Santa Clarita to Consider Day-Laborer Crackdown : Plan Is ‘Horrendous,’ Refugee Group Says

A proposed Santa Clarita city ordinance would make it a misdemeanor for day laborers to solicit work on city streets or sidewalks--a measure that immigration rights groups said would be the harshest move yet in Los Angeles County against the workers.

The proposed ordinance, to be considered by the City Council on Tuesday, also would make it illegal to hire a day laborer off the street.

“It is really horrendous,” said Ruth Capelle, acting director of the Central American Refugee Center in Los Angeles. She said she had never heard of such a strict measure aimed at day laborers.

Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy said Friday that she doubted the city would take such a hard line against the laborers. “I don’t think we’d ever do it,” she said. The main issue, she said, is safety, not immigration control.

Recommendations Sought

The City Council asked city staff earlier this month to recommend ways to control the laborers but did not specifically request a measure that would make it illegal to solicit work from streets and sidewalks.

The laborers, who gather along San Fernando Road in Newhall, sometimes stand in the street or rush out into traffic to be the first in line for a job, Darcy said. Construction work along San Fernando Road has made conditions even more dangerous, and she said she feared that a job-seeker might be killed in traffic.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies recently warned the laborers to stay out of traffic, and the problem seems to be improving, Darcy said. Traffic safety was the main complaint the council heard about the laborers, but Darcy said some residents and merchants accused the laborers of loitering and littering.

Advocates for day laborers called the proposed Santa Clarita ordinance misguided and unwise.

‘Don’t Have Any Options’

“Turning job-seeking into a crime really doesn’t solve much,” said Anne Kamsvaag of the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles. “Realistically, these people don’t have any options. They’re not just going to evaporate.”

The coalition and the refugee center last year successfully lobbied the Glendale City Council to reject an ordinance similar to the Santa Clarita measure. Instead of banning day laborers, the compromise worked out between immigration rights groups and the city allowed the Catholic Youth Organization to establish a site for the workers to gather each morning.

Next month, Los Angeles is expected to open a gathering site for day laborers in the Harbor area. The site is part of a $90,000 pilot program to establish eight such sites in Los Angeles, said Bill Molina, a management analyst with the city Community Development Department. A site in Pacoima could be opened by October, he said.