INS Raid on Labor Site Scuttles Budding Trust

The untimely raid last week by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, targeting day laborers gathered at a Laguna Beach street corner, did little or nothing to stem illegal immigration. But it did much to damage local efforts to control the problems caused by day laborers.

Months of effort by the city to gain the trust of men hoping to be hired for construction and other day jobs were scuttled with the raid, which netted 37 illegal aliens. The men, all Mexican nationals, were escorted to the border. There they will surely make another attempt to cross and likely find their way to another similar corner looking for work.

The city had come up with the plan to concentrate the men in one part of town because local residents had complained of loitering and other problems along Coast Highway, where they had been gathering. The city had recently agreed to spend $9,000 to make the new site safer for workers and motorists. The plan was one of the most innovative and humane programs in the county to deal with day laborers, who can hardly be faulted for trying to earn a living.

INS officials said they were unaware that the city had designated the area for day laborers, some of whom had been referred there earlier that same day by police officers. But the city’s arrangement has been widely publicized and one would think the INS, as part of an efficient operation, would keep abreast of immigration programs in local communities. The agency certainly had to know about the pickup point the city had created in order to carry out its raid. Even if the INS officials did not know, they should have advised the city of their plans. They would have learned the site was authorized.

An INS spokesman said the agency does not normally raid sites designated by cities as hiring places, preferring instead to strongly warn employers that they must verify that dayworkers have the proper documents allowing them to be in the United States. It is unfortunate that INS officials did not make more of an effort to find out the situation in Laguna Beach. Their raid destroyed any credibility the city might have built up with the day workers and undoubtedly will worsen a problem that was coming under control.

The debacle at least pointed up one thing: The presence of illegal aliens in this county is part of a larger economic and social problem that must be dealt with at a higher, more sophisticated level than with raids on local street corners.