Thread: TX: Houston cuts off city funding to day labor site

Houston cuts off city funding to day labor site
June 21, 2007, 11:53AM

2007 The Associated Press


HOUSTON — The only city-funded day labor center, which critics said encourages illegal immigration, could close at the end of the month after officials decided not to renew its $100,000 contract.

The East End Worker Development Center had been funded through the federal Community Development Block Grant program. The center has been popular with illegal workers who gather there to seek employment.

Last spring, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, then a city councilwoman seeking the Republican nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, criticized the funding, saying taxpayer money should not used for something that promotes illegal immigration.

The City Council decided to cancel the funding, said Frank Michel, a spokesman for Mayor Bill White.

The center has been operated since 2005 by Neighborhood Centers Inc., a Houston nonprofit human services agency. The agency director said he would continue operating the center if funding is found.

Community activists called on city officials and religious and business leaders to keep the hall open, but a Houston group that promotes tighter immigration controls welcomed the decision. City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, whose district includes the East End, said she would ask the administration to restore funding.

Day labor centers have become flash points in the immigration debate, as communities around the country debate whether to allow facilities where day laborers can gather.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4909002.html