Ignore the hype; here’s a challenge

Closing the Job Center in Costa Mesa was a bad idea. If I am wrong, I will admit it in a future column.

But so far, what I predicted several weeks ago is happening.

My test has been limited, but it has not been without merit. Two days ago, I drove by the now-defunct center at 17th Street and Placentia Avenue at 1:30 p.m. I started my drive from Wilson Avenue and headed south on Placentia to 16th Street.

At Placentia and Victoria, there were six day laborers hanging out in front of the 7-Eleven there. There were four more at the corner of 19th Street and Placentia.

And in front of the former home of the Job Center, there were another six men.

Friday morning at 8:30, the situation was worse. Eight men at the 7-Eleven, six men at 19th and Placentia, and 14 at the old Job Center. Some of the 14 men were just up 17th Street, almost out of view. The seven who were on Placentia Avenue, were up to their old tricks from years ago before the Job Center opened. That is, they were waving at cars and trucks, hoping to flag down an employer.

The Job Center took these men off the street and stopped the loitering, flagging and general ugliness by gathering them all in one spot and distributing them evenly and in order throughout the day.

As I have mentioned, I had used the Job Center many times, both for the import business I used to own and for work around my house. It was easy: I drove up, told the center manager how many men I needed and how much per hour I was paying, and took the next man or men in line.

Before there was a Job Center, I was grabbing these men on the run from Placentia Avenue, as I suppose some are doing once again.

There were more men yesterday than Thursday because mornings are a busier time for securing day laborers. That’s because the construction companies, gardeners and others who rely on this cheap labor to stay profitable, are starting their day by getting people they need to do the work that day.

Funny thing about the men hanging out at the old Job Center location yesterday morning. They reminded me of the leg that has been amputated but the message to the brain that had not yet been completed.

In a few months, there will be law enforcement support to deport anyone who is illegal and a criminal. Just by being here, they are, of course, committing a crime, so I am not buying for one moment this notion that no police intervention is going to happen until someone commits a crime. To believe otherwise is an insult to one’s intelligence.

I also don’t believe that Mayor Allan Mansoor is a racist or a racist pig, as he has been called. To label him as such is a cheap way of diverting attention away from the fact that the people who are here illegally are criminals, plain and simple, and that there is a significant portion of the population of Costa Mesa who have convinced Mansoor that this is the right thing to do.

I don’t believe Mansoor is a racist, but I do believe that he is either misguided or has been misled by supporters who have convinced him that this is the issue on which to hang his hat.

The combination of the Job Center closing and the future authority of local law enforcement to initiate the deportation process against illegal immigrants is a quick-trigger action, one that responds to a crisis when there is none and one that would have been more effective if Latino community leaders were pulled closer into the circle of advisors.

What if, for example, one could prove that besides providing a net economic benefit to the nation, which illegal immigrants do, they also provide a net economic benefit to the city of Costa Mesa?

Here it is in other words: Forget about the hype found on the “John and Ken” show on KFI-AM (640) and from other entertainers using people like Mansoor as pawns to boost their ratings.

And forget about the possibility that we are spending a few billion dollars to educate and keep healthy the illegal immigrants in this country. For the sake of this argument, let’s call it $10 billion. Is it worth the $10 billion if the economic stimulus they provide is $15 billion?

Many important people think it is, and they are pushing for a compromise in the form of a guest worker program, which I support.

Now ratchet that figure down to Costa Mesa. What if it could be proven that Costa Mesa gets more than it gives with the presence of illegal immigrants?

I’m going to work on that. And I am going to monitor the streets on the Westside for 60 days. If the day workers disappear, I will say I was wrong.

But if they don’t disappear, and if the city loses economically, and if crimes are not reported because illegals don’t want police to know they are illegal, I expect Mansoor and his colleagues Eric Bever and Gary Monahan to admit that they were wrong.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com.

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