success.

Both issues will come before the City Council again.

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undocumented people are likely to escape detection because no attempt is made to verify their identities, he said.

Therein lies the problem. If studies indicate 75% are illegal, why would it be a problem to check identities? They are too scared of being called a racist!