The workers are still waiting on Kester Avenue. : Merchants Bitter at Lack of Action on Day Laborers

It was almost a year ago that residents and merchants along Kester Avenue in Van Nuys mobilized to complain about the men who crowded their block each morning, waiting to be picked up for jobs.

As many as 150 Latino day laborers were showing up every morning, milling about the sidewalk until noon. The people who live and work on the block of Kester between Oxnard Street and Victory Boulevard said the men, many of them believed to be illegal aliens, were a public nuisance, driving away customers and damaging property.

The Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce met several times on the matter. Residents tried asking the men to leave. Merchants sought help from police, immigration officials and local politicians.

But the men are still there. And the people of Kester are frustrated and bitter.

“They harass a lot of the female customers who come in here--rude comments, rude gestures, the whole thing,” said Jim Harper, president of Pacific Coast Engravers, which has operated in a Kester Avenue building since 1950. “They are going to take over this area. The illegals have more rights than the citizens.”

Los Angeles Police Capt. Art Sjoquist said the Police Department has regularly responded to complaints that the day laborers become drunkenly abusive, urinate and defecate in front yards and leave graffiti. But the officers have not seen the laborers engage in any of those activities.

“We’ve checked the area out to see if they are doing anything illegal, and they’re not,” Sjoquist said. “It’s not illegal to stand out on the sidewalk.”

Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said they simply do not have enough time or people to patrol the block for illegal aliens.

“It’s a matter of priorities, really,” said Joe Flanders, an INS spokesman. “We have to go to areas where we get more aliens for the dollar.”

Day laborers are not new to Kester Avenue. For years, there have been 10 to 20 standing there each morning. Last fall, though, the numbers surged.

The crowd has been attributed, at least in part, to the increasing Central American population in Los Angeles. Several laborers interviewed said word of mouth has spread the belief that work can be found at the Van Nuys spot, bringing more men each week.

Residents and merchants are left to wonder if anything can be done.

“I don’t know the answer,” said Dr. Lloyd Pilch, a veterinarian at the Animal Medical Center near Kester and Oxnard. “Maybe I’m being mean, but these people aren’t even citizens or taxpayers and they are protected more than I am.”