Thread: Vista approves law regulating day laborers

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Posted on Wed, Jun. 28, 2006

Vista approves law regulating day laborers


Associated Press

VISTA, Calif. - A new municipal law requires people who hire day laborers from public sites to register with the city, display certificates in their car windows and present workers with written terms of employment.

The City Council unanimously approved the law Tuesday during a meeting attended by about 150 people. It will take effect July 28.

City Attorney Darold Pieper said the ordinance, which was tentatively approved earlier this month, would protect workers from unscrupulous employers. Supporters urged the council to set an example for other cities.

"We need to take care of our own people, our own citizens," San Diego resident Anthony Porrello said.

Critics said the ordinance was a racially motivated attempt to eliminate day laborer hiring sites.

"You're putting Vista in the eye of the storm," resident Dick Eiden told the council before the vote. "A big national storm."

Law enforcement had a large, visible presence around City Hall. More than 100 San Diego County sheriff's deputies and detectives were positioned in the area, and people went through a metal detector before entering the council chambers, sheriff's Capt. Glenn Revell said.

A half-mile away from City Hall, about 40 day laborer supporters rallied in a parking lot where the workers gather most mornings.

No incidents of violence were reported, officials said.

Violations of the law will be misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.

Last month, San Bernardino council members decided against adopting a measure cracking down on illegal immigrants, instead referring the issue to voters.

However, a judge ruled Monday that an anti-illegal immigration activist had not collected enough signatures to hold a city vote on a measure that would, among other things, bar undocumented residents from renting in the city, ban day laborer centers and force day laborers to prove they are legal residents.

http://www.signonsandiego.com


Vista approves day-laborer law


Security stepped up for controversial vote
By Matthew Rodriguez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 28, 2006

VISTA – With dozens of protesters outside and a crowd of 100 packed inside its chambers, the City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to regulate the hiring of day laborers on the streets of Vista.

The ordinance will become law July 28.

Before the vote, the council heard from speakers on both sides of the issue, with some coming from around the county to voice their opinions or applaud those who got up to speak.
The Sheriff's Department stepped up security for the meeting, with more than 100 deputies deployed in Vista, said Capt. Glenn D. Revell. The city also stationed a metal detector at the doorway into the council chambers.

The ordinance requires employers to register with the city before hiring laborers who wait for work on local street corners. Most of the workers are Latino.

Several council members said the ordinance would benefit day laborers.

“This should, in fact, improve their condition,” said Councilman Bob Campbell.

Council member Frank Lopez agreed, saying, “This is not about racism.”

Before the vote, Mayor Morris Vance said the ordinance was a first step, with the next step finding a nonprofit organization to operate a hiring hall or hiring site in the city.
The vote yesterday was a second reading of the ordinance the council had tentatively approved at its last meeting. Since then, activists have rallied on both sides of the issue.

Before yesterday's meeting, several dozen people holding signs and American flags rallied in front of City Hall to support the ordinance. About a half-mile away at the corner where day laborers gather every morning, a group of several dozen people rallied to protest the law.

At the rally outside City Hall, San Diego Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk said his group supported the ordinance but opposed any move the city might make in hosting a hiring hall.

Hiring sites could attract illegal immigrants and allow employers to evade tax laws, Schwilk said. One protester held a sign, saying: “Hiring illegals is illegal.”

Up the road at the day-laborer site at Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues, those opposed to the ordinance held signs that read, “No human being is illegal.”

Holding one of these signs, Debbie Hall, 49, of Poway said she came to the protest with about a half-dozen members of her Unitarian Universalist congregation.

“I really think that it's a non-issue,” Hall said of the ordinance and of anti-immigration protests, adding, “that it's a distraction” from addressing the real issue: that immigrants head north because they can't find work in Mexico.

Sylvia Hansen, 50, of Santee said she came to support the day laborers because she felt akin to them. As a substitute teacher, she said she waits by the phone – instead of a curb – for work.

“An attack on any worker is an attack on all workers,” Hansen said.

The ordinance requires employers to register with the city before hiring day laborers at sites that aren't owned or managed by the employers or a subcontractor. The registration would last a year.

Employers also would be required to post the registration on their vehicles when hiring laborers and to give workers a “term sheet” describing the job and its location, rate of pay and employer contact information.

City officials have said the measure protects day laborers from abuses, such as wage disputes. Critics, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have said the measure could be unconstitutional and is designed to discourage employers from hiring day laborers.

City officials have said they want to put a stop to the daily gathering at Escondido and South Santa Fe avenues, which have generated complaints from some residents and nearby businesses.

City Attorney Darold Pieper said the ordinance “simply requires that anyone who intends to hire someone from, principally, a vehicle has to first register with the city.”



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Matthew Rodriguez: (760) 476-8245; matthew.rodriguez@uniontrib.com

Why would the Minutemen support an ordinance that "allows" employers to skirt the laws against hiring illegal aliens?

Am I missing something?

"We need to take care of our own people, our own citizens," San Diego resident Anthony Porrello said.

