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  1. #1
    Senior Member legalatina's Avatar
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    NJ: Plainfield officials to start IA Day Labor Center.....

    Gee, the usual suspects gather to "solve the problem" of illegal alien day labors invading the streets of Plainfield......City offiicals, churches and of course the local ethno-supremacist group, the NJ Latino Leadership Council



    Laborers wary of plan for worker center
    Plainfield wants to provide a haven
    Sunday, January 13, 2008
    BY ALEXI FRIEDMAN
    Star-Ledger Staff

    Each morning, dozens of men gather on the sidewalk along a three-block stretch of Plainfield's business district and wait for work. They are immigrants, most of them from Central America, and many of them are here illegally.

    When a pickup truck pulls to the curb on West Front Street, its driver will usually signal for two or three men to get in for a landscaping or construction-related job. In winter, the men wait out in the cold, starting around 7 a.m., sometimes for hours. They don't have ready access to a bathroom and have little protection from the elements.

    Now, Plainfield city officials and community advocates are trying to set up a work center in town, getting the laborers off the streets and into a central location where they can receive job assignments. But the plan -- still in the early stages -- has its skeptics, including the day laborers themselves, who live in constant fear of deportation.

    Nevertheless, organizers said it is essential.

    "We saw a need, where day laborers could gather in a safe environment and be returned safely," said Jose Adames, who has spearheaded the effort with Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield). "It will have a bathroom, water, basic-type things," according to Adames, who is director of the Latino Leadership Alliance of Union County.

    To secure a job, workers and contractors would have to sign in, Adames said, to make sure everyone is paid and the work is done. Another component of the plan will provide immigrants with English language classes, career training and additional resources for families, and will explain their legal rights. Two local churches have offered locations to provide those services, Adames said.

    The day workers speak little or no English and when they are hired, receive scant information about their employers, several said during a conversation Thursday morning on the corner of West Front Street and Park Avenue. About 40 workers congregated that day. After hours of house painting or ditch digging -- often without a break -- they are sometimes paid less than promised or not at all, they said.

    Melvin Ramirez, 26, is one of them. Ramirez immigrated to the United States illegally from El Salvador, and has lived in Plainfield for two years. He was unsure whether the work center would be embraced. Ramirez speaks halting English but had some of his words translated by Flor Gonzalez, a Hispanic community advocate who accompanied a Star-Ledger reporter that morning. Gonzalez is opposed to the work center plan but agreed to translate into Spanish questions posed by the reporter.

    Ramirez said he welcomed a warm, dry place to assemble, but was afraid to provide more detailed information about himself, such as his home address. "I'm not sure about this experiment, about what will happen," he said. Others in the group -- from Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras -- refused to give their names but shared similar misgivings about the project. Many, however, nodded their heads when Gonzalez asked whether they would like a place to wait indoors instead of outside.

    As the Hispanic population in Plainfield has grown over the years -- now accounting for more than a quarter of the 47,000 people -- so too have the day laborers, with up to 100 men a day looking for work.

    Over the past few months, Adames and Assemblyman Green have had several meetings with Plainfield officials about the issue, and despite a tight city budget, a small amount of money may be allotted for the effort, he said. State aid, as well as Union County resources, may also be sought.

    Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs did not return calls for comment.

    A handful of day workers have attended the meetings with local leaders, though others were hesitant, believing the sessions were a ploy to have them arrested, said Green, who rejects that notion.

    "We want to treat them in a humanistic way," he said. "We all believe it's in the best interest of all concerned, of the day laborers and the businesses" that line Front Street, he said.

    Similar efforts last year for a center stalled, but the feedback has been more positive this time around, with Green helping push the proposal along. One location being considered is on the corner of East 2nd Street and Watchung Avenue, a couple of blocks from the current gathering spot.

    While Adames said he is approaching the effort "in a constructive, positive way, with no intention to hurt anyone," he understands the trepidation immigrants may feel.

    The plan is an ambitious one, he acknowledges, requiring "a buy-in" from workers and employers.

    The immigration issue in New Jersey remains a thorny one, with municipalities such as Morristown, Freehold, Bogota, Bergenfield and Plainfield -- among others -- all struggling to address the influx of undocumented immigrants in general and day laborers in particular.

    Last August, Attorney General Anne Milgram ordered local law enforcement authorities to check the immigration status of people arrested for serious crimes or drunken driving, and to report that information to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    While that order wouldn't necessarily come into play here, Flor Gonzalez said it has fostered a climate of fear among many immigrants in Plainfield, many of whom don't know their rights.

    Gonzalez believes the work center plan is fundamentally flawed because it asks laborers to provide personal information they are afraid to reveal. Generally speaking, immigrants are distrustful of authorities and most other agencies they fear might deport them.

    In recent months, Gonzales said, several immigrants who live in Plainfield have come to her for help after federal immigration officials hauled away their loved ones.

    Employers, she added, will not participate because they face penalties for hiring undocumented workers. Those same employers, however, run the same risk whenever they pick up day laborers on the street. She also questions the type of police enforcement needed should the center open and some laborers choose to wait on the street.

    Adames wants local police to team up with work center organizers and encourage immigrants to participate. Eventually, he hoped the center could be maintained and run in part by the workers themselves. When it comes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, cities don't have control over federal agencies, he said. Adames said more meetings on the issue are planned -- including one scheduled for this week -- and while many hurdles remain, he is encouraged by the early steps.

    "This is a holistic, caring approach to dealing with this situation," he said. "We have no other vested interest here other than to help."

    Alexi Friedman may be reached at (90 302-1505 or afriedman@starledger.com.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    The main target should be the employers, there are legal day laborers. Illegal day laborers compete with them for jobs and competition drives down wages. So encourage the legals to report employers who do not check legal status.
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member miguelina's Avatar
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    Will the day labor center check legal status? If not, they are aiding and abetting illegal activity. For years Plainfield was predominately black, why wasn't a day labor center ever opened for unemployed black people?

    Will this labor center be open to EVERYONE or just illegal aliens?
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
    "

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