PASSING THE DAY LABOR BUCK TO HOME
DEPOT

The cliche, "He who ignores History is condemned to repeat it," has
been epitomized by Councilman Bernard Parks’ proposal as reported by
the Daily
News, to force home improvement stores like Home Depot to create shelters for day
laborers -- ostensibly  to squelch neighborhood concerns about loitering, security, blight, deteriorating
quality of life, and a myriad of other concerns.

I remember when in 1989,
the L.A. City council approved one of the first city funded day labor
centers in North Hollywood at Sherman Way and Radford with the promise
that it would get most day laborers off the streets in the San Fernando Valley. In fact after sixteen years of
city sponsored day labor centers, there are many more day laborers on the street today. Most day laborers
would rather use street salesmanship to hustle contractors than wait their turn in an “orderly“
day labor center -- and contractors who don't carry insurance nor pay salary tax prefer to select their cheap
laborers off of the street rather than in high visibility day labor centers. When I occasionally visit the North
Hollywood and West Los Angeles
centers, the only laborers who are there are the few who take the day off to enjoy
coffee and doughnuts and play checkers -- and contractors are nowhere to be seen.  The fact that
Los Angeles in conjunction with HUD wastes $1.7 million annually funding seven failed day labor centers
throughout Los Angeles, doesn't seem to bother Councilman Parks, who chairs the city’s Budget
and Finance Committee.

Incredibly, Councilman
Parks thinks that if the law mandates that home improvement stores provide their own labor centers at their
own expense, that somehow the communities' concerns will this time be addressed. Never mind that one
Home Depot’s experiment with its day labor center was a complete
failure.

Several years ago, the Van Nuys Home Depot on Rosco Blvd built a day labor
center on the west side of the store with the hopes that the few dozen day laborers who congregate daily at
the store’s parking lot exits would instead wait at the center for contractors to come to them for their
services. The unsurprising results were that the laborers only used the center to go to the bathroom, but
continued to harass store customers at the exits even with a sign
posted at the exit that read “It is illegal to stop and hire workers here. To hire workers, drive to the hiring center in
front of Home Depot.”

As the former Chief of
Police, one would think that Councilman Parks would be deeply concerned that day labor centers, whether
run by the city or privately, do not log any kind of background information on the laborers. On June 13, 2002,
I attended a Day Laborer Advisory Board Meeting, in W.L.A. sponsored by then City Councilwoman Cindy
Miscikowski. After the meeting, I asked a U.S. citizen who was among the six or so Hispanic day laborers
attending that meeting, why, since he was an American citizen, he didn't get a regular higher paying job. He
told me that he did have a regular job before he joined the day laborers, but his wages were being garnished
by his estranged wife for child support -- but by working through the city sponsored day labor center which
had a “no questions asked” policy, he couldn't be traced through his social security number
and didn't have to worry about tax deductions.

But deadbeat dads aren't
the only ones who like working as unidentified day laborers. Serial killer, Rafael Resendez-Ramirez (AKA
Angel Maturino Resendiz), dubbed by law enforcement as "The Railway
Killer," an illegal alien migrant laborer finally apprehended in 1999, did day
labor work between killings. Resendez, whose identity and fingerprints were disseminated by the FBI to all
law enforcement agencies was never asked by any law officer or hiring center manager to produce
identification.

Since the Los Angeles Community Development Department already funds in
part, other day labor centers such as One Stop Operation at 11251 National Blvd in West Los Angeles for
day workers who must provide their verifiable work histories along with valid social security numbers, it can
only be concluded that the existing seven city sponsored day labor centers and home improvement centers
proposed by Councilman Parks, are or would be established for the benefit of illegal alien workers -- clearly
violating federal immigration law by aiding, abetting, and harboring illegal
aliens.

If our city leaders really wanted to end the day labor crisis, they would be
knocking down the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s door and demand that they enforce
existing federal immigration laws in Los Angeles.

To listen to Councilman Parks being interviewed on the John and Ken
Show, click
here.