Thread: Taxpayer Supported Center for Illegal Aliens

Note: Herndon, VA is a DC suburb adjacent to Dulles Airport, which has been inundated with illegal aliens - Scarecrow

Herndon mayor supports center

By Christina Bellantoni
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 5, 2005

The mayor of Herndon (VA) said yesterday he supports establishing a formal day-laborer center in town, despite the town's Planning Commission's recommendation against it.
Mayor Michael O'Reilly said problems with a proposal to open a day-laborer center next to the town's police station can be resolved. Many residents feared that opening a center in their neighborhood would lead to problems with day laborers loitering, littering, publicly urinating and harassing women.
Mr. O'Reilly said he wants the center to work for everyone involved.
"If all we do is take the problem from one area and put it in another, that's not success, and we haven't solved anything," he said.
Mr. O'Reilly's comments yesterday came several hours after the Planning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend that the Town Council reject an application to establish such a center.
Mr. O'Reilly said the council gives weight to the commission's recommendations, but he was quick to point out that the council does not necessarily heed all of them.
For example, the Planning Commission recently unanimously recommended for approval a site plan for an office building, but the council later rejected it.
The council is expected to take up the issue Aug. 16. If many residents want to speak at the meeting, the council may vote to continue the matter one more day.
After hearing from scores of worried residents, the Planning Commission early yesterday decided not to recommend the application filed by Project Hope and Harmony, a group of community leaders and churches seeking to curb problems with day laborers loitering at one of the town's 7-Eleven stores.
Planning Commission member Ted Hochstein said of the more than 200 speakers, 80 percent were against the day-laborer center. The opponents submitted notarized petitions containing signatures of more than 400 families against the proposal, he said.
Mr. Hochstein said it is "frustrating" that the council "probably will" approve the day-laborer center.
"My feeling is, as an official with the town, you need to listen to the citizens, and it was pretty overwhelming against the site," he said.
The proposal is to establish a formal center in a trailer next to the town's police station. The police, who have outgrown the site, are expected to move this month.
The center would provide restrooms and offer English classes and social workers to day laborers, which include legal and illegal aliens.
The trailer is on town property, but no town taxpayer dollars would fund it.
Project Hope and Harmony has applied for a grant from Fairfax County and also is seeking private donations.
Planning Commission members, who issued their decision after 2:30 a.m. yesterday, listed several suggestions for the proposal.
They said organizers should consider amending their proposal to provide a van or shuttle bus to transport the day laborers out of the neighborhood on a daily basis, to prevent them from loitering in the area.
The commission also said the center's organizers should be responsible for keeping the sidewalks clean.
Planning Commission Chairman Carl Sivertsen said he thought a formal day-laborer center would have an adverse effect on the community and that he voted against the proposal because it had holes in it.
"Collectively, it was that there were too many loose ends and a lot of questions left unanswered," he said. "Hopefully, when they do go to council they will have better information, a better presentation and better answers."
Joel Mills, a group volunteer who lives in Herndon, said Project Hope and Harmony is "digesting" the commission's suggestions and the public's comments.
"We'll evaluate our application and see where we might want to make alterations to it," he said.
Mr. Mills said the group members are disappointed by the vote but are encouraged because they think the establishment of a formal site would address the concerns voiced at the public meetings.
The Planning Commission's decision came during the third public hearing held on the matter this summer. Hundreds of supporters, including day laborers, and opponents rallied at the Herndon Municipal Center during the public hearings earlier this week.
Groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform and Judicial Watch have threatened to sue the town if it approves the day-laborer center, saying it would encourage illegal immigration.

Oh just make the Grey Hound Bus stop the Day labor center and that way we can put Grey Hound really back in Business, shipping illegals home

I really like that they will put it next to the police station. That should make it very convenient for law enforcement to round up the illegals. What do you want to bet that they are given orders NOT to approach or question the day laborers?

