Thread: Seek new hiring spot for Danbury day laborers (Illegals)

http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1026886

Groups seek new hiring spot for Danbury day laborers

By Elizabeth Putnam
THE NEWS-TIMES

DANBURY -- The hundreds of men who gather each morning at Kennedy Park waiting for employment could soon be relocated to a spot near the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury on West Street.

That's one of at least two locations leaders of local nonprofit organizations are considering as a new hiring site where the men, who mostly are undocumented and from Latin America, can congregate free from scrutiny from those who want them to leave Danbury and free from employers who want to exploit them, leaders say.

"We are not looking for a place for them to hide. We want a place where they can be treated in a human way," said Wilson Hernandez, founder and past president of the Ecuadorean Civic Center in Danbury and one of the leaders helping search for a new location.

Maria-Cinta Lowe, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury and one of the leaders working to find a new spot, said she would not disclose the second location up for consideration.

The Hispanic Center on West Street has an outbuilding that could serve as a hiring hall, where employers and day laborers would arrange for a day's work.

VIDEO REPORT

Maria-Cinta Lowe and a Kennedy Park business owner discuss the idea

The building would need renovation, and that takes permits and money. "It could take some time," Lowe said.

Lowe, Hernandez and leaders from the Association of Religious Communities hope to have a new site by spring, when construction on the first phase of a 586-condominium complex across from Kennedy Park is expected to displace the day laborers.

They also want the workers to have an indoor location so they don't have to stand outside in harsh winter weather.

"I really think it's going to be good for the city. (The day laborers) at Kennedy Park are attracting attention from (federal immigration agents) and the police department," Hernandez said.

Some day laborers, however, don't like the idea of moving.

Gorge Sanchez, 23, said Wednesday that he likes Kennedy Park because of its high visibility. He questioned whether a building off West Street would attract contractors.

A new site farther from Main Street also could have a negative effect on business owners downtown, especially those who cater to the immigrant communities.

Romulo Neira, owner of Valentin Travel & Surexpress on Elm Street, sells Spanish videos and CDs and transfers money and packages to Ecuador. The majority of his customers are day laborers who wait for jobs across the street from his shop.

Neira said he expects to lose business if the hiring site is moved, but he hopes that doesn't happen. Moving the hiring site to West Street would not give workers the visibility they need, he said.

Location can be a crucial to a work center's success, according to a national study on day labor.

The study, which was published in January in conjunction with the University of California Los Angeles, said the number of hiring sites created by community organizations, faith-based groups or other local stakeholders are increasing.

Most of the hiring halls -- there are 63 in the United States -- provide a job-allocation system or a hiring queue, require employers and laborers to register, set minimum wage rates and monitor labor standards.

These are all possibilities in Danbury, Lowe said.

Kennedy Park has long been an unofficial hiring site in Danbury and has faced continued scrutiny from staunch opponents of illegal immigration.

Danbury Police Chief Al Baker has said the spot is becoming dangerous because day laborers often dart out in front of vehicles.

Kennedy Park recently received attention from U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement.

In September, federal immigration agents posing as contractors arrested 11 Ecuadorean men near the park.

Since then, a group of student lawyers from Yale has filed a federal lawsuit, demanding that the Department of Homeland Security disclose records of its involvement in those arrests and the documents that describe DHS's collaboration with the Danbury Police Department to enforce immigration laws.

Mayor Mark Boughton said he supports a hiring center but does not support spending taxpayer dollars on one.

Boughton, who met with Lowe and the other leaders this fall to discuss possible options for a new hiring site, said he could not comment further because of possible litigation stemming from the 11 arrests in Kennedy Park.

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Contact Elizabeth Putnam

at eputnam@newstimes.com

or at (203) 731-3411.

I think this is wonderful. Let them urinate, litter, defoliate and smoke crack on your property. That's getting what you deserve. Please please please put them in front of the Hispanic Center. It will become so unsightly in a few months that they will be wanting them out of here too.

If the Hispanics want all this fine aminities for the illegal aliens, then let them pay for it!

Dixie