ORANGE : 4 Arrested Under Job-Soliciting Law

A crackdown on day laborers who seek work on street corners and in parking lots began Thursday as four workers were arrested for violating a new city ordinance that makes it illegal to solicit jobs on the street.

Police issued citations to four Latino men, checked their identification and determined that they were not legal residents, Mayor Don E. Smith said. The men were then taken to the U.S. Border Patrol station near San Clemente for deportation, Smith said. A fifth man picked up for jaywalking was also taken to the station.

The maximum penalties for violating the ordinance are a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. Illegal immigrants also face deportation.

The ordinance, adopted by the City Council last September, went into effect Wednesday. On the first day of enforcement, police delivered flyers explaining the ordinance to workers congregating along the commercial strip of East Chapman Avenue.

No one was arrested for job solicitation on Wednesday, but two men were arrested for other violations and delivered to border officials, police said.

Street corners have been quiet since the ordinance went into effect. “There’s not near as many walking the streets,” Smith said of the workers.

In 1988, immigrant-rights groups protested city measures to control job solicitation by dayworkers when, in response to complaints by local merchants, police stopped scores of men along East Chapman Avenue for violations such as jaywalking, littering and driving vehicles with expired registrations.

Those who could not provide identification were handed over to immigration officials for possible deportation.

So far, there has been no protest of the new ordinance.

Meanwhile, business was brisk at the city’s hiring hall, with twice the average number of workers placed in jobs, a spokeswoman said. During the hall’s first month of operation, there was an average of 12 employer-worker matches daily, but on Thursday, 24 men and women found work through the center.

The number of workers and employers using the hall was also above average on Thursday, with participation by 274 workers and eight employers compared to a daily average of 230 workers and five employers.