Advocates Assail Arrests of Street Corner Laborers

The arrest of more than two dozen day laborers as they waited for work on a Los Angeles street corner drew fire Friday from advocates of the city’s immigrant community, who suggested that police officers overstepped their bounds in attempting to deal with a complex and growing social issue.

“This heavy-handed enforcement tactic smacks of discriminatory and selective enforcement,” said Francisco Garcia of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He added that the civil rights organization is considering lodging a formal complaint with the Police Department.

According to police, the arrests Thursday at an active day labor pick-up spot at the corner of Main Street and Pico Boulevard, just south of downtown, came in response to complaints over the last two weeks from merchants about growing numbers of workers congregated there.

While police occasionally have cited laborers at corners throughout Los Angeles, arrests have not been the norm, according to several immigrant advocates who monitor the issue. Several expressed suspicion of the department’s motives.

“We think they (police) are trying to build a case to ban day laborers from city streets,” said Linda Mitchell of the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

The issue of how the city should deal with the street corner labor pools is scheduled for a hearing before the City Council on Wednesday. Proposals have ranged from banning the gatherings to establishing alternative sites for workers to congregate. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has expressed support for a complete ban.

Lt. Carl Wilhite, a Central Division watch commander, insisted that the workers’ immigration status “had nothing to do” with the arrests.

“We responded not because of who they are or where they came from, but because of the complaints from businesses,” he said.

Thirty-eight men were cited for allegedly blocking the sidewalk. Of those, 29 were arrested because they did not have proper identification, Wilhite said.

Before someone can be released on his own recognizance after being issued a citation requiring a court appearance, they must present proper identification, Wilhite said. This can consist of a driver’s license, state identification card or similar documents.

Warned Repeatedly

Wilhite said workers had been warned repeatedly not to congregate at the corner over the last few weeks. He said they were warned again about an hour before police finally arrived to make the arrests about 10 a.m. Thursday. But Garcia of MALDEF charged that workers were arrested “not because they were blocking sidewalks but . . . as a way of dealing with the day labor problem.”

The issue has escalated because of the immigration reform law that established penalties against employers who hire illegal workers. This has led to growing unemployment among illegal immigrants.