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Posted: Saturday, 20 May 2006 10:57AM

Illegal Day Laborers Try to Settle Lawsuit

A group representing illegal immigrant day laborers who sued a Westchester County village over their right to solicit work is trying to settle the matter out of court with village lawyers.

In the lawsuit filed last month in federal court, the six workers claimed that new Mamaroneck village regulations and the selective enforcement of them were infringing on their right to free speech.

They also said it was unconstitutional to keep them from speaking with contractors who drive by to hire manual labor for repairing and landscaping area homes.

Earlier this year the village closed a parking lot area that had been designated since 2004 as a day laborer pickup spot. The mayor of Mamaroneck, which is 23 miles north of New York City, said that the area had attracted workers from far beyond the village and that there were incidents of fighting, drug use and harassment of women.

Lawyers for both sides have signed a contract agreeing to delay litigation so that the workers can negotiate in private with village officials. The groups met for the first time on Wednesday night, without their lawyers, said Alan Levine, special counsel for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents the workers.

Levine told The New York Times in Saturday's editions that the purpose of the meeting was to create a committee to address day laborer issues in the village, and to discuss ways to ease tensions between workers and police.

Mayor Philip Trifiletti, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said in an e-mail to the Times on Thursday that the discussion was ``pleasant and productive.'