They covered this idiocy on Lou Dobbs last night and I thought I would PUKE. The citizens of the county said they were AFRAID to go to this 7/Eleven where they hang out. Does that TELL them something??? WHY would they be afraid if all these people wanted was jobs??????

they need some new officials

They want to set up day laborer centers here in Vegas too....
DAY LABORERS: Supply and Demand

"Everyone is catching on that Las Vegas is the place where the jobs are," worker Gabriel Sosa Dominguez said in Spanish.

The 27-year-old from Puebla, Mexico, kept his eyes fixed on traffic as he spoke one morning earlier this summer. When a truck slowed down at the driveway to Larry's Villa, a strip joint near Bonanza Road and Rancho Drive, he sprinted after it, joining a pack of other men hoping the driver would pick them up for a landscaping job.

Across the valley, a similar scene plays out on street corners along Cheyenne Avenue and Charleston Boulevard, and Eastern Avenue near the southern Las Vegas Beltway, and almost anywhere a major plant nursery is located or where construction trucks roll by.

The recent proliferation of day workers across the Las Vegas Valley has prompted local officials to look at how other communities are coping with similar situations.

A committee of city and county officials, as well as police and civil rights groups, has met to explore the option of opening a worker center. The strategy is one dozens of communities across the country have tried with varying success.

"Of all the things we've discussed, the idea of the day labor center makes the most sense for protecting the workers against unscrupulous contractors, maybe regulating the wage rate and ensuring safety," county Chief Administrative Officer Don Burnette said. "At some point, we might even look at establishing multiple centers. This is a huge community geographically and this is a communitywide issue."

Government officials on the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition in July took the first steps toward addressing the issue and asked administrators in Clark County and Las Vegas to study the work center option and its effectiveness in other communities.

Several business owners whose storefronts are crowded with workers said they would support the idea of a work center.

Shawn Watt, district manager of Star Nursery stores in Southern Nevada, said the opening of a work center would be a relief.

About a year ago only a handful of men would show up at each store. Now, dozens arrive daily, he said.

Watt said he has called police about the workers' loitering, hired security guards, and put up "no trespassing" signs. But his attempts to discourage the workers from gathering at his stores have been unsuccessful.

"The way I see it, these workers have moved straight to the source, and as long as people keep picking them up, they're going to keep showing up," Watt said.

Often, landscape contractors ask workers to meet them at plant nurseries for convenience, but it is just as likely that residential customers will pick up the workers, Watt said.

Ron Parrish, manager of Moon Valley Nursery on Eastern Avenue just north of the Las Vegas Beltway, said efforts to organize the workers would help his business, which is another popular place for the workers to gather.

"If they had one location where they could go, I think we'd have a much more controlled situation than the bunch of freelancers we see out there now," Parrish said. "Most of the guys are OK, but some can be loose cannons and aggressive. We've had to hire security to make sure we can keep things under control."

Dargin McWhorter, president of Big Mama's Rib Shack near Rancho and Bonanza, said the day workers who gather in front of his property are hampering his efforts to erect two high-rise buildings on the site. Prospective investors, he said, are turned off by the rough appearance of day workers, some of whom litter his property, never get picked up for a job, spend the day drinking beer and urinating on his walls.

"There has to be some way to get them to a central location, where they could still get work, but where they won't hurt the area businesses," McWhorter said.

Though business owners are hopeful a worker center materializes, the idea draws mixed responses from workers.


Suspicions run high

Some workers say having a more organized way of securing a job would be a benefit. Others fear it would limit their chances of finding work or impede their ability to negotiate with prospective employers.

"If they try to organize us, it better be someone who knows how to figure out who has what skills and makes it fair," Jose Rodriguez said in Spanish. Rodriguez, a 52-year-old from Mexico who spends his mornings looking for work on Eastern Avenue, added, "I don't want to be stuck in a center when the guy on the corner gets the job."

Antonio Juarez, a 29-year-old worker from Mexico is skeptical.

