Thread: Day laborers settle lawsuit against OC deputies

Day laborers settle lawsuit against OC deputies

By AMY TAXIN
The Associated Press
SANTA ANA

Day laborers reached a tentative settlement with the Orange County Sheriff's Department in an unusual harassment lawsuit that saw workers take their case to federal court, an attorney said.

The deal was reached Monday night just hours before the trial was supposed to start, said lawyer Hector Villagra, director of the Orange County office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the laborers.

He refused to provide details of the agreement.

Trial had been set to begin Tuesday in the suit filed by more than 50 laborers who claimed deputies violated their right to free speech by telling them they couldn't seek work on a street corner in Lake Forest.

Workers also claimed deputies pulled over employers and told workers to exit their cars.

In court papers, deputies who patrol the sprawling suburb of 78,000 people said they were responding to residents' complaints that workers were littering and trespassing.

S. Frank Harrell, an attorney for the deputies, was not immediately available for comment.

The National Day Labor Organizing Network said the only other case in which workers took police to federal court alleging harassment was in the New York suburb Mamaroneck in 2006.

In that case, a judge ruled in favor of the workers and ordered both sides to reach a settlement.

Day laborers often have found themselves in the spotlight of the immigration debate as a tiny but visible faction of the country's undocumented workforce.

An estimated three-quarters of day laborers are illegal immigrants, but less than 1 percent of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are day laborers, according to a UCLA survey published in 2006.

During the past few years, a number of cities have sought to limit the activities of day laborers, but courts have upheld their right to seek jobs on public sidewalks.

Communities such as Laguna Beach have set up hiring centers, and the Los Angeles City Council last week passed an ordinance allowing the city to require some home improvement stores to make space for them.
http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California/CA ... 759C.shtml

Trial had been set to begin Tuesday in the suit filed by more than 50 laborers who claimed deputies violated their right to free speech by telling them they couldn't seek work on a street corner in Lake Forest.

So now it's a violation of illegal invaders civil rights when deputies attempt to enforce loitering laws in this county!

How dare they settle with these illegal invaders!! This insanity has to end!!

Surely the full details of any legal settlement reached with a public agency supported by tax dollars should be made available to the public?