SOUNDING OFF:Labor center an issue of fairness

You ask the question, should [the Day Labor Center] be closed down? No question for me; the answer is emphatically YES!

Here’s the way I see this issue. Let me start with fairness. Consider two employers. The first plays by all the rules. She provides workman’s compensation insurance and withholds all the required income taxes for her employees.

In short, she follows all the laws governing employment. This of course requires that she keep very good records of all these employee wage issues.

The second employer just goes to the Day Labor Center and picks up some folks willing to work. He pays them in cash, and everybody is “happy.”

Well, maybe not everybody. Gee, when these two employers bid competitively, guess who can offer the lower bid? It seems the employer who plays by the rules is at a competitive disadvantage.

I admit that I believe this country is one of laws, not men. There is little question that the men who benefit from the Day Labor Center are in the U.S. illegally.

Operating the center can only have the effect of condoning the breaking of U.S. laws. That’s not the way I think the City of Laguna Beach should behave.

If we don’t like the way the laws are now, then we should strive to get them changed, but until that happens, we are obliged to follow the existing laws.

One way to change the existing laws would be to completely abandon all the present immigration rules.

Let anyone from any country in the world come to the U.S. Hmm, that seems to be the way it is now for folks coming from Mexico, doesn’t it?

So how is that fair to all the people from Africa, Asia, and Europe who want to come to America, but wait and wait while they adhere to the current U.S. laws?

Regarding the specifics of the lease between Caltrans and the city, it should be pointed out that Caltrans says, “it has been confirmed that the City of Laguna Beach neither assigned nor sublet the property to the Cross Cultural Council or anyone else. The city is still responsible for the [required] liability insurance.” This according to a letter I received from Robert Thorbourne, Caltrans Right of Way Agent.

In conclusion, I just cannot believe that there is legal or ethical justification for the City of Laguna Beach to be using any taxpayer money to operate the Day Labor Center.