Thread: Lake Worth FL approves illegal alien hiring hall

Lake Worth day labor resource center approved

By TONY DORIS

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

LAKE WORTH — Opponents of the proposed day labor center on Lake Worth Road called it an "illegal alien hiring hall" and said it would knock out senior shuffle boarders and violate zoning rules.

Supporters said the proposed facility would provide a safe spot for workers to find jobs and for immigrant and non-immigrant adults and youths to take classes and get tutoring.

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"We can't afford to have people getting hit by cars, or getting robbed on the way home from work because they're getting dropped off at night at locations that are not safe," said Tom Pearce, a member of the Palm Beach County Coalition for Immigrants' Rights.

As of late Tuesday night, after hearing hours of impassioned pleas from dozens of people on both sides, the city commission voted 3-2 to approve the $1-a year lease to let a city-owned space be set up as an immigrant-oriented day labor center.

Commissioners Cara Jennings, Jo-Ann Golden and Mayor Jeff Clemens voted in favor. And Commissioners Retha Lowe and Dave Vespo dissented.

Many in the contentious audience of about 200 urged the commissioners to stop a project they argued would promote illegal labor, take needed jobs from legal residents and give them to people who don't pay taxes, while creating an uninviting street scene prone to crime.

Others insisted that immigrants are less prone to crime than others and that such centers provide a solution to roaming job seekers, while protecting them from unscrupulous employers.

Annabeth Karson, a member of the immigrants coalition, noted that the day laborers in some regards pay more taxes, because the homes they rent are not eligible for homestead exemptions. She drew boos after urging opponents of the center to "look at the fear under their anger."

In an interview before the meeting, Vespo said he opposed the center for procedural reasons. A site should be chosen through proper planning and zoning procedures, which would allow more public input, he said. The concept was fine, but the location, east of Interstate 95 in a city facility used for shuffle board, would crowd out seniors who have few other recreational areas nearby, Vespo said.

"They've said that for every location," the immigrants' coalition's Pearce countered.

One proposed location was nixed because opponents said it would hinder local businesses; another was rejected because it was too prime a business site, he said.

The center also drew opposition from a group called Floridians for Immigration Enforcement which called on the city to avoid "enabling of illegal alien hiring halls."

The group's Web site, in referring to Jupiter's recently opened El Sol Center, had urged Jupiter residents to join in opposition to the proposed center.

Some speakers who addressed the commission said they were from Jupiter and that the center had created an atmosphere of fear. Others said they had traveled to the meeting from as far away as Cape Coral to urge against the Lake Worth Center.



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Seniors come join us in our fight.

Let's hope the voters remember this when these bums are up for re-election