Thread: Anti-Day-Laborer Protest in Cornelius, OR

http://www.portlandmercury.com

Anti-Day-Laborer Protest

Anti-illegal-immigration group Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR) has been protesting against Latino day laborers in Cornelius, just west of Portland, for the past few weeks. Meanwhile, pro-immigration activists and laborers have accused the group of "menacing" them. For example, they have photographed and videotaped the laborers at close range, calling them "terrorists," according to one day laborer.

OFIR has yet to brave such a protest in downtown Portland, where day laborers are represented by the nonprofit project, VOZ Workers Rights Education Project. And one prominent OFIR activist, Daniel Miglavs, turned down the Mercury's repeated requests for an interview last week after it emerged on Blog Town, PDX (portlandmercury.com/blogtown) that he has a history of gang involvement. He wrote: "I think I'm a pretty nice guy." MATT DAVIS

And on the Other Side...

With the backdrop of groups like Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR) protesting at day-laborer sites, pro-immigrant-rights activists are gearing up for a protest of their own.

On Sunday, September 3, at 2 pm, a coalition of groups like VOZ, Jobs with Justice, SEIU, and the Portland Central American Solidarity Committee will hold a pre-Labor Day march and protest to "tell Congress that it's time to fix our broken immigration system." Unlike OFIR, however, the coalition's plan for "fixing our broken immigration system" is to make it more fair and open, not more restrictive.
The march starts with a rally at the South Park Blocks at SW Salmon and Park. SCOTT MOORE

http://www.oregonlive.com

Tempers collide in Cornelius over immigration
Protests - Both sides of the hot national issue have been confronting each other and yelling insults at a labor site
Thursday, August 31, 2006
ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ
The Oregonian
CORNELIUS -- Nearly every Saturday this month, anti-immigration protesters have driven from Portland, Sherwood and Salem to intimidate homeowners and contractors attempting to hire day laborers in this Washington County town.

Pro-immigration groups have joined the Latino workers, and the two sides yell at each other, hurling insults. Cornelius police have had to intervene where signs crowd the sidewalk: "Illegal immigration is a crime," "No human being is illegal," "Smile You're on Minuteman Camera" and "Stop the harassment of day laborers."

With immigration reform on hold in Congress, similar confrontations are erupting nationwide. As politicians ponder whether to make illegal immigrants felons or potential citizens, groups such as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps are building fences along the U.S. border with Mexico and starting chapters across the nation.

Individual communities -- in Florida, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, New Jersey -- have considered or have passed their own anti-illegal immigrant measures.

In Oregon, an effort by a Springfield city councilor this summer to penalize landlords and employers who rent to or hire illegal immigrants was quickly quashed by other city leaders and the Latino community. And Oregon's Minuteman chapter and Oregonians for Immigration Reform have organized protests.

At the most recent face-off near Centro Cultural, a Latino social service agency in Cornelius, a screaming match erupted between protesters and a couple passing by. Ryan Berner and Peter Short from Salem, along with another demonstrator, traded curses with Jose Otanez and Diana Martinez, of Mexican and Salvadoran descent, until the police chief broke apart the group.

Otanez and Martinez walked away, calling the group of men ignorant racists and the United States stolen Mexican territory.

Along with a third protester, Berner and Short, who recently served in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard, stood waving huge U.S. flags and talking to one another in angry tones. Berner and Short knew a reporter was standing next to them.

The three talked about their "toys," meaning weapons, and their ability to use them.

Berner said, "I'll take you in the desert and kill you, you (expletive) beaner," but he wasn't referring to anyone in particular. He then added, "They'll pay me to go to Iraq and kill, but they won't let me do it here."

Later when the reporter approached Berner asking what prompted him to protest the labor site, he said he and Short were concerned about dwindling wages and upset that U.S. laws weren't being respected.

Short, however, later said he strongly disagreed with Berner's remarks about harming people.

The two, not affiliated with protest organizers, had heard about the event on the Internet. Both described themselves as nationalists, not racists.

