Posted on 10/04/2006 1:18:31 PM PDT by TheDon
LAGUNA BEACH – City officials are violating federal law by collecting fees from workers at a day-labor site in Laguna Canyon without checking immigration status, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group, filed the lawsuit against the city on behalf of Eileen Garcia and George Riviere, Laguna residents who have questioned the site's legality to City Council members in the past.
The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, contends day laborers are charged a $1 referral fee each day they work, and that employers using the site get $5 for each day laborer hired.
Federal law says it is unlawful to hire an undocumented immigrant or refer an immigrant for such employment, according to the lawsuit.
Garcia, a Minuteman Project member, said she filed the suit because she wants all workers to be documented.
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(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Hard for the city to claim they don't suspicion that they're illegal.
Can they do something here in Austin also?
I live in the East Bay (SF Bay Area for those of you out of state). The Home Depot near my house has 200 or more of these guys around it every day. They spill over into all the neighboring businesses, cluster on the sidewalk, etc.
Home Depot told me in an email that they "don't hire illegals". They said they can do nothing about what goes on outside the store.
The city told me "we don't enforce immigration laws" (= "we don't care").
This goes nowhere. No one will do anything. I suppose I could sit there and write down license numbers of vehicles soliticing workers but what then?
http://www.judicialwatch.org And they're 501(c)(3). (We need our own ACLU)
Go get `em boys! (and girls)
Home depot is being disingenuous. They allow this because the contractors and home owners who come there don't complain because they can pick up cheap labor on their way out of the lot.
The parking lot is their property and they can call the police. If the folks move to the street or sidewalk, they are impeding traffic.
So yes, dsomething can be done.
It's not easy, but what you need to do is build a database of day, time, license number, vehicle description and how many people they pick up. You need to observe for a continuous block of time to show patterns. You need to sign & date (or, better yet, have it notarized) your observations. You also have to be willing to go to court and testify what you observed under oath if needs be.
Assuming you are willing to go through all this, Here are some ideas of what you could do with the info:
- Send the info to ICE. They won't do anything about it, but they have to record your complaint and it may be useful to some future administration to show pattern of neglect.
- Send the info to local business license bureau to see if the contractors are licensed.
- Send the info to the IRS to see if these people are paying taxes.
- Offer the info to legitimate businesses who may want to sue competitors under RICO statutes.
If the trucks have commercial signs that let you identify the company, shame them with letters, posting on WeHireAliens.com, boycotts, etc.,
This was stupid on their part. The organization that runs our day laborer center is careful to let the day laborers "run" the place like some sort of soviet workers' collective.
God Bless Eileen!
" Send the info to ICE. They won't do anything about it, but they have to record your complaint and it may be useful to some future administration to show pattern of neglect."
"they won't do anything about it....
R O T F L M A O
" I suppose I could sit there and write down license numbers of vehicles soliticing workers but what then?"
I got reamed for reporting this : )
forgetaboutit. Need new President
So what?
My point is the authorities dont want to even HEAR about it, much less DO anything about it.
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