Orange Gives Initial OK to Limits on Dayworker Job Solicitation

Taking a decisive and controversial step to deal with an issue that has aroused the passions of employers, workers and the immigrant community, the Orange City Council late Tuesday gave preliminary approval to two ordinances that will restrict job solicitation by dayworkers on city streets.

The vote came after more than two hours of public debate in council chambers packed with nearly 300 residents.

Although the vote was unanimous, the council also agreed to take no final action on the ordinances--which also require establishment of a city-sponsored hiring hall--until several technical questions are answered.

Provisions of Ordinances

One of the proposed ordinances will prohibit employment solicitation conducted from a vehicle or while a pedestrian is standing on a public right of way, said Orange City Atty. Furman B. Roberts. The other will prohibit such solicitation from taking place on private property without a permit from the city.

The two ordinances are “aimed at a problem that has developed over a number of years,” Roberts said in an interview Tuesday. The city has received numerous complaints about the large number of dayworkers who congregate on the streets, he said.

“Any single action that the council takes this evening is not going to solve the problem,” said Councilman William Steiner. “But we can hope that these ordinances will be one part of a broader effort to solve that problem.”

The council has narrowed the area for locating the proposed hiring hall but deferred public discussion on that matter until city staff members prepare a site report.

The congregation of dayworkers on the streets of Orange has prompted arrests, citizen complaints and calls from immigration activists for a place where laborers can seek work.

Last week, U.S. Border Patrol agents swept Chapman Avenue near Hewes Street in Orange and arrested 140 dayworkers who were unable to produce legal residency documents. Sixteen others were arrested in another sweep in Costa Mesa that day.

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said the sweeps were prompted by complaints that the workers harass people, block business entrances and urinate in public.

All 156 workers were taken to the San Clemente INS checkpoint and given the choice of leaving the United States voluntarily or requesting deportation hearings before an immigration judge.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it opposes the adoption of ordinances “that would make it unconstitutional to talk about work on a public street,” attorney Rebecca Jurado said before the meeting. “Standing on a public street is not illegal,” she added.

Coalition Is Opposed

But Roberts said that “the prime purpose of a sidewalk is to travel along and to walk,’ not to solicit work.

Although people have a right to work, Roberts said, solicitation of a job should not occur on parking lots of businesses, which are private property.

The Orange County Coalition for Immigration Rights--which opposes the ordinances--would support the creation of a city hiring hall “if the intent . . . is to clear the street as well as provide a controlled site for any and all workers,” spokeswoman Robin Blackwell said. “We’re against a flat ban that prevents anyone from gathering on a street corner or, at this point, soliciting from a legally parked vehicle.”

“Our position is basically one of compromise,” she said. “We feel Orange County immigrant residents are facing a serious challenge to the fundamental right to work, and we also recognize that the city and council governments also face a challenge of forging a humane response to legitimate concerns of the public.”

This issue was addressed at the meeting Tuesday as several council members voiced concern about the ordinances’ disproportionate impact on legal residents.

The Hewes Street intersection in Orange is a well-known labor pickup point. Last March, it was part of a mile-long stretch of East Chapman Avenue that was the focus of a police crackdown on day laborers. Officers routinely stopped motorists and pedestrians for minor infractions such as littering, jaywalking and driving without seat belts. Those who could not provide proof of citizenship or immigration papers were turned over to the INS for deportation.

That crackdown prompted protests by Latino and human rights activists and the ACLU. It was eventually halted by the Orange Police Department after city officials said it had led to a reduction of crime in the area.