gaithersblog.net

In yesterday’s Washington Times, their editorial board writes, Commonsense immigration enforcement:

This could be Maryland’s strangest immigration episode in quite a while. The state is currently in a tizzy over the fact that federal agents arrested 24 illegal aliens they encountered in a Baltimore 7-Eleven parking lot while the agents were taking a break from an unrelated assignment. The arrests happened shortly after the aliens made the mistake of soliciting the officers for work as they sat in unmarked vehicles.

The arrests are quite unlucky for the aliens, reportedly all Hispanic males, who redefine the phrase “Wrong place, wrong time.” But this is not the illegal “profiling” that CASA de Maryland and its supporters are trying to portray. To the contrary, if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers cannot arrest illegals who literally fall into their hands, then immigration enforcement would become bereft of purpose.

I will say that, while I am pleased to see the ICE agents rounding up criminals, I would feel better about it if I thought that (a) this was the beginning of a more systematic approach to the problem, and (b) the removal of a few more illegal migrants was anything but temporary. Remember that eight of those detained this week had been removed from the country before — one of them had been caught six times crossing the border.

Anyway, about 35 miles to the north, Jean Marbella of the Baltimore Sun writes, Lack of immigration policy hurts everyone:

Using one widely accepted estimate, the arrests of the Baltimore 24 reduced the number of illegal aliens still at large in the country to about 11,999,976.

Are any laws enforced more randomly than immigration ones? Surely some, if not all, of the unfortunates grabbed at the 7-Eleven at Lombard and Broadway were here illegally — but so are millions of others currently busing restaurant tables, picking crops, cleaning hotel rooms, watching the children of working parents and otherwise providing the cheap labor to which Americans have grown addicted.

Those rounded up on Tuesday only stand out because, well, they were standing outside.

They’re probably little different from the 40 or so men and women who by midmorning yesterday had come to a clean, well-lighted place in Wheaton, rather than a street corner or convenience store parking lot, looking for day labor. The workers’ center, in the first floor of an apartment building, is the second of two such offices in Montgomery County run by the immigrants’ advocacy group CASA of Maryland, which also has been trying to open one in Baltimore.

Note: This action in Baltimore actually just two days before the one-year anniversary of the Baltimore City Board of Estimates’ authorization of funding to CASA de Maryland for this planned day labor center. I wonder what could be the source of delay?

Speaking further of Wheaton,

The center offers an organized alternative to the often chaotic parking lot or street corner scenes in other cities where day laborers congregate to await jobs. Street hirings, of course, are notoriously problematic — some day laborers say they have been hired but not paid; some employers say the workers did substandard jobs; business owners, customers and nearby residents complain about the men descending on every passing car, jostling to be hired.

By contrast, employers who come to the center agree to pay at least $10 an hour, and staffers maintain two lists, for skilled and unskilled workers, that operate on a first-come, first-serve basis. (In true American fashion, there are ways of jumping the list — the two people who agree to clean the center at the end of the day are guaranteed the first two slots on the next day’s list, and those who speak some English have priority among employers who request that.)

And, as there are almost always more workers than jobs, what incentive do those not near front of the list have to hang around in the center? CASA asks workers to agree not to solicit work elsewhere, but it isn’t clear how well this is — or can be — enforced. This is one of the reasons why one sees so many day laborers hanging around on street corners within blocks of day labor centers; the restrictions that the centers place on employers is another.

I think that Ms Marbella starts out with a good point — that nearly everyone (with the possible exception of those who profit from exploiting immigrants) is harmed by the way we are dealing with immigration in this country. But feeling sorry for the day laborers — and spending money on sheltering them while they don’t get jobs — does very little to solve any systemic immigration problem. At best these efforts just dress up one of its more visible symptoms.

Yolanda Woodlee writes in The Washington Post, The Hunt for Work Fosters Tension:

Regina James says she drives past Rhode Island Plaza every weekday morning and has mixed feelings at the sight of more than 100 Latino men waiting for day-labor jobs in the Home Depot parking lot.

The increasing number of laborers, some of whom residents say leave trash on the ground and urinate along a nearby barrier wall, has heightened tension and stirred mistrust between the Latinos and the mostly black residents of the working-class Brentwood neighborhood in Northeast.

At the site, a woman with a green cooler sold tacos, burritos, hot chocolate and atol, a Salvadoran corn beverage. Three grocery carts overflowed with garbage bags nearby. The ground was littered with Styrofoam cups, beer bottles and paper plates, a point of contention with the neighbors.

It’s a “hotbed issue,” said William Shelton, an advisory neighborhood commissioner. “The African American community is a little concerned that if there had been 100 African American men standing on that lot . . . would we allow it for a year or two? Not to be negative, but the community just doesn’t understand.”