The way to protect your own citizens is to have ICE arrest and deport the illegal immigrants. Aren't they competing with "you citizens" for jobs? Why is everyone so afraid of being politically correct? Why does the pro-illegal immigrant groups yell racist every time anything happens they don't agree with? We know who the real racist are, and they are not the ones trying to protect American workers and this country from the ill effects of illegal immigration.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kp...59&sectionID=1

Vista council passes day laborers ordinance

Amy Isackson

KPBS SAN DIEGO (2006-06-2 Under a new ordinance, employers who hire day laborers in the city of Vista will have to register with the city. The city council voted unanimously in favor of the measure last night on the grounds that it will protect workers. But critics say the true purpose is to shut down curbside hiring. KPBS Border Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

Vista has long been searching for a way to move day laborers out of a local shopping center where they gather.

Vista Mayor Morris Vance says the new ordinance will not only protect day laborers from unscrupulous employers. He says it will also restore order to the shopping center.

Mayor Vance: "We've received complaints from the shopping center itself as well as from patrons who want to go there and as soon as they get there, they're immediately swarmed by people and they feel unsafe and harassed."

Members of the Minutemen and a local spin-off group have compounded the problem. They recently made the site the target of their protests. They're snapping photos of employers who come to hire day laborers and just about anyone who looks Mexican.

Immigrants' rights activist Tina Jillings says the Minutemen are stoke anti-immigrant passions. And by passing the ordinance, the city is giving in to their agenda.

Jillings: "This is about racism. It's about a class of people who are being discriminated against and their right to work is being hindered."

Jillings and other activists say employers won't bother registering and will hire day laborers in other cities.

The ordinance requires employers to go through a two day registration process. Employers will receive a placard for their windshields. And they must provide the terms of the job in writing, including the hourly wage and transportation arrangements.

The city is also looking into creating a new hiring site where day laborers can gather.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union may sue on free speech grounds.

Barring legal challenges, the measure takes effect at the end of July. For the California Report, I'm Amy Isackson in San Diego. Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06 ... _29_06.txt

Friday, June 30, 2006
Last modified Friday, June 30, 2006 10:10 AM PDT

Vista law on day labor hiring faces scrutiny

By: CRAIG TENBROECK - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- The city attorney says Vista's controversial law regulating people who hire day laborers from such locations as street corners and parking lots is on firm legal ground, although at least two organizations say they have serious concerns about its constitutionality.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt the ordinance as protesters on both sides of the issues gathered and marched outside City Hall.

"We haven't backed away from the issue," said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties. "We're still right on top of it."

In a June 13 letter to the city, Blair-Loy wrote, "The ordinance may well be unconstitutional to the extent it is not narrowly tailored to address its purported goals."

City Attorney Darold Pieper declined comment on the letter.

Chris Newman, legal programs coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Los Angeles, said his group's attorneys are looking into "the constitutionality ---- or the lack of constitutionality" of the law.

"If the city violates the civil rights of day laborers and they want to respond, we would absolutely assist them in defending their civil rights," he added.

The law takes effect July 28, and will require those who hire day laborers to get a registration certificate from the city and display it in a car window. They will also have to give written terms of employment to the people they hire.

Pieper has said the goal is reduce the number of unscrupulous employers taking advantage of the workers. Employers who register can still hire laborers at any place they wish, he said.

"It's not designed to keep day laborers off corners," he said Wednesday.

Critics have described Pieper's explanation as a red herring and contend that the law in all likelihood will discourage curbside hiring.

The ordinance has been supported by anti-illegal immigration activists who claim that makeshift day labor pickup sites are hotbeds for immigrants in the country illegally.

Asked if registration is likely to discourage employers from hiring day laborers, Pieper said: "There could be some effects, but they will most likely involve people who were intending to cheat the day laborers in the first place or ignore their other obligations under the law."

Critics have said the ordinance, which regulates hiring done at "uncontrolled" locations, would even require a homeowner who hires a teenager at a neighbor's house for yardwork or baby sitting and then drives the teenager home, to first obtain a registration certificate and prepare a term sheet.

Vista defines an "uncontrolled location" as any place the employer does not own, rent, control, or serve as a contractor or subcontractor.

Pieper said, however, that this type of employer could avoid registration by calling the neighbor first to make the work arrangement, explaining that the employer's home is a controlled location.

"And, frankly, we don't want people going out in their cars, stopping teenagers on the street and asking them to baby-sit," he said.

In recent interviews, several council members have expressed confidence in the city's actions.

"We may get sued, but people sue over anything nowadays," Councilwoman Judy Ritter said.

"I'm very comfortable with the approach we're taking," Councilman Steve Gronke said.

Vista isn't the first city to try to address the issue of hiring day laborers.

Last month, San Bernardino council members decided against adopting a measure cracking down on illegal immigrants, instead referring the issue to voters.

However, a judge ruled Monday that an anti-illegal immigration activist had not collected enough signatures to hold a city vote on a measure that would, among other things, bar undocumented residents from renting in the city, ban day laborer centers and force day laborers to prove they are legal residents.

Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 631-6621 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.