Worried about impact

Members of Oregonians for Immigration Reform and the Oregon branch of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps run into the street alongside laborers, chase after employers, photograph or videotape drivers and their license plates, then reportedly send the information to immigration and state officials. About 25 day laborers gather daily at the site.

"They're out here illegally; aren't getting drug tested; don't speak English; aren't licensed, bonded or insured," Rick Hickey, with Oregonians for Immigration Reform, said of the day laborers.

If immigration officials "came out here just once and said, 'Let me see your ID,' this day labor site would vanish," said Hickey, an insurance salesman from Salem.

Members of Oregonians for Immigration Reform complained that other anti-immigrant protesters -- people not affiliated with organizations who show up on their own -- hurt the group's mission to focus on the social and legal ills brought on by illegal immigration, rather than skin color.

Hickey and Mike Forest, who heads an Oregon branch of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, say their groups' memberships have grown significantly recently, but each declines to give specific figures.

The Minuteman Oregon chapter, launched two months ago in Salem, is part of a national network that will report to authorities incriminating evidence of deliberate violations of state or federal immigration, tax or employment laws, according to the group.

In Cornelius, a handful of protesters, at most, represents the Minuteman chapter and Oregonians for Immigration Reform.

"We're looking very heavily at this one and other sites," Forest said, adding that group representatives plan to show up unannounced next time to catch laborers and their supporters off guard.

Besides Cornelius, there are two day labor pickup locations in Portland, along with ones in Salem and Woodburn. Although exact numbers are difficult to pinpoint, there are an estimated 150 to 500 day laborers in the metro area, said Romeo Sosa, director of Voz, a day laborers rights organization in Portland.

For years, day laborers have been among the most picked on among immigrants, Sosa said.

"The workers are the public face of the immigration population," he said. "Those who don't like immigrants utilize them to focus on the negative aspects of the community. They intimidate them so that there's confrontation. They're being used as little dolls to fight a much larger political battle."

Nationwide, many local proposals call for fining those who rent to, hire or help illegal immigrants in any way. That includes restricting some day labor sites.

Groups support laborers

During the most recent Cornelius confrontation at North Adair Street and 11th Avenue, opponents and supporters of illegal immigrants yelled at each other from opposite sides of the street, arms raised. Members of Voz, Jobs with Justice, the Northwest Workers' Justice Project, Hermandad Mexicana, the Freedom Socialist Party and the newly formed Washington County Immigrant Rights Coalition have taken part, chanting in support of the laborers.

Division rose out of division, a microcosm for the wrangling nationally.

In the 20 years Miguel Rubio has looked for work at the pickup site, he said, he has never witnessed opposition on this scale.

"They're trying to chase away our bosses. Let us work. The livelihoods of our families depend on this work," said Rubio, a legal day laborer who has been in Oregon for 22 years and relies on the site when permanent jobs dry up.

"It's ignorant to generalize," said Rubio, 67, calling those protesting the day laborers racists. "There's a mix of people here with documents and without, people who are lazy, people who work hard, people who get drunk, people who are honest."

In the past, Centro Cultural tried to organize and monitor laborers by teaching them English, labor and leadership skills, but in 2005 the agency disassociated itself from the workers because funding was scarce and measuring progress of the mobile group was impossible, said agency director Sabino Sardineta.

That Saturday afternoon, Martin Villa, who supports the day laborers, wandered to the protesters' side to complain to Cornelius Police Chief Paul Rubenstein that he saw the U.S. flags held by Berner and Short touch the ground.

"That should never happen," Villa said. "It's disrespectful to this country. You should tell them something."

"I'm sorry, but I didn't see it," said Rubenstein, who is also chairman of Centro Cultural's board of directors and equally unwelcome by both sides of the protests.

"I'm automatically the bad guy," he said. "My personal position cannot allow me to treat anyone different when it comes to enforcing the law. Their behavior determined how I reacted to them."

Esmeralda Bermudez: 503-221-4388; ebermudez@news.oregonian.com