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Jul. 27, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Day labor center envisioned

City looks at approach after critics attack suggestion of permit system

By LYNNETTE CURTIS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Men wait to be hired as day laborers Thursday on Bonanza Road near Rancho Drive. Officials are exploring ways to deal with the large numbers of such workers, who crowd sidewalks near home improvement stores and nurseries and along certain streets.
Photos by Gary Thompson.



Marcelino Ortez, left, and Ricardo Velasquez stand Thursday morning near the corner of Bonanza Road and Rancho Drive, hoping to find work as day laborers.

Ricardo Velasquez was perplexed when he heard about Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's idea to require people to get a permit in order to hire day laborers.

"Why would they do that?" the 27-year-old day laborer asked in Spanish while scanning traffic Thursday morning along Bonanza Road.

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    • He smiled when told that the city hoped such a plan would reduce both the number of people picking up day laborers and the number of workers willing to wait outside for work.

    "If you get rid of one, others will come," he said.

    Goodman publicly floated the idea last week, suggesting that such a permit could be offered for $5 and would last an extended period of time.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada attacked the idea, saying such a requirement would be unconstitutional.

    On Thursday, Goodman distanced himself from the proposal, saying he had just "tossed out this idea" to start a conversation about how to handle day laborers.

    Instead, he said, the city is looking at creating a center where day laborers could go to seek work rather than standing along valley streets.

    The workers are a common site near home improvement stores and nurseries and along certain streets, such as Bonanza. Businesses complain about the workers congregating outside, littering and harassing customers.

    "I've seen them jump into customers' cars without even asking," said Steve Salomon, manager of Moon Valley Nursery on Eastern Avenue just north of the Las Vegas Beltway. "Someone comes in looking to buy trees, and all of a sudden they've got a couple guys in the back of their cars. They get freaked out about it."

    Salomon said that up to 40 men gather near the nursery each day, often trespassing onto his property and leaving behind piles of trash.

    Police also deal with complaints about the workers.

    Day laborers sometimes shoplift from nearby businesses, urinate in public or hold up traffic, said Jose Montoya, a Las Vegas police spokesman.

    Police generally warn or cite the workers. Some are arrested for trespassing.

    Velasquez claimed he twice has been ticketed for trespassing even though he was standing on public sidewalks.

    A center for day laborers might help everyone concerned, Salomon said. "They could stand in a line, and people could come through and pick them up."

    Clark County and Las Vegas police officials also have been exploring the idea of creating a center for such workers. The strategy is one that dozens of U.S. communities have tried with varying success.

    Don Burnett, the county's chief administrative officer, said the county recently sent a staff person along with Las Vegas police officers to look at a work center in Kansas City, Mo. "We're trying to gain a better understanding of how other entities have responded, how they're funded and managed," he said.

    The idea of opening a work center for day laborers has been bandied about regionally for the past few years. But questions about how such a center would be funded, where it would be located, who would operate it and other concerns have stymied past talks.

    Some day laborers said they would go to a center as long as it was conveniently located.

    "It's better here because we're near the freeways," Marcelino Ortez said in Spanish as he stood Thursday morning on Bonanza, hoping to score a day of landscaping work. "Trucks drive right by."

    But some workers might be suspicious of joining a center, especially if they are in the country illegally and are required to give identification or proof of legal residency.

    Nevada state government already has a Casual Labor office intended to draw day workers and employers into a safer and more organized environment. But state officials say the center, at 1001 N. A St., hasn't had much success in attracting the newer population of immigrant workers.

    "We are required to ask an individual who applies for services if they're a citizen," said Ron Fletcher, Southern Nevada's chief of field direction and management for the state's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. "If an individual indicates they're not a citizen, we're required to ask for authorization to work in the U.S."

    The Casual Labor office matches workers with employers needing help with a number of odd jobs, from assisting movers and warehouse work to landscaping and construction.

    Such a center also helps protect workers from being taken advantage of, Fletcher said.

    "You hear stories about individuals not being paid as promised," he said. "But we know who the employer is, and the employer is on record as having taken an individual."

    Both Ortez and Velasquez said they have been stiffed. Now, Ortez said, "I don't get out of the car until I get paid."

    Ortez, who makes up to $450 a week as a day laborer, said most of the workers don't cause problems. "We're here to work, not bother anybody."

