Thread: FL-ILLEGAL ALIEN FORCES IN JUPITER

ILLEGAL ALIEN FORCES IN JUPITER

Palm Beach Post (Florida)
February 21, 2010
By Randy Schultz

A national wedge issue has slipped across political borders into the town of Jupiter's municipal election.

That issue is illegal immigration, and the stalking horse for challengers in the March 9th election is the Jupiter Neighborhood Resource Center, known as El Sol.

It opened in 2006 and solved a problem. In the revisionist history of 2010, the center has become the problem.

Before El Sol, people seeking day labor -- most of them immigrants, legal and illegal -- gathered at daybreak on Center Street, one of Jupiter's main roads. This bothered Jupiter residents, and rightfully so. It was a safety issue, with prospective employers cruising and laborers chasing.

Jupiter's elected officials could have called out the Minutemen and postured for TV cameras. But Jupiter seeks to solve problems, not exploit them, and no one wanted to turn the police department into the Border Patrol.

A series of meetings produced the idea of a center where laborers could meet employers safely.

Given the liability issues, the town correctly didn't want to run the labor center, but Jupiter did have a possible site.

The town had bought the Lifesong Community Church, next to city hall, for expansion of staff space.

Jupiter didn't need the property yet. Catholic Charities found enough money to start the program. Jupiter leased the property for $1 a year to the not-for-profit El Sol LLC. Problem solved.

Not entirely. To its critics, El Sol aids and abets illegal immigration.

Before he resigned in disgrace from Congress, Mark Foley blasted El Sol and Jupiter, though immigration is a federal issue and El Sol offers classes in English and other skills that help immigrants learn to be Americans.

The center's director, Jocelyn Sabbagh, was named Outstanding Senior in 2007 of Florida Atlantic University's honors campus in Jupiter. El Sol is working.

This year, though, all the challengers in the race for mayor and two council seats read from the same talking points. El Sol "should be a resource center for all of Jupiter." Jupiter needs "an exit strategy" for El Sol. El Sol should not be "a burden on taxpayers." Rather than go after illegal immigrants, the candidates go after El Sol.

Why now? When El Sol opened, Florida's unemployment rate was about 3 percent. Now, it's nearly 12 percent. Budgets are tight. Suddenly, El Sol isn't making Jupiter's streets safer; it's taking jobs from Jupiter residents and wasting taxpayer money on illegal immigrants. So let's consider all the accusations.

* El Sol should be open to all Jupiter residents. It is, and always has been. Not surprisingly, though, most American citizens want more than day labor. But Ms. Sabbagh has seen a "noticeable increase" over the past six months in American citizens coming to El Sol. Imagine, she says, someone who had a pressure-cleaning business but now can't make it.

The center, Ms. Sabbagh says, has placed natives and immigrants, checking whatever document is available to identify someone as a resident of Jupiter. But El Sol never was meant to be the town equivalent of the state Agency for Workforce Innovation, which helps Floridians find full-time work.

* Jupiter needs an "exit strategy" for El Sol. The lease expires at year's end. Any "exit strategy" would involve someone else donating property. If Jupiter didn't renew the lease and El Sol closed, laborers -- and the old problem -- would be back on Center Street.

* El Sol is "a burden to taxpayers." The center has four paid staffers and about 140 volunteers.

The budget of about $200,000, Ms. Sabbagh says, comes "mostly from foundations and grants."

Jupiter gives El Sol no operating subsidy. The town did spend $28,500 on post-hurricane roof repairs to the church and upkeep. As Town Manager Andy Lukasik notes, however, "We own the property."

And Jupiter still has no pressing need for the property, bought for $1.9 million in 2005, during the boom.

These days, many state governments are cutting staff.

Would it make sense to close El Sol and leave the building vacant?

Jupiter showed Congress that political bravery can look practical. Those trying to create a wedge issue in the town are showing political cowardice.

Randy Schultz is the editor of the editorial page of The Palm Beach Post. His e-mail address is schultz@pbpost.com

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 94&start=4

Jupiter should pass an anti-loitering law and the police better get signed onto 287(g) where anyone caught for minor infractions -- like loitering -- will be asked to prove their immigration status. That should help get the illegals out of that community.