Thread: Minutemen increase pressure on day laborers

Minutemen increase pressure on day laborers

By Doug Cook
The Daily Courier

Saturday, December 22, 2007


PRESCOTT - Fed up with day laborers - illegal or otherwise - loitering along the busy street corner of Grove Avenue and Lincoln Street, Mel Oliverson and his group of Prescott-area activists from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps are in action mode.

Since July, Minuteman members have sought to push out illegal aliens in the Prescott area who are seeking employment along open public street corners where city ordinances do not permit them.

The Minutemen began their crusade by targeting the Grove/Lincoln intersection because of its track record as a spot where illegal immigrants congregate in search of a quick buck from construction contractors and others craving cheap labor.

On Saturday, after receiving permission from the property owner, Oliverson and three of his men erected six "No Trespassing - Private Property" signs in English and Spanish along a quarter-acre lot 10 feet from the edge of the Lincoln Street pavement and directly across from Prescott College.

These signs accompany a pair of others labeled "No Parking, Stopping, Standing Anytime" at two separate locations in the same vicinity on Lincoln.

With the signage in place, Prescott police officers now have the authority to cite any vehicle stopping on Lincoln Street in pursuit of day labor.

However, day laborers could still theoretically stand along the 10 feet of space in front of the signs without trespassing.

The Minutemen originally had wanted to put up a fence on the property, but they could not do so because the land sits on a floodplain.

"If it's made uncomfortable for these guys, they'll probably go somewhere else," said Oliverson, a member of the city's Immigration Task Force.

Prescott Police Deputy Chief Mike Kabbel, speaking on behalf of Chief Randy Oaks, said he found out from the task force on Friday that the Minutemen were installing the signs, which makes it "a technical violation of the law," or a Class 3 misdemeanor, for someone to trespass on the property.

"No matter where it's at, whenever somebody puts up a 'No Trespassing' sign, it would hopefully preclude somebody from trespassing - it would stop them from entering and remaining unlawfully on this property," Kabbel said. "The reality is, if they're day laborers and that's where they congregate, they are no longer allowed to congregate there."

However, Kabbel added, common sense dictates these day laborers would move to another location in the city while seeking temporary work.

"It very well could cause another issue," he said.

Oliverson said the Minutemen will not hesitate to follow illegal day laborers wherever they go.

"Our ultimate goal is to get ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) out here to patrol this thing in a fashion that will cause some federal work to be done here," he said. "And the other part of that is causing public awareness so the citizens of the city will get up and go to the city council and say, 'You've got to hire more police.'"

The Prescott Police Department worries that day laborers will resurface at another congested intersection in the city - and continue their same practices.

"Our concern is for the safety of the community," Kabbel said. "So if them gathering at this location causes vehicles to stop and pull over and cause a hazardous situation on a roadway, that's a concern to law enforcement."

Minuteman Ron Katner, who has lived in Prescott since 1949, agrees that safety is one of the main issues. "This corner here is so popular, somebody's going to get hit or killed," Katner said. "Vehicles come through here 40 miles an hour, and the day laborers will walk right out in front of them."

But what about the issue of illegal aliens gathering at other locations around the city in search of jobs?

"Depending on where they move to, that should be a full city concern - the city, community, law enforcement - everybody for that matter," Kabbel said.

In recent months, Prescott Police occasionally has stationed one of its officers and a cruiser at the corner of Lincoln and Grove in an effort to educate the public about the day-laborer issue while maintaining public safety.

"These people are being exploited," said Minuteman John Jiacalone. "When they come in here, they can't get hired through normal channels, so they're getting lower wages for the work they do."

Officers have worked to build a rapport with day laborers so they fully understand the law. But the police want to keep the area safe for drivers and those who live in the nearby residential neighborhoods.

"Our goal is to ensure public safety. That's first and foremost," Kabbel said. "As far as where people go to get picked up for day labor, where they're congregating, that's another issue. If these signs are posted and authorized by the owner, then they are legal and they will be enforced."

www.dcourier.com

Instead of depending on ICE it would be better to have an Arizona State Immgration Police.

I still can't believe people would hire these criminals off the street. Here in So. CA, we have had numerous ocurrences of people hiring illegals to do yardwork or whatever, then the illegals come back to their homes later and break in or attack and rape and assault women and children. But then again, when the local news refuses to report on these crimes, I guess people haven't wised up yet.

As far as the greedy contractors who use these invaders, I would like to see the Minutemen follow these crooked employers to their jobsites, and then report them to ICE. Or maybe they can do what we used to do whenever we drove by a construction site where we knew there were illegals working. We would drive by and yell really loud "La Migra!! La Migra!!" and watch the illegal workers scatter like fleas.