Posted on 07/31/2005 11:31:41 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
With observers planning to focus critical attention on Houston's immigrant day laborers, advocates are scrambling to organize the men who gather on street corners throughout Houston.
A newly reopened day labor center in the Second Ward has drawn some, but not all, workers off nearby corners, and a volunteer working with the city has proposed a comprehensive solution to the problem.
Attention has increased since the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps announced that it will begin observing Houston street-corner job markets beginning in October.
A regular police community meeting near Shepherd and Washington last week drew more than 70 residents and business owners, including many who expressed frustration with day laborers.
The problem "is way worse than it was three or four years ago," said Michael Tones, the vice president of New Plan Excel Realty Trust, which owns a shopping center in the area. Tones said customers are frightened by the men loitering along Shepherd near 11th Street.
Juan Alvarez, an activist working to organize the day laborers in that area, asked homeowners to be compassionate.
"I know it is a problem for most of you, but on the other side they are human beings, too," Alvarez said.
He maintained that a crackdown at the sites could force the laborers out of work and into crime.
Away from neighborhoods
Police officers at the meeting mentioned a move to find a center for the laborers, preferably in an industrial area where neighbors and businesses would not be disrupted.
At a separate meeting, Joe Rubio, a representative of Catholic Charities who also heads the Mayor's Office on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, introduced a proposal to place a day labor center in each quadrant of the city. The centers would be located away from residential neighborhoods, and would offer language classes and other education.
Rubio estimates that each center would cost a "minimum" of $150,000 a year. Councilman Gordon Quan said he doubted the council would provide $600,000 to fund the four sites, but Rubio and others said private funding could help offset the costs.
In the East End, a day labor center has reopened using $90,000 from the city, $50,000 from Bank of America and volunteer work from representatives of Exxon Mobil Corp.
On Friday morning, about 20 workers sat around and outside the center on Sampson and Commerce looking for work. By 8 a.m., 12 had succeeded.
Francisco Deras, operator of the site, said he was generally encouraged by its progress, and that he has registered more than 150 neighborhood workers.
He added, however, that change will be slow. Before the center opened, many of the day laborers would drink in public. He is working to cut down on the drinking, but conceded that some workers still drink outside.
"I tell them to drink at home," he said. "I tell them: If you don't respect me, at least respect the place."
Corner preferred
Deras hopes to get most of the workers from the area to come to the center, but some still prefer to wait for work on nearby corners. A block away, day laborers were still sitting on the corner of Canal and Sampson, where they said they are more likely to get work.
"There at the center, they don't have any contacts with contractors," said one of the men, Alejandro. But he and others have heard that the center might start issuing I.D. cards, and he said he has considered going to the center if he could get identification.
edward.hegstrom@chron.com
funniest thing i ever saw was the video of the guys who pick up illegals from a day labor site, tell them they need construction workers,
and then they drive directly to the immigration office....the illegals in the back of the truck realize where they are and scram like bandits!
they had a friend trail them with video camera to capture the whole friggin thing!
hilarity!
GOP courts consensus on border policy (There's a lot to chew on)
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
1. The act of invading; the act of encroaching upon the rights or possessions of another; encroachment; trespass.
Those day laborers hanging out at Washington and Shepherd were okay and encouraged a few years ago - now that area's getting more upscale and the neighbors now don't like it. Didn't realize that they hung around at 11th and Shepherd (my Houston neighborhood). I object to the fact that the illegal aliens think they're safe enough to wait out in the open for work.
Houstonians who drive by a street corner and hire a drinking illegal alien should be fined $5,000 and have any licenses they have to do business revoked for six months. That would cut down on attracting this scum to the city. Any homeowner who hires an illegal is nuts, deserves any crime that happens on his property, and should not expect police services after the fact. It's just the risk you take.
The Catholic Church should get out of the business of promoting the breaking of immigration laws and try to keep their churches going by other means.
We could lease an old supermarket fill it with plastic chairs and tables charge the workers $5 to come in to air condioning. Sell them coffee, cokes and burritos too. Of course, we would to hire off duty cops to direct traffic and keep order. A few government trained retirees to push paper and we are in business.
Now we need a grant writer.
If we need illegals to do jobs Americans won't do, then why are there so many unemployed illegals standing around as if this were the 1930's?
"I know it is a problem for most of you, but on the other side they are human beings, too," Alvarez said.
That is why they should be sent home now!
No.
They are human beings in their country. Here they are simply criminals.
I will not shop at the stores surrounded by these criminals. Am I afraid? Yes. I conceal carry and fear that I will be forced by them to shoot them.
These aren't friendly taco benders in a restaurant. They are criminals stalking the streets. If they are not "hired", they find a way to make money. Almost always at the expense of innocent Americans.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
Threats come in all sizes.
Shove it Juan. I'm plum out of compassion.
Pfft.
He maintained that a crackdown at the sites could force the laborers out of work and into crime.
Let them be "forced" into crime. Since breaking immigration law is no longer illegal enough for anyone to take action, maybe another illegal act or two would spur law enforcement into doing its job. Hell, they might even get around to deporting them.
Excellent point. Why isn't anyone else asking that??
susie
Excellent point. Why isn't anyone else asking that??
susie
I have an idea for Juan. Perhaps he could take them all into his house and organize them from there!
susie
Juan thinks most Americans are complete suckers. Unfortunately he's right.
A most excellent observation and point, bravo.
The answer is we are Mexico's release valve for massive poverty and the hell that is Mexico itself.
You have to figure the way people run to our borders from Mexico must mean it has to be like living with the Taliban there. Mexico must be one of the most horrid places on earth with little chance of a good future.
Their best long term hope would be to let us annex it.
They most certainly have proved they have no talent among their people to create anything beyond poverty and a dust bowl...
They are a pitiful nation. Many of their families are good Catholic people though.
How about this for a very logical solution to our illegal immigation problem: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: GET OUT AND STAY OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! GET OUT AND STAY OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! GET OUT AND STAY OUT OF OUR COUNTRY! What part of GET OUT AND STAY OUT OF OUR COUNTRY don't you understand? P.S. GET OUT AND STAY OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
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