Sunday, July 31, 2005

SOUTH: Day-labor site protested
About 150 people nearly came to blows in Laguna Beach during dispute over illegal immigration.

By SUSAN GILL VARDON and ELIZABETH BROTHERTON
The Orange County Register

LAGUNA BEACH – A protest near a day-labor site stopped just short of violence Saturday, marking another turn in a long-running dispute that touches issues of immigration and race.

About 150 people, some shouting messages decrying illegal immigration and others speaking out in favor of immigrants, nearly came to blows. Police stepped in on several occasions to keep protesters apart. One man was arrested for carrying a concealed dagger, said Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jason Kravetz.

The protest was the second this month. On July 16, Eileen Garcia and four women she met over the Internet protested the city's decision to use part of its rent from the Sawdust Art Festival to help the Laguna Day Workers Center, a gathering place for workers and people who hire them. Garcia and her partners were joined in front of the festival site by an anti-illegal immigration group, Save Our State, which argued that people who hire workers at the site are breaking federal law. That group was joined by others Saturday.

Many of the protesters said they are motivated by immigration law, not race.

"I'm here because of a security issue," said Angie Ibbotson of Huntington Beach." Ibbotson, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, waved a sign that read "Mr. Bush, do your job."

"We just want to know who (the workers) are, where they are coming from," she said.

But people supporting the workers said Save Our State and other anti-illegal immigration groups are racially motivated. They also defended the need for the center.

"They are working people, and we support and defend their want to make a living," said Alvaro Maldonado, who came to the protest Saturday with 15 other members of the International Socialist Organization.

Emotions were pushed higher near the end of the three-hour protest when two men walked through the crowd carrying swastika flags, a move many Save Our State activists said they opposed.

"I totally disagree with it," said John Gutierrez, an 18-year-old Goldenwest College student. "I told them to put it away."

The conflict was the latest example of how day-labor sites – where workers hire out to do construction, painting or landscaping – are being questioned by foes of illegal immigration. The future of an unrelated site run by the city of Costa Mesa is in question, in part because of protests.

Laguna Beach resident Garcia, who protested in mid-July, didn't turn out Saturday. She said she has disassociated herself from Save Our State.

"I just don't agree with the way they're going to be standing in front of the actual day-labor site," said the 47-year-old homemaker. "We did not confront anybody. We passed out fliers educating people about how the City Council was spending their money."

On June 21, the council awarded $175,000 to 30 nonprofit groups. The money comes from festival rent, which goes into the city's community assistance fund, said Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider.

Topping the list was the South Orange County Cross Cultural Council. The group, which has operated the hiring center since 1999, got $21,000. Next was the Laguna Beach Relief and Resource Center, which assists victims of the Bluebird Canyon landslide. It got $20,000.

Garcia, who lives three blocks from the slide site, complained to the City Council that the $21,000 would be better spent on slide victims.