Gallegly on Day Laborers

The article on my congressman, Elton Gallegly, taking a stand in a shopping mall in Agoura Hills and vowing to bring down the full weight of the INS on day laborers really made my Labor Day. Was the congressman warming up for some old-fashioned Republican race baiting in ’92 or did he think this was a real Boris Yeltsin thing to do?

Every morning on my way to work in Los Angeles from Thousand Oaks, I pass these day laborers all along the way--in Agoura, in Malibu, in Santa Monica. They always serve to remind me of two very important things. One is that before I ever came into my luxury car and my comfortable, but over-inflated Southern California home, my immigrant grandparents worked as dishwashers. The other is that no matter how cynical or despairing we “native” Americans get about conditions around here, there are still thousands of people who are willing to get up very early each morning and face an uncertain future with nothing more than a willingness to work.

Maybe Elton Gallegly should drop the bully boy tactics, get back to work on some real problems in Washington and let these people find the jobs they need to make better lives for themselves.

DAN RILEY, Thousand Oaks