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Los Angeles police arrest work-soliciting immigrants Complaints against groups in suburbs lead cities to grapple with laborers BY BEN FOX ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — Look ing back, Braulio Gonzalez says, the man who drove up and offered him $10 an hour to break up a concrete driveway did seem suspicious. The man’s truck didn’t have license plates and he wouldn’t say where the job was, telling the day laborer to follow in his car. Sure enough, a few minutes later, police from this Los Angeles suburb arrested Gonzalez and three other laborers as they turned into a dead end street. “I’ve been working on that corner for years,” says the 48-year-old Guatemala native. “Nothing like this has ever happened.” Gonzalez was caught up in an un usual — and critics say unconstitution al — sting that underscores the vastly different responses U.S. cities have of fered to the growing number of men, often Hispanic immigrants, who wait on street comers for a day’s work. Cities such as Thousand Oaks, an other Los Angeles suburb, and Hoover, Ala., set aside space for work ers to gather and even to take English classes. Other communities, from Prince William County, Va., to Redon do Beach, have decided the best way to handle public complaints about the pick-up spots is to move the men along with citations and arrests. Conflicts are happening more often as temporary laborers become a per manent fixture of the U.S. labor mar ket, particularly in construction, landscaping and do-it-yourself home improvement, according to re searchers who study the issue. “The notion of looking for work in this manner annoys a lot of peo ple,” said Abel Valenzuela, a Uni versity of California Los Angeles so ciologist who has surveyed day laborers around the country. “Most cities react negatively.” In Redondo Beach, police said they acted after getting numerous com plaints about laborers at the city’s two corner gathering spots being drunk, urinating in public, loitering, trespass ing, blocking traffic and harassing cus tomers entering businesses. About 60 day laborers were arrest ed in a series of stings last month. They were charged with violating an until-now rarely enforced 1987 ordi nance that prohibits soliciting em ployment in a public place. The max imum penalty is a $100 fine and three years’ probation. “We applaud their desire to work, but our job is to maintain order,” said City Councilman Gerard Bisignano. Immigrant advocates have chal lenged the arrests as a First Amend ment violation. Laborers call the crackdown harassment. “We’re not criminals. We go where we have to go to get work,” said Gon zalez, a legal U.S. resident and former r Main destination for international migrants A century of migration More people live outside their country of origin today than at any other time in history and the surge in migration is playing a significant role in the changing demographics of many countries. In 2000, 175 million people were living outside their country of birth 180 million people 160. 140 . 120 . 60 40 20 0 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 35 million people United States 35.0 million 30 migrants - (12.3% of the population) Traditional country of immigration SOURCE: United Nations AP Day laborer profile in Southern California One in four day laborers worked as a laborer for over six years, with about 5 percent doing so for more than 10 years. Most were Hispanic, young and not married. Marital status Married —i 37.3% Country of origin United States Mexico 77.9% Day laborer tenure in years Less than 1 2-5 Central America Other 11.1% Age 20.1% 10%—14% 6-10 More than 10 20.3% 38% 5.2% 28% ___p 18-27 28-37 38-47 48-57 58+ SOURCE: UCLA, Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, 1999 survey AP merchant seaman who supports a wife and young son on trickle-in wages that can be up to $110 on a good day and nothing at all on a bad one. The men were released on $100 bail with a notice to appear in court. Police did not contact federal immigration au thorities to determine whether any of the laborers were in this country ille gally, as their counterparts did last month in Virginia when they anested about two dozen immigrants for loiter ing outside a 7-Eleven. Virginia Kice, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokes woman, said the agency sees little practical value in raiding gathering spots because many day laborers are legal residents. In well-to-do Thousand Oaks, on the opposite side of downtown Los Angeles, officials fielded com plaints about day laborers in one neighborhood for 15 years before they set aside space for workers in a grassy area beneath a freeway. The city installed portable toilets, benches and bike racks for the men, and also provides a meeting room for English classes. The city still gets scattered com plaints about the laborers, said Assis tant City Manager Scott Mitnick. “You never really resolve the issue. You just move it from one neighbor hood to another,” Mitnick said. “The downside is it’s a lot of people in one area, and nobody wants that near their home.” The city of Redondo Beach said it has considered giving workers their own space but could not afford it. Activists said Redondo Beach sim ply chose to spend money on en forcement and fighting a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal De fense and Educational Fund, which has prevailed in court against similar laws in Los Angeles County. In any case, the arrests may not be much of a deterrent. “We’re going back to the corner,” said Angel Sanchez, a 50-year-old il legal immigrant laborer from Ecuador. “We need to eat. We need to pay the rent.” Holiday Gift Guide on stands Monday, December 6. Congo: More than 3 million killed during five-year war Continued from page 6 workers and from aid groups. No clashes between Congolese and Rwandan forces had been re ported, he said. A ranger at Virunga National Park bordering Rwanda and Congo said he saw about 400 armed Rwanda troops cross into the park Sunday. The troops were well-armed and traveled in a sport utility vehicle and on foot, the ranger said on condition of anonymity, adding they appeared to be heading north to remote vol canic mountains north of Goma. The area is believed to hold some of the estimated 8,000-10,000 Rwan dan Hutu rebels still in Congo. In Goma, local chiefs also said their people reported seeing Rwandan troops in isolated hills since Friday. In Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, Rwan dan special envoy Richard Sezibera said he would neither confirm nor deny that Rwandan troops have en tered Congo. Sezibera said the Rwan dan government would “do whatev er is necessary to protect Rwanda’s borders and people. ” The Rwandan envoy specified the Rwandan Hutu rebels were “in the area” of the reported Rwandan incur sions, including Virunga National Park and the small town of Rutshuru. When asked directly about the reports coming from eastern Congo, he said, “I will not comment about rumors, reported sightings, innuen do, timelines or projections.” Uni •TUT* • ■ > UTi i Self-service DVD & Games Rental New titles everg week Prices start at $2.00 for 2 dags Check it out in the bottom level of the EMU “To our knowledge, there’s no Rwandan presence,” said Jacqueline Chenard, a spokes woman for the U.N. force in east Congo. “It’s a rumor.” The United Nations has 11,000 troops in Congo, overseeing peace and power-sharing deals that mandated the withdrawal of for eign armies. The force is building to 16,000 as the United Nations steps up disar mament efforts of Rwandan Hutu rebels and other militias in the east. Some other Western diplomats in Congo’s capital said they had no confirmation that Rwandan troops had entered. Kabila met Monday with ambas sadors of U.N. Security Council na tions and leading African nations, Kasango confirmed. Kabila informed them he would send troops to North Kivu province. The province, with Goma as its capital, encompasses the areas of the alleged incursions. Rwanda has invaded Congo twice since 1996 on the grounds of flushing out Rwandan Hutu rebels responsible for the 1994 genocide of a half-million minority Tlitsis and moderate Hutus in the nation. Rwanda’s second Congo inva sion, in 1998, touched off a five year war that drew in the armies of four other nations and split re source-rich Congo. An estimated 3.2 million people died in the Rwanda-controlled east alone, most through famine and disease. 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