http://www.nytimes.com

April 28, 2006
Day Laborers File Lawsuit Over Closing of Hiring Site
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
WHITE PLAINS, April 27 — A heated battle over the closing of a day-laborer hiring site in Mamaroneck moved into the courtroom on Thursday when a Latino civil rights organization sued the village, saying it violated the rights of the laborers by refusing to let them congregate.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court here on behalf of six unnamed laborers, accuses the mayor and the police chief of Mamaroneck of using various tactics, from police checkpoints to aggressive ticketing, in a "deliberate and coordinated" campaign to drive immigrant workers off the streets. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the suit, said it hoped to win an injunction against the village and the police.

"This village has decided that it will no longer allow day laborers to solicit work anywhere in the town, and it is harassing them with the intention of making them leave the community," said Cesar Perales, the president of the group. "It's a rare situation in which a village is devoting its police force to actually intimidate a group of people until they leave. This is astounding."

Mayor Philip J. Trifiletti of Mamaroneck responded to the suit on Thursday with disappointment, calling it misguided. He defended the closing of the day-laborer site, saying the village had sought to create a safer and cleaner environment near Columbus Park, where for years crowds of immigrant men have gathered each morning to wait for independent contractors to hire them for the day.

Before the site was closed in February, 200 men typically gathered there each day and used it as a public toilet and a place to sleep or loiter, Mr. Trifiletti said.

"They were trashing our village and they were trashing our park, and we brought that situation under control," he said. "All we did was take a totally out of control situation and bring it under control. We've had no problems since then, there have been no confrontations, and I've had no complaints."

The lawsuit reflects the increasingly fractious relationship between several towns and villages throughout the region and the day laborers who congregate along their streets. Mamaroneck Village, which is nearly 20 percent Hispanic, is one of the few municipalities to create a central location for the day hiring.

The site was closed because the park began to attract workers from neighboring towns in such numbers that residents and officials grew concerned. At the time, Mr. Trifiletti said the site would reopen in two months if Westchester County agreed to share the cost of maintaining it, but he withdrew that plan this month, since the strong police presence had driven the day-laborer trade from the village.

That police presence has amounted to what critics say is the aggressive ticketing of laborers and contractors, the illegal detainment of laborers and a blanket of police checkpoints. In some cases, police cruisers follow day laborers with their lights flashing and ticket or arrest anyone who attempts to stop and talk to them, Mr. Perales said.

The defense fund, in seeking an injunction, argued that the village was violating the constitutional rights of the workers to assemble and to exercise free speech, rights that it said are protected by law even though the six plaintiffs and many other laborers in Mamaroneck are not citizens.

"Everybody has the right to free speech; you don't have to be a citizen," Mr. Perales said.

After the defense fund filed its suit on Thursday morning, the case was reassigned to Judge Colleen McMahon in District Court in Manhattan. In an afternoon hearing, she said one of the central questions would be whether having a conversation about employing an illegal immigrant was protected under the Constitution.

She added that if there was any indication after Thursday that the police were singling out day laborers, she would "not be kindly disposed to the village of Mamaroneck."

Kathleen McGrory and Colin Moynihan contributed reporting for this article.