Posted on 01/27/2006 7:51:55 PM PST by Dubya
If an immigration reform bill moving through Congress becomes law, nonprofit organizations that help day laborers find work without making sure each client has a legal right to work in the U.S. could be subject to criminal prosecution, jail sentences and fines of up to $50,000.
Two North County nonprofit organizations that provide such services to at least some illegal immigrants said Monday that passage of such a law could also lead to increased abuse of illegal immigrants, who would be deprived of the protections they provide their clients by screening and tracking those who hire workers.
In phone interviews Monday, officials with the two groups, Interfaith Community Services in Escondido and an Oceanside group called SER, or Service, Education and Redevelopment, said they help protect workers and employers by obtaining contact information from them before connecting laborers to employers and following up on problems.
SER officials said they check for documentation that their laborers can legally work, but that some illegal workers do fall through the group's screening attempts. Interfaith does not require laborers to prove their immigration status before seeking work through the organization.
Illegal immigrants probably make up at least half of Interfaith's clients, spokeswoman Debra Andreasen said Monday.
If the federal government cracks down on nonprofits that provide such services, workers and employers would stop using the hiring halls, forcing illegal immigrants further underground, Andreasen said. Interfaith's Escondido hiring hall helps arrange work for about 50 workers a day with local businesses and homeowners, she said.
Without the modicum of accountability provided by its screening process, the number of workers suffering abuse at the hands of employers would increase as workers and employers return to hiring in the streets, said.
"No matter what, people are going to continue to hire illegal workers," Andreasen said.
Bill would punish helpers
In December, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill, HR 4437. It is now set to go before the Senate for review and possible changes.
Critics have blasted the bill for focusing primarily on beefing up the nation's borders and cracking down on those who hire illegal immigrants while failing to create a guest worker program that would allow foreign laborers to stay in the United States for a limited amount of time.
Supporters have applauded the bill in its present form, saying that before the government can consider allowing still more foreign workers into this county, it must first show that it is serious about stopping illegal immigration.
One feature in the bill calls for an employee verification system that would require employers and hiring halls to contact the federal government and provide identification numbers on laborers' visas or social security cards. Those numbers would then be checked against databases to confirm their validity. The government would then issue decisions on whether individual workers can be legally hired.
The bill makes it clear that the law would apply not only to employers but to any organization that helps workers obtain jobs.
Organizations that show patterns of breaking the law could face criminal prosecution.
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, said Monday he thought the bill was a necessary step toward the creation of a guest-worker program, because such a program will only be approved in Congress if immigration laws are tightened.
"The first rule is you can't have any loopholes in enforcement," said Issa, who supports a guest-worker program.
Andreasen of Interfaith said she worries that if the bill passes, her organization would be prevented from helping illegal immigrants find jobs.
"They will find other means to work," she said ---- under conditions that may expose them to greater risk. "Abuse shouldn't happen no matter who you are or where you work."
She added that whatever Congress decides, Interfaith will obey the law, but the burden shouldn't fall on nonprofits that are simply providing a humanitarian service to the community.
"It should fall on employers," Andreasen said.
Fears of abuse
Highlighting Andreasen's concerns about possible employee abuse was the release of a study Monday conducted by social scientists from the University of California Los Angeles and two other universities, showing rampant employer abuse of illegal immigrant laborers.
UCLA, the University of Illinois and New York's New School University surveyed more than 117,000 day laborers at 264 hiring sites, in 20 states across the country.
The survey results showed that more than three-fourths of day laborers were illegal immigrants, and that 44 percent of those surveyed were denied food, water and breaks, in the previous two months. Nearly a third said they worked more hours than they bargained for, and 28 percent reported suffering insults or threats by employers.
Oceanside-based nonprofit SER runs two hiring halls, one in Carlsbad and another in Pacific Beach. Unlike Interfaith, however, SER asks all prospective employees, most of them Latino, to provide proof of immigration status before steering them to would-be employers, the organization's president, Salvador Martinez, said in a Monday phone interview.
He added that while SER officials do not check with government officials to make sure documents are valid, company screeners have become skillful at detecting obvious forgeries and those workers are prevented from using the company's services.
Martinez said he estimates that between 10 percent and 15 percent of its clients are illegal immigrants who slip through the screening process and get jobs through his organization.
The bill stands to increase the possibility that any hiring hall that works with Latino day laborers will be perceived as undesirable in the community, Martinez said.
"We are all painted with the same brush. If you look at the crowds of workers at our centers, you'll see a lot of brown faces," Martinez said. "(Government officials) would be looking at us as if we are helping those who are undocumented under the table."
Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426 or wbennett@nctimes.com. To comment, visit nctimes.com.
I'm so weary of these feeble attempts to stem the tide of illegals.
It should have been a priority on September 12,2001.
Forget new laws. I am sure we have a great many anti personel mines laying about. Plant 'em and post warnings.
"...employers would stop using the hiring halls, forcing illegal immigrants further underground, "
Um, the point is to force them further south!
I have an excellent idea on how they can avoid such abuses.
GO HOME!!!!!
Breaking the law isn't supposed to be safe.
New job center closes
After 3 weeks, temporary facility at OCC is shuttered. Organizers still searching for permanent labor site.
By Alicia Robinson
(Published: January 26, 2006)
It's time to shut up shop again for Costa Mesa's job center. A privately run site that matches day laborers and contractors opened Jan. 9 in a trailer at Orange Coast College, but its temporary lease ends today with the center still searching for a permanent home.
Local business, church and community leaders organized the private center, called the Center for Resources and Employment Opportunities, to fill the void after the Costa Mesa City Council voted in 2005 to close the Job Center the city had run for 17 years.
The city initially opened the Job Center to stem residents' complaints about workers loitering and soliciting jobs around Lions Park and elsewhere in the city. These days, complaints about day workers often focus on whether they're legal residents of the U.S.
When the city's facility closed Dec. 31, the private group set up a phone system for people who need workers. That's still operating and will continue after the temporary center at OCC closes today, said Crissy Brooks, executive director of Mika Community Development Corp. Brooks has been a driving force behind the new, private labor center.
The OCC spot was never intended to be long-term -- school officials agreed to lease the space during the winter break, which ends Monday. Since the center has been there, Brooks said, about 30% to 40% of workers have found jobs on any given day. It's about the same success rate as the city's Job Center, but fewer workers have used the OCC site, she said.
As an alternative, some workers have called up old bosses, while others have continued to seek jobs near the closed Job Center at Placentia Avenue and 17th Street.
Plans for a permanent labor center are elaborate and include English classes, job skills training and help for those who want long-term jobs.
But a location is still the missing piece.
With the OCC site closing today, some who have used it aren't sure where they'll go.
'We don't know right now," job seeker Moises Morelos said Thursday.
The Center for Resources and Employment Opportunities phone line is (949) 764-1528.
It's suggested that employers try to call the day before workers are needed and leave a message about how many they want. Labor center organizers will return the calls.
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