Thread: Day labor center opens in Portland

Day labor center opens in Portland
6/16/2008, 12:01 p.m. PT
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
The Associated Press


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A new hiring site in Portland intended largely for Hispanic day laborers opened to slow business Monday, but organizers said it may take time to change the habits of men who had been flagging down vehicles from curbsides for years to solicit work.

The city-financed operation is run by VOZ, an immigrant advocacy group, and is roughly patterned after about 60 other sites around the nation.

About 50 workers were at the site at midmorning Monday but Francisco Aguirre of VOZ said a count was difficult because many came and went.

"We expected a slow first day," he said. "The employers and some of the workers seemed intimidated by all the TV trucks."

"It will take a few days to get adapted, after 10 years working off the streets it's tough to change everything in one day,'" VOZ organizer Ignacio Paramo said.

He and others said there will be a better idea of the center's success in a few weeks when things settle down.

A few drive-buy employers hired roofers, yard workers and excavators Monday, filling out a form with their contact information, the job description and pay rate.

The fenced lot and trailer headquarters were peppered with signs enticing workers and employers to use the site.

A handful of workers still waited on the usual corners, but they numbered fewer than usual.

"We still don't know what it will be," said Elias Mateo, 41, who has been working the corner for four years and waited there for a job offer on Monday.

There have been no immigration raids on the "corner" for years and Portland Police are instructed not to detain people because of possible immigration issues alone.

Some similar centers around the country have fared better than others, and Paramo said one in Cornelius, in Washington County, disbanded when it lost its funding.

"The workers are back on the street there," he said.

The hiring site, leased to VOZ by the Portland Development Commission for $1 a year, has a trailer headquarters, portable toilets and other facilities.

The Portland City Council approved $200,000 to finance the project's first two years, angering some who said public funds should not be spent on a population that may be largely undocumented.

Nationally, the attitude generally has been that it is better to manage a situation that won't go away and will probably grow than to let it run unchecked.

Immigrant advocate groups estimate there are from 150-300 day laborers, or "jornaleros," as they are known, in Portland on a given day.


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Will prostitutes be allowed to use this facility as a base camp? After all, prostitutes are going to hang out on the street corners and work illegally anyway; shouldn’t they be entitled to safety and security also?

Orwell was right on the money when he said this world would be turned upside down by the media brainwashers. What is the orwellian definition of illegal?

Illegal immigrants have no rights due to the fact that they are illegal. They are not supposed to be working in America. American employers are breaking the law by hiring them, so why is portland building a day labor area for illegals to find work?

Here is my two-step plan.

We may have to kiss the keisters of the illegal invaders, it is still a felony to aid and abet them.

If some honest men and women in law enforcement, would go after the lowlifes in the government, business and the general population that have been aiding and abetting them, by the time they had enough of a handle on the job to raise their heads and look around, I don’t think many illegal aliens would still be left.

We don't need any new laws to do this either. Just some honest men and women in law enforcement that take their oaths of office seriously!

Finding them is the first step!



Federal Immigration and Nationality Act
Section 8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)

"Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."
Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
* assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
* encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
* knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.

Originally Posted by hell2pay

Will prostitutes be allowed to use this facility as a base camp? After all, prostitutes are going to hang out on the street corners and work illegally anyway; shouldn’t they be entitled to safety and security also?

And what about the gangs and drugs dealers, they work hard, they hang out on the streets, aren't they entitled to safety and security as well?

Our country has gone insane.

Originally Posted by StokeyBob

Here is my two-step plan.

We may have to kiss the keisters of the illegal invaders, it is still a felony to aid and abet them.

If some honest men and women in law enforcement, would go after the lowlifes in the government, business and the general population that have been aiding and abetting them, by the time they had enough of a handle on the job to raise their heads and look around, I don’t think many illegal aliens would still be left.

We don't need any new laws to do this either. Just some honest men and women in law enforcement that take their oaths of office seriously!

Finding them is the first step!



Federal Immigration and Nationality Act
Section 8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)

"Any person who . . . encourages or induces an alien to . . . reside . . . knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . residence is . . . in violation of law, shall be punished as provided . . . for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs . . . fined under title 18 . . . imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."
Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:
* assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or
* encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
* knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.

All these churches, not-for-profits, federal non-prosecutors, judges, mayors, police chiefs, schools, hospitals ... anyone who has ever come in contact with a known illegal alien and harbored them or set them free needs to be prosecuted, fined and jailed.