What Happens When A Citizen Tries To Get Day Labor Work?
By Greg L | 8 April 2008 | Arlington County, Illegal Aliens, Virginia Politics | 13 Comments
Why they get run off, of course, even if the day laborer center is taxpayer-funded.
This is an interesting little YouTube video where someone with a contractor’s license who wants to see if they can get some work is run off from a taxpayer-funded day laborer center in Arlington County. The rules for this day laborer center appear to be available only in Spanish, which makes you wonder just who is supposed to be able to benefit from this government program.
This is the third in a four-part video. You can see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4 as well. They’re fascinating.
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13 Comments
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I saw these several months ago, they are facinating. Not sure if that day work center is still there, I though for some reason it got shut down but I could be mistaken.
she did mention they could “be aggressive” I’m wondering how aggressive now that they have little work in the county to do since the economy sucks. I think that and the resolution should keep many of them away at least for awhile.
I fought against the day laborer center when I lived in the Peoples Republic of Arlington. I even made it in the local paper……..
County Board OK’s Controversial Day Laborer Facility
Arlington Sun Gazette 8/6/03
Scott McCaffrey
After more than three hours spent grilling their staff, and incurring the wrath of one of Arlington’s most prominent employers in the process, a divided County Board last week approved plans to spend $140,000 for a new “pavilion” for day laborers to gather in Shirlington.
The 4-1 vote means the new facility will be located at South Shirlington Road and 27th Street South, approximately two blocks south of the more informal gathering spot that has existed for years.
Board members had to move on the issue, because the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority is preparing to renovate the W&OD Trail near where the day laborers currently congregate. The proposal adopted on July 29 moves the day-laborer facility just south of the Weenie Beanie, on a county-owned site adjacent to Jennie Dean Park.
The adopted site was one of three proposed by county staff members, but clearly was the staff favorite. And while nearly all County Board members expressed some reservations, four of them ended up supporting the plan.
“This is not the best solution, but it is a step in the right direction,” said board member Walter Tejada.
Only board member Jay Fisette remained unconvinced. He supported another option, one that would have located the day-laborer facility further west on South Four Mile Run Drive.
That proposal was “a much better option – far more feasible,” Fisette said.
In the end, however, Fisette’s recommendation won no support from fellow board members.
The vote, which came just before board members departed for a summer recess, was welcomed by members of the Nauck community, who for years have expressed concerns about how the day laborers behave at the existing site.
Residents of Nauck, an historically African-American community, have clashed frequently with the day laborers, who are largely Hispanic. Nauck residents have complained about trespassing, public urination and acts of petty crime, which they pinned on the day laborers.
Alfred Taylor, president of the Nauck Civic Association, said his group was giving “limited, conditional support” to the new location. But he criticized county staff for failing to involve the community in the selection process, and criticized board members for funding a site for immigrants, many of them illegal, while proposals for improvements to the Nauck community languish.
According to county officials, about 50 workers congregate each day at the current W&OD Trail site, waiting for employers to drive by and offer them jobs for the day. About two-thirds of those waiting wind up with jobs; the remainder spend the rest of the day in the park, or can go elsewhere.
If the decision to move the facility south of Four Mile Run Drive pleased the residents of Nauck, it positively infuriated officials of WETA, the public broadcasting giant that operates out of several buildings in Shirlington.
WETA chief executive officer Sharon Percy Rockefeller attended Tuesday night’s board meeting, and was deeply critical of the final decision.
“It would absolutely complicate our lives,” said Rockefeller, who noted that the new facility is to be located adjacent to WETA’s broadcast center.
Rockefeller predicted that a “pretty hostile environment” would quickly develop between her employees, who now walk between the various facilities, and the day laborers. “I don’t want the incidents to happen,” she said.
Rockefeller also complained that the location of a day-laborer camp would complicate security around the studios of the “NewsHour,” public broadcasting’s signature daily news program. High-profile guests begin arriving at the studios shortly after noon each day, Rockefeller said, and would likely be met by the day laborers who did not find work that day.
Republican-leaning activist Robert Molleur, who attended the public hearing, had little sympathy for Rockefeller’s woes.
“She’s part of the liberal establishment that created the mess, now she wants to protect elite liberals from it,” Molleur said. “Liberal hipocrisy at its best.”
Rockefeller said her organization had proposed four alternatives to the county staff recommendation, all of which had been shot down. “We want to be helpers, not obstructionists,” she said.
Pointedly reminding board members that WETA stayed in Arlington eight years ago despite being wooed to relocate to the District of Columbia, Rockefeller suggested that the relationship between county and broadcaster was currently under strain due to the proposal.
“You’ve been wonderful to work with – until recently,” Rockefeller told board members.
County officials promised WETA that there would be a significant police presence in the area, and that they would themselves monitor the situation.
County Board members also indicated that they wanted a heavy police presence to make sure that day laborers did not wander over to Shirlington Road in an effort to make themselves more visible to prospective employers.
The county will spend up to $110,000 on facilities at the new site, and will pay the Shirlington Education & Employment Center (SEEC) up to $30,000 annually to provide staffing for the facility.
This series is fascinating. The hypocrisy is incredible — there is a will and $$ to fund programs to support and encourage illegal aliens, but no $$ or political will to do anything to support the native born and struggling African-American community. WETA is the first ones on the scene to spit out an illegal-alien friendly “sob story”, but don’t want their guests exposed to the harsh reality of illegal alien presence in VA? Gimme a break!
Kudos for putting together this tape. It’s about more honesty like this was injected into the debate.
Greg,
I think there is a problem with the link. All I see is a white square.
I have to ask something, in all seriousness:
How do I become an illegal alien in the United States? Can I renounce my citizenship? Where do I go to do that?
My husband and I are blue collar folks, and we would make much more if we could be paid daily or weekly in cash, with no taxes.
We wouldn’t have to declare our income, and could get the foodstamps “for the kids.”
We are having trouble paying for insurance and health care, and it would be a big relief to get free health care.
We’d love for the kids to get free breakfast and lunches at school, and those free backpacks stuffed with supplies at back to school. No activity fees and free afterschool childcare would let me pick up a second cash-paid job. And my husband could go play soccer with his friends, while the school takes care of the younger kids.
Considering how the war is going, it seems like the draft is coming soon. If I make my teenage son an illegal too, he can avoid the draft. Then he can get reduced tuition and financial aid and attend the college of his choice.
So if you know how I could be come an illegal alien in the US, please, please tell me. Because it sucks to be giving away what we work so hard for so that illegal aliens can get it for free.
Illegal alien > US citizen
Bravo, well said!
“Can I renounce my citizenship?”
My understanding on that is that if you continue to stay in the USA after renouncing your citizenship, it is considered as though you hadn’t renounced your citizenship.
Nice deal, isn’t it?
I’m only getting a white square, too, and this viewed from both work and home computers, and on both IE and Firefox.
Sorry about the problem with the link. It’s fixed now.
Amazing this doesnt get a fair shake in the news.
Anyone who sees this, and watches what is covered on the news must at least suspect that the media has a bias and an agenda.
Send a FREE fax to Warner and Webb asking them to support the SAVE act.
http://www.numbersusa.com/faxcenter?action=preview&ID=9259
Another FREE fax to send your Congressmen asking them to give local jails access to ICE databases allowing jails to determine legal status.
http://www.numbersusa.com/dfax?action=voteyes&series=nm09APR08
I’m too disenchanted to leave a comment … can I renounce my citizenship and be paid to be illegally here???