L.A. Opens Dayworker Hiring Site to All Comers

In a controversial program that will effectively aid the hiring of illegal immigrants by private employers, the city of Los Angeles today will begin encouraging day laborers to move from their usual street-corner gathering places to a city-operated hiring site.

If all goes as planned, more than 150 day laborers, many of them illegal immigrants, will be bused from the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Belle Porte Avenue to nearby Harbor Regional Park in Harbor City, where they will be registered by city employees and hired by private contractors.

The move is the latest by Southern California cities in a continuing effort to regulate the hiring of day laborers by private contractors and get the workers off the streets and away from residences and businesses.

Cities in Orange County, increasingly seen as an attractive destination for undocumented workers, have also begun to grapple with the problems caused by large gatherings of day laborers. Three cities--Costa Mesa, Orange and Dana Point--have passed controversial laws banning street solicitation for jobs.

The city of Costa Mesa last October opened what is believed to be the first city-sponsored hiring hall of its kind in the nation.

Laguna Beach officials, faced with a growing number of day laborers who congregate along busy Laguna Canyon Road, recently established an informal hiring lot on the road to accommodate day laborers and employers.

And in Dana Point, officials recently established a hot line service for day laborers. Workers can get information on jobs 24 hours a day from volunteers at the Telephone Hiring Exchange and through recorded telephone messages.

Although the 1986 federal Immigration Reform and Control Act makes it illegal for employers to hire undocumented immigrants, city officials say they will admit all of the day laborers regardless of their immigration status.

And, in what may mark a major departure from past federal immigration tactics, recently appointed INS Western Regional Commissioner Ben Davidian said Thursday that, although he would like to see changes in the city program, his agents will not raid the site.

The city attorney’s office argues that Los Angeles, although helping illegal immigrants find work, is not violating new immigration law because the city is not directly hiring the laborers. The move is part of a six-month pilot program aimed at regulating the hiring of dayworkers who typically find work by congregating at selected intersections around the city.

The City Council unanimously approved the creation of six or seven officially sanctioned hiring sites in February in response to complaints from residents in Harbor City and other communities about the workers loitering, blocking traffic and harassing women. The council also agreed to establish eight other hiring sites--one in each council district--if the pilot program succeeds.

“We believe the only way to stop people from congregating on street corners is to have them go to specific sites,” said Bernie Evans, chief deputy to Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who authored the city ordinance.

Evans said the pilot program may cause a dilemma for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is charged with preventing employers from hiring undocumented immigrants, but he added, “This (program) is a local solution to a local problem.”

According to city officials, several thousand laborers, mostly Latino men, gather each morning at about 25 street corners scattered throughout the city to seek daywork. On most days, chaos reigns at the intersections. Desperate for work, the men often rush into traffic to check out a prospective employer, panicking some motorists.