Thursday, November 15, 2007
Hearing in Laguna Beach day labor site
The suit argues that the city cannot legally fund the site that helps workers, including the undocumented, find work.
By AMY TAXIN
The Orange County Register

A lawsuit accusing the city of Laguna Beach of illegally funding a day labor site where undocumented immigrants can find work will head to court for a hearing on Thursday.

Attorneys for the city and for Laguna Beach resident Eileen Garcia, an anti-illegal immigration activist who filed the lawsuit last year, will appear in court for a key hearing in the case.

Garcia and the city agree on a series of facts: Laguna Beach has a day labor site where people can seek work and where immigration status is not checked. The city doesn't run the site but provides community assistance grants to a non-profit that manages it.

Attorneys for Garcia say the city can't legally use public funds to run a site that helps people find work who are not authorized to work in the United States – namely illegal immigrants.

The city says it is allowed to support the non-profit that runs the site and that non-profits are not required to screen recipients of services for their immigration status – otherwise programs including schools, hospitals and public buses would face this same challenge.

Laguna Beach initially opened its day labor hiring center in 1993 in response to complaints that day laborers were congregating in local neighborhoods.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/city-sit ... day-beach#