    Goodman said Thursday that he knows that most day laborers simply are trying to make money to help support their families. "They're not robbing anybody," he said.



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    Milt Smith wrote on January 22, 2008 08:07 AM: Deport the Illegals!!


    Milt Smith wrote on January 22, 2008 08:05 AM: Deport the Illegals!!!


    Mike wrote on August 06, 2007 02:48 PM: The City of Jupiter, FL established a day labor center in September of 2006 that has not only helped put people to work but eliminated some serious nuisance and health and safety problems in the community.

    The Center is open to all Jupiter residents and is a safe, organized location for workers to come and be matched with employers to fill jobs.

    No longer do day laborers gather on city streets soliciting jobs from passing motorists. They are at El Sol, Jupiter's Neighborhood Resource Center waiting to go out on jobs.

    While they wait they can participate in English language or computer classes or on certain days, fill out an application to open a bank account. There are also workshops on improving job skills.

    El Sol was the subject of an award-winning documentary film recently, "Jupiter or Bust: The El Sol Solution," The film won the national grand prize for documentaries in a contest sponsored by C-SPAN.

    The documentary tells the history of the inflow of immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala to Jupiter and how El Sol came to be established.

    For a DVD of the documentary send $10 to El Sol, P.O. Box 7682, Jupiter, Fl 33468-7682.

    Other communities, Las Vegas included, would do well to emulate what Jupiter has done to address serious problems that stemmed in part from the federal government's neglect of immigration reforms.


    MONEYYY wrote on August 03, 2007 11:17 AM: THEY SEND $$ 30 - 40 BILLION


    thirteenburn wrote on July 31, 2007 10:03 PM: What part of ILLEGAL immigrants not being covered under our Constitution don't they understand?

    The Constitution only covers LEGAL citizens of this country, not the ILLEGAL scumbags who sneak over the boarders at night with their near term pregnant sisters and mothers, er, "WIVES" and send back over $12 BILLION dollars to their WORTHLESS families. Those are monies that are NEVER seen again in the U.S. In other words, these pieces of detrus are using this country in subsidizing the country of Mexico.

    With numbers like that, its no wonder the Mexican Government won't do anything to help stop the flow of their trash into this country.

    This kind of crap is the reason I moved away from Vegas. If I still lived there, I might be one of those people who would pick up a truck load of these law breakers and either take them straight to the ICE headquarters, or better yet, take them as far out of town as possible and then dump them off an let them fend for themselves to find their way back.


    Bobby wrote on July 29, 2007 04:52 PM: I showed the headline of this story to a buddy of mine, and he said," That's funny. What I envision is people who are shopping getting bothered and beer bottles and the smell of urine all over the place". No comment.


    P-M wrote on July 29, 2007 01:24 AM: Have another drink, you useless goofball of a mayor. maybe you should build a day labor center for these clowns in front of YOUR HOUSE!!!


    brenda smith wrote on July 28, 2007 03:34 PM: They broke the law the minute they crossed in the United State. Can you get it through you thick skull illegal is illegal.


    Bobby wrote on July 28, 2007 03:10 PM: However the people are who are "envisioning" this day labor center must remember one thing. Illegal immigration is a crime on the law books of the United States. The penalties for this crime are spelled out. Aiding and abetting illegal immigration is a crime in the U.S. law books and the penalties for this are also spelled out. Those politicians, citizens, and judges who open job centers that openly cater to illegal aliens are criminals according to the existing laws on the books. This isn't rocket science. All of these people are in violation of their duties to uphold the existing laws and by not doing so are in criminal negligence of their sworn duties--and should be jailed. Period. If the laws mean nothing, then we are living in a lawless country. People had better make up their minds what kind of nation they want to live in.


    Mary Kravetz wrote on July 28, 2007 02:57 PM: this article is unbelievable, not to say totally unfair to the working people of Las Vegas. there are so few places for american citizens to get jobs now, especially the newly-released inmates who must get jobs immediately upon release as part of their parole conditions. shouldn't the town be more concerned about helping our own first before helping others? we talk about rehabilitating inmates and then do almost next to nothing to help them find jobs, housing, counselling services, moral support. I am sending a copy of this article to the big shots in D.C. because apparently no one in this town is listening to reason and using common sense, not to mention, mercy and justice for it's citizens and neediest people first come, first served.


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