Posted on 06/09/2007 6:37:54 PM PDT by mdittmar
MESA, Ariz. -- Dozens of day laborers vying for one of a limited number of jobs eagerly surround vehicles as they drive up a street next to a convenience store.
It's just one of numerous roads in the Phoenix metro area popular among the laborers, many of whom are illegal immigrants. But this particular corner and another one nearby are being targeted by Mesa officials, who say it's dangerous to allow the men to congregate in high-traffic areas.
"If you were to drive and turn that corner, if you're in a pickup or an SUV or anything besides a little vehicle, they're going to swarm your car, and it's not safe," said city Councilman Kyle Jones.
Jones is leading the way to getting the council to pass an ordinance that would make it illegal for potential employers to stop and pick up day laborers along sections of two streets in Mesa. The council could hear the proposed ordinance in the next two weeks.
Jones' effort is just the latest in a battle officials in Arizona and across the country are waging against day laborers.
One Arizona proposal would have prohibited day laborers from seeking work on public streets altogether. The proposal cleared the Republican-dominated Legislature in April but was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano last month.
One of the bill's sponsors, Mesa Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said he supports any effort to stop day laborers from standing on the streets, but isn't so sure Mesa's ordinance would be the best way to do that.
"I don't know why the city is playing this game," Pearce said. "Most of those folks are illegal aliens. Why don't they enforce the existing laws?"
Pearce said Mesa officers have the right to question day laborers about their immigration status because they are loitering. If the men are in the country illegally, he said they should be arrested.
Alfredo Gutierrez, a former state senator and a vocal leader in the Hispanic community, said Mesa's ordinance would create the very mess city officials are trying to clean up.
"Forcing people to go where there isn't any work is equally foolish," Gutierrez said. "They're going to get a lot less work, and so they will disperse to other parts of the community."
He said the only thing the ordinance would accomplish would be making life tougher on people who are already in "very dire circumstances."
Daniel Estrada, a 31-year-old illegal immigrant originally from Guanajuato in central Mexico, said he's been looking for work for more than a year on a street where Mesa would enforce the ordinance.
"I have bills to pay," said Estrada, who was standing near about 30 other men on a recent morning. "We're not dangerous."
Cristian Arellano, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico City who was standing with the same group, said he thinks the ordinance Mesa is considering is racist.
"They don't like us because we're Mexican," he said. "We're not hurting anyone."
But Tom Butterfly, a manager at Karl's Customs _ a repair and restoration shop next to where dozens of illegal immigrants wait for work daily _ sees it differently.
"You know, 150 guys is a problem," he said. "And then you have 150 guys with no toilet facilities and no control, and you have 150 guys who really don't have to answer to the law because they don't have ID."
Butterfly said the men are bad for business.
"The whole thing is just a crazy circus out here in the morning," he said. "Our customers will pull in and 10 guys will jump in the back of their truck. People don't want to send their wives down here ... It scares the heck out of them."
He said he's not sure if the ordinance will solve the problem, but that it could be a start.
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as if.
I graduated ASU in '91 and Mesa was a nice retirement town with lots of Mormons and some college kids.
I was back last December and it looked like a bomb hit it and the Mexicans were picking over the rubble....
Same in my hometown,what use to be nice neighborhoods have gone to hell.
ping
Solution (if one has a pickup truck): Tell a bunch of them to pile in back and that you'll take them to a job at your house. Instead, drop them off at the local INS office and honk your horn. Word will get around quickly.
More than a year!? Maybe he would have better luck back in Mexico.
Battle....Waging......Against day laboror's
No bias here.
I wonder if Sen. kennedy has the same problem at his 7-11?
Like this guy did?
They could get jobs in the Carolinas, wasn’t it? Picking sweet ‘tates. (Where was it those farmers were whining?)
Limited number of jobs? I thought there were so many jobs that Americans won't do that we had to have a new program to bring in even more Mexicans. Was I being lied to? Nah, I must just be a bigoted fear monger who doesn't care about his Country.
Although personally I'd go about it in a more busineslike manner -- no need to get giddy, nor call them names.
They've been taught that they are their own race now.
Mesa is a toilet now. It all happened in just a few years.
A real ghetto. How sad.
Maybe they can be sent to Hyannis Port to work on the wind mills.
Someone should go pick a bunch up for a “day job” and drive them to the Kennedy Compound, and drop them off!
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