"The main problem most of us have is that we aren't organized and a lot of us don't want to be organized," he said in Spanish. "We like the system of letting the guy who looks alive get the job, letting the strong guy beat the weak one."

Juarez said he thought most workers also would be suspicious of joining a center or program, especially if identification or proof of legal residency is required.

"Most of us don't have ID, most of us are illegal," he said.

Others who have felt the sting of an employer stiffing them hope authorities organize and regulate the day labor market.

Sirino Velazquez, a 32-year-old from Oaxaca, Mexico, who waits for work on Bonanza, said he recently took a weeklong landscaping job that promised to pay $80 a day. The employer came through with $30 and stiffed him for the rest.

"I've had bad luck sometimes," Velazquez said in Spanish. "And it hurts. I feel like I worked so hard and wasted all that time for nothing, and there's really no one out there who can do anything -- probably no one out there who cares. I want support from authorities to be able to find that guy and make him pay up, or punish him so he can't do that again."

Miguel Barrientos, an immigrant advocate and president of the Mexican-American Political Association in Nevada, said he is pleased local officials are considering a work center for the laborers.

"I just hope it's not too much talk," he said. "I think the answer is obvious. We don't have to reinvent the wheel; lots of places have opened work centers that work. The problem here is going to be finding someone willing to fund it."


Success possible

Ana Luz Gonzalez, a research associate for the Center for the Study of Urban Poverty at the University of California, Los Angeles, is completing a yearlong study of the day laborer phenomenon. She said her group has surveyed 358 sites in 143 cities, including Las Vegas, where day laborers congregate.

"The main intervention we've seen that seems to work is the creation of worker centers," she said. "We found 64 worker centers throughout the U.S."

Worker centers, she said, are largely operated by nonprofit organizations that provide a central, convenient location for workers and prospective employers to meet.

Burnette said Clark County officials have studied several models, including one in Glendale, Calif., that is funded by that city and operated by Catholic Charities.

"To get one going here, it's going to be funded at least to some degree by government," he said.

But in Arizona, several worker centers have been opened entirely with private money. Arizona state law prohibits local governments from building or maintaining worker centers that make it easy for people to hire illegal immigrants.

The Light and Life Day Labor Center in Chandler, Ariz., is run by a local church and offers just the basics: a few picnic tables and water misters under a shade structure, portable toilets and donated materials.

Chandler officials say the 2-year-old center has had a slow start.

"The number one reason a lot of the workers still won't come in is because they think that if they're on the street, they'll be first," said city spokeswoman Leah Powell. "We might get 20 to 30 workers per day, but there'll be 100 other workers on the street. We're trying to increase the number of workers using it."

In contrast, the Glendale Temporary Skilled Worker Center in California boasts better statistics.

On a busy day, as many as 155 workers show up at the worker center that opened in 1996. The center was built as Glendale officials became frustrated by the growing number of men crowding street corners in front of Home Depot stores to hail prospective employers for odd jobs.

But Glendale's success didn't come easy, said Moises Carrillo, Glendale's senior community development supervisor, who helped organize the center. He said the town had to hire an outreach worker to persuade the men to use the center and get the word out, posting fliers in hardware stores and anywhere else the men would congregate or at locations where prospective employers purchased supplies.

"The outreach worker had to organize the men and discuss with them the transition of going from the street to the center, give them insight to the benefits and give them responsibility in running the center," Carrillo said. "The employers caught on because we also stepped up enforcement. We have ordinances that prohibit drivers from soliciting the workers on the street."

Among the key ingredients for that center's success is the workers' active participation in setting the rules and deciding together on a fair system for job assignments, Carrillo said.

"The workers are charged with the responsibility of managing the rules and discipline of the center," Carrillo said. "If someone is showing up intoxicated or is fighting, the workers have their own committee that could decide on a one-week suspension or something more severe."

Carrillo said the workers also are in charge of the upkeep. Those who show up early to clean are the first to go out on jobs, he said. The others are assigned based on a lottery system.


Everyone's a victim

Antonio Bernabe, a day labor organizer with the nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said that although worker centers might have varying rates of success, trying to get one off the ground is better than not doing anything at all.

"What you eventually come to realize is that everyone's a victim when you allow the situation to continue," he said. "It just grows and gets worse."

Bernabe estimates that the Los Angeles metropolitan area has more than 27,000 day laborers on about 125 corners on any given day. He said between 30 percent and 40 percent of them are hired daily.

In response to complaints from workers and area merchants, Bernabe's organization started three work centers in Los Angeles.

The center his group opened adjoining a Home Depot store that had attracted dozens of workers to the area for several years "was a major success," Bernabe said.

"But in 2003 the problems started," he said. "The center became overpopulated. It was a very small space, made for 70 people, but we were holding more than 140 on some days. It got to the point where employers, who didn't want to deal with the crowded parking lot and lines, started telling workers again to start meeting them on the street corner."

The flooded market for day laborers in Los Angeles could be one reason more of them are showing up in Las Vegas, Bernabe said.

"Las Vegas now is famous for its high demand for labor. It's creating the draw," he said.

Clark County officials say they are sure the number of workers on Southern Nevada streets is growing, but they have no official count.

Chris Newman, legal programs coordinator for the National Day Labor Organizing Network, said communities across the country are contending with growing numbers of day workers, sometimes called jornaleros. Newman called the trend a product of supply and demand.

"They are performing a market function, doing work that needs to be done, and it's happening across the country," he said. "Las Vegas is actually somewhat unique in that there have been no efforts to organize and work with the day workers. Almost everywhere else, you see a corresponding growth of organizations trying to help the workers, particularly where mistreatment of day workers by employers is epidemic."

Nevada state government already has a Casual Labor office intended to draw day workers and employers into a safer and more organized environment. But state officials are among the first to admit the center at 1001 N. A St. has had little success in attracting the newer population of immigrant workers.

State officials say the Casual Labor office matches about 2,000 workers a year with employers needing help with a number of odd jobs, from assisting movers and warehouse work to landscaping and construction.

Like the work centers elsewhere, the Casual Labor office places its workers based on a lottery system, unless an employer requests a specific worker or workers with a particular set of skills.

Although the state doesn't have the authority to enforce immigration laws, its Casual Labor office requires prospective workers to show identification documents and provide a Social Security number.

"Because so many (day laborers) are illegal, that does pose some degree of a problem," said Terry Johnson, deputy director of the state's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. "The workers might be more willing to go to a center that doesn't say State of Nevada."

And these government officials are concerned about the best way to aid & abet the illegals to continue to reside in the U.S......

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

I really like that they will put it next to the police station. That should make it very convenient for law enforcement to round up the illegals. What do you want to bet that they are given orders NOT to approach or question the day laborers?

That would be too convenient! Imagine law enforcement having criminals next door to the police station. Isn't it strange that police can go after any type of criminals except Bush's 'guest workers'? They are the new sacred cows.

There is no doubt in my mind that Bush has put the word out when fighting crime, don't bother 'my' people. I hope when he dies, he is buried in Mexico with his people. He certainly is not one of us.

Watt said he has called police about the workers' loitering, hired security guards, and put up "no trespassing" signs. But his attempts to discourage the workers from gathering at his stores have been unsuccessful.

an American citizen would be put in jail for "loitering" and trespassing -- "illegal aliens" get immunity from "the courts of the lawless"

I moved about a month ago from Chantilly, Va. which is very close to Herndon, to Western Pa. The problem is so out of control in Northern Va. that it isn't funny. Maybe they should put the day labor site right next to the mayor and he can enjoy the public drinking, public urinating, and public sexual haressment that comes with these sites

Steelerbabe, you've got a good idea --- but what about the justice department, the FBI or the federal court house, there's one in every district -- maybe then we can get federal laws enforced