Thread: Safe havens for illegals?

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Safe havens for illegals?
Day-laborer centers a focus of immigration debate
By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell
Staff Writer


Saturday, July 30, 2005 - PICO RIVERA -- Mario Martinez moved from Mexico City to Pico Rivera eight years ago hoping to find work in the United States to support the wife and daughter he left behind.

Instead, Martinez each morning joins about 50 other men on the sidewalk in front of The Home Depot Inc.'s Whittier Boulevard store and waits for builders or homeowners to drive by with an offer of a day's work cutting grass or nailing wallboard.

"Sometimes I get construction work, sometimes I don't,' said Martinez, 33, who admitted he has no work documents.

The number of immigrant day laborers such as Martinez is rising fast on the heels of the construction boom.

Immigrants who lack permanent employment, relying instead on jobs that may change from one day to the next, are a fixture of the U.S. economy. They number as many as 1 million nationwide, according to advocacy groups. A substantial number of these workers no one knows how many are in the United States illegally.

Now, the issue is becoming a magnet for activists on both sides of the broader political debate over immigration.

Recently, the anti-illegal-immigrant group Save Our State picketed t he Home Depot in Victorville, where day laborers congregate, while members of human rights groups counter-protested across the street.

"The debate about immigration is happening at this level in our neighborhoods,' said Pablo Alvarado, national coordinator of the National Day Labor Organizing Network in Los Angeles.

Up to 25,000 day laborers gather every day at more than 100 points across Los Angeles County, according to UCLA's Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.

An estimated 80 day laborer centers operate in the United States. Three- quarters of them have opened in the past five to seven years, according to a study set for release in September by Abel Valenzuela Jr., professor of Chicano studies and urban planning at UCLA.

Many of the centers are operated jointly by local governments and community groups. The centers are "a burgeoning policy response to the day-labor issue across the country,' Valenzuela said.

Center proponents say they offer a practical solution to community problems, such as traffic jams and public urination associated with the laborer pickup points, and also help to protect workers from being exploited.

But critics say the centers provide services to illegal immigrants who are taking jobs away from Americans, and they also help employers who cheat the government of tax revenue by paying workers off the books.

In Pico Rivera, officials still are grappling with the problem of where day laborers can safely congregate, three years after authorities there forced them from t he Home Depot parking lot to the sidewalk out front.

The move was in response to complaints from store officials about the growing number of men and problems with trash, city spokesman Bob Spencer said.

"We have discussed solutions, including finding some sort of center for them. It's an ongoing issue,' Spencer said.

Similar complaints at the chain's store in La Mirada prompted the City Council in 1992 to pass an ordinance prohibiting people from obstructing entrances and exits to public facilities.

The action prompted officials at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in e ast Whittier to launch an effort to create a job center for day laborers. But the project remains stalled, said Sean Cronin, a youth and family minister at the church.

"Our main problem has been getting funding and finding a location,' he said.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California in Pasadena have created six day-laborer centers in downtown Los Angeles, Harbor City, Hollywood, North Hollywood and West Los Angeles.

Other centers are in Brea, Pasadena, Pomona and Rancho Cucamonga, Alvarado said.

While resolving the public's concerns about trash and other problems, the centers help to protect workers from being exploited. Some even offer English lessons, he said.

"When they are on the streets the cops crack down on them, and sometimes they get hired and don't get paid. The centers help by providing legal resources, job information and English as a Second Language classes,' Alvarado said.

For areas like Pico Rivera that do not have day-laborer centers, sidewalk job seekers such as Jesus Medina, 49, must still fend for themselves.

"Yesterday, I only worked four hours,' Medina said. "It would be better to have a place.'

Frankly, seeing 50 mexican illegals hanging around a street corner ANYWHERE, would scare the hell out of me. I would be very suspicious as to why they are all huddled together looking for work. Obviously, they are illegal. They are nasty, have poor hygiene, and are loud and obnoxious as a crowd. You cant tell what they are saying, but by the hoots and whistles, you know it isnt right. These arent people with 'good family values.' I want them to go home!