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Rosenberg Council Moves Toward Creation Of Day Labor Center
by Bob Dunn, Jun 21, 2006, 06 33 am


A Rosenberg day labor work center came closer to reality Tuesday night, as the City Council accepted recommendations of the city’s Day Labor Task Force. Councilors named Police Chief Robert Gracia as a liaison for the city as plans for such a center unfold.

No city money has been budgeted for a day labor center, but the Catholic Church has decided to provide a $60,000 grant over three years, and Gracia indicated other church groups may also provide contributions.

The 12-member task force has studied Rosenberg’s day labor issues and worked for 14 months to reach consensus on four key recommendations, Gracia told councilors:

7rarr; “The City of Rosenberg should actively support the efforts of the state and federal government to create the programs or law changes needed for day laborers to work in the United States legally.

→ “The City of Rosenberg should support a day labor work center, available to all workers regardless of their ethnic background or immigration status, where workers and employers will be encouraged to go to conduct their employment transactions.

→ “The City of Rosenberg should vigorously enforce existing local ordinances and state laws to encourage both employers and day laborers to continually use the day labor work center. This includes laws such as impeding traffic, loitering, trespassing, and public urination.”

→ “The task force strongly recommends that before a day labor work center is created, a feasibility study be completed and the center by operated as a pilot project for at least one year, and then evaluated before a more permanent program is created.”

Deacon Sam Dunning, director of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s Office of Justice and Peace, said the church’s primary objective is to hire an organizer who could help in the implementation of the city task force’s recommendations leading up to building a center.

Day labor centers in other cities provide a central location where workers seeking temporary jobs can meet with prospective employers. An alternative to gathering in front of businesses or on street corners, day labor centers provide bathrooms and, sometimes, social services.

As recent debate in Congress has focused attention on immigration issues, day labor centers have been seen by some as controversial. In Houston, Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs told city officials last month she believes using federal funding for Houston’s day labor center encourages illegal immigration. (Houston’s center is funded in part by a federal Community Development Block Grant.)

Councilor Joe Segura told Gracia he wants to make sure the city isn’t “breaking any rules or any laws” by proceeding with the center.

“This is a very complex issue,” Gracia replied. The question is, how can a city or police agency go about “identifying who is legal and who is not legal without violating the Constitution” or state law against racial profiling.

“Nothing in what we are doing involves this city in federal immigration law,” Councilor Carl Hopkins said. “Our purpose is to say, if you’re in the city limits of Rosenberg, you’re entitled to be treated fairly. You’re entitled to be treated humanely. Nothing should be construed to involve this city in immigration status.”

While task force recommendations weren’t more specific, a resolution adopted by the City Council in February 2005 said the task force would focus on issues of concern such as “the need to provide day laborers with social and educations services, trade skills development and training, workers rights and citizenship education,” among other things.