‘Intent’ Clause Fuels Dispute on Day Labor Law

The Costa Mesa businessman espouses the kind of values that one might expect of a former Army sergeant. He is patriotic, a straight-arrow conservative, he says.

And yet, several times a month he does something illegal. He leaves his fledgling drywall business, jumps into his truck and drives to a corner on the west side of town. There, he picks up two or three Latino laborers for a day’s work.

The business owner says he knows that the City of Costa Mesa has forbidden such curbside hiring, but says he is undeterred.

“It’s just about the most foolish thing I can think of,” he said of the city’s day labor ordinance. “I ought to be able to hire whoever I damn well please. The city doesn’t know what my needs are.”

Workers seeking day jobs in Costa Mesa are also angry. Dozens have been arrested while seeking employment.

“Hey, I’m just looking for work,” Jose Amaya said as he was being arrested in a city park last month. “But I get stopped by police, get put on a curb and I have to appear in court. They think I’m a criminal.”

Costa Mesa is the latest in a string of Southern California cities to struggle with the issue of day laborers, using measures designed to prevent large numbers of prospective workers--mostly Latino, many illegal aliens--from congregating at street corners and parks to look for work.

But in Costa Mesa, the concept has been taken a step further.

Besides prohibiting the hiring of people off the street, the ordinance makes it illegal to be in certain areas of the city with the “intent” to solicit work.

Although the Costa Mesa ordinance applies to anyone seeking to hire or be hired, its greatest impact has fallen on Spanish-speaking laborers, dozens of whom have been arrested in recent weeks.

To enforce its law, Costa Mesa police have even had police officers pose as prospective employers. In one such sting, a police officer dressed in jeans and driving a truck loaded with irrigation pipe and a wheelbarrow drove into the city’s Lion’s Park. When one man walked toward him, the officer said, “I need 10. I need 10.”

After several men ran to the truck and hopped in the back, four Costa Mesa patrol cars immediately converged and arrested the would-be workers.

The arrests have fueled charges by civil libertarians that the measure is unconstitutional and results in discrimination against Latinos.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to challenge the “intent” provision. A judge agreed to hear the case this month but declined to issue a restraining order against the city’s enforcement in the meantime.

ACLU attorney Rebecca Jurado contends that the entire solicitation law is questionable.

“Federal courts have ruled that . . . if a car is out of traffic, basically people can do what they want to do,” Jurado said. “Police do not have the right to determine or limit the types of speech they can be engaged in.”

Costa Mesa officials defend that city’s law.

“The dayworkers are a nuisance for people in town, and the council felt it took appropriate actions,” said Councilman Ed Glasgow.

Glasgow denies that the ordinance is intended to target or harass Latinos. “The law applies to everyone,” Glasgow said. “However, it may be discriminatory in impact because the ones violating the law are of a particular ethnic origin. They are the ones causing the problem.”

Needs Still Exists

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act prohibits the hiring of illegal aliens. But Wayne A. Cornelius, director of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego, said that in California’s robust economy, there is a need for the workers.

In a study of the role of Mexican labor in the United States, Cornelieus surveyed 177 California firms that depend on an immigrant work force. Thirty-one percent reported they would go out of business if forced to rely only on legal residents, and 35% indicated they would continue to hire illegal aliens.

It is not surprising, said Leo Chavez, a UC Irvine professor of anthropology who specializes in immigration, that the establishment of a city-sponsored hiring hall has not kept dayworkers off Costa Mesa streets.

The hall is restricted to legal residents, ruling out illegal aliens. Besides, said Chavez, some employers will not use a hiring hall. “Many employers don’t want to draw attention to themselves as employers of casual labor; they like a certain amount of anonymity,” Chavez said.

Although the INS has generally applauded efforts of local officials to resolve the day labor issue, a spokesman conceded that ordinances such as Costa Mesa’s are not likely to be effective. “Picking up the aliens is only a Band-Aid approach,” said John Brechtel, assistant director of the INS’ Los Angeles district.

Brechtel said the agency is considering a program that would target day labor sites in Los Angeles and Orange counties and would seize vehicles of employers found to be hiring undocumented workers.

In limited use of the technique, about 18 employer-owned vehicles have already been seized at sites in the Los Angeles area, but officials have not decided if there is sufficient manpower and resources to conduct widespread investigations, Brechtel said.

“If we had everything in place, a full-time vehicle seizure officer and the necessary investigative resources, we could have a tremendous effect on day labor sites,” Brechtel said.