Charlotte Blair, 67, and her, husband, Thomas, 66, have lived in Brentwood since 1971. Although she said she’s never been harassed by the day laborers, Blair no longer walks alone.

“It’s kind of a scary situation,” Blair said. “Women walking up through there with a whole group of men. I just don’t feel comfortable. I would like to see the place cleared.”

Mocoprogressive notes that the Sentinal has an Editorial regarding the County’s day laborer plans:

At best the day-laborer center could only exist in Derwood a short time. It isn’t a permanent solution unless the county is going to change its plans to sell off its property around the Shady Grove Metro and turn that area into another Bethesda.

That doesn’t seem likely.

What does seem likely is that once again, when the county needs to tackle an unpleasant issue, Derwood gets dumped on - only because it doesn’t have the political clout to keep from taking it in the shorts.

Kelly Brewington writes:

As certain as the morning chill, the men in work boots, jeans and wool caps flock to the parking lot of the 7-Eleven at Broadway and Lombard Street at the first sign of daylight, eager for work.

But a day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers descended on the parking lot in unmarked sport utility vehicles and arrested 24 men suspected of being illegal immigrants, everything was different.

While rumors of immigration raids abound in the immigrant community, the mass arrests were unprecedented in Baltimore, advocates said.

Lourdes Montes-Greenan, Latino services manager at East Harbor Community Development Corp., said rumors alone can paralyze the community with fear. She said she remembers a family who hired a van to transport their children to school, rather than walk the streets, after hearing rumors of raids.

“When things like this happen, the rumors just increase,” she said. “You are going to hear more stories, and people are going to be more paranoid.”

CASA employees spent Wednesday tracking down family members of the men who were arrested and linking them with attorneys. Eliza Leighton, an attorney with CASA, said the group is considering its legal options after the arrests, which it insists were an example of ethnic profiling.

Advocates said that when officers arrived at the convenience store parking lot, they asked for documents only from men who “looked Hispanic.” In addition to men on the parking lot, the agents asked for documents from passers-by on a nearby sidewalk, said Leighton.

Of the 24 men arrested, Raimondi said, six had criminal records, eight had been previously removed, and one had been caught six times crossing the border. All of the men are in removal proceedings. On Tuesday night, they were transferred to a jail. Thursday, they are expected to be transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas, he said.

• Sebastian Montes writes, Crabbs Branch selected for day laborers:
  

  The order to start work on a new day-laborer center off Shady Grove Road came nine days before county officials told the public where the site would be and before they filed for Planning Board review.

  Chuck Short told county staff to begin readying the site located in the County Service Park at Jan. 9 meeting with ‘‘a conference room-full” of county employees, said Harold Adams, acting chief of engineering and management services for the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation.

  It wasn’t until Jan. 16 that the DPWT got word that the project would be going for Planning Board for review, Adams said. Work on the site continued.

  ‘‘We started to level the spot to put the trailers on, the mandatory referral came, and since we already had equipment there, we kept doing the work,” Adams said. ‘‘We cut the driveway and pedestrian path, but that was before there was any discussion of a mandatory referral. It’s something that we needed to do, so we did.”

  ‘‘We determined that this project would not be appropriate for anything less than full Planning Board review,” said Edwards, team leader for the Interstate 270 corridor. ‘‘We wanted to have an open process, and administrative review would have limited the ability to have actual community members see it.”

  The county says it is going into the hearing earnestly — ‘‘It could be that we get helpful comments that could add value to the project,” Lacefield said, — but is unwavering in its commitment to the plan.

  ‘‘We’re going to move forward with this. The fact that we’re going to have a day-laborer center is not going to be reversed with what happens with the public hearing or the Planning Board,” Lacefield said Monday.

  (Font coloring mine)

• Melissa J. Brachfeld and Sebastian Montes write, County gets mixed reaction to choice for center:
  

  Several Derwood residents are not happy with the county’s decision to move the site to their community.

  ‘‘I think it’s a problem that what Rockville and Gaithersburg don’t want, Derwood gets,” Pat Labuda, president of the Greater Shady Grove Civic Alliance and a member of the Shady Grove Advisory Committee, said Thursday. ‘‘Derwood is not the solution to what nobody else wants.”

  She said she feels that putting the day-laborer center in Derwood would add more traffic to the area and complicate the already difficult process in implementing the Shady Grove Sector Plan.

  Brad Botwin, a member of the Shady Grove Advisory Committee and former co-president of the Greater Shady Grove Civic Alliance, said he, like Labuda, is mostly concerned over how the day-laborer center would affect the sector plan implementation process. He said he has dedicated years participating in the planning process for the project.

  ‘‘At no time in three and a half years did the notion of a day-laborer center come up. Ever,” Botwin, who has actively opposed the county’s support of illegal immigrants, said.

  Leggett has asked the county Planning Board to expedite the required mandatