Better Relations Sought With Day Laborers

After complaints of alleged harassment by deputies, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona on Tuesday announced an unprecedented review of the way his department treats day laborers.

Carona also promised to create guidelines dictating when deputies should report suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

The move comes more than two months after day laborers charged that deputies hurled ethnic slurs at them, harassed them while they waited for work and prevented them from entering local businesses and using public telephones.

The complaints--made by laborers who gather on the corner of Jeronimo and El Toro roads--renewed long-standing criticism that authorities discriminate against Latino workers who congregate on street corners to solicit work.

Carona said a probe found no evidence to support the claims, but added that he believes relations with the largely Latino pool of day laborers across Orange County need to be improved. He outlined plans to hold community meetings on the issue and to introduce sensitivity training for deputies on dealing with immigrants.

Day laborers at the Lake Forest corner reacted to the news with skepticism. But some Latino activists enthusiastically endorsed Carona’s new stance, praising his efforts to woo minority leaders as unheard of in the Sheriff’s Department.

“An important law enforcement agency has outstretched a hand and said, ‘Come work with us, help us find a solution,’ ” said Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County. “We hope [the same sentiment] will infect other police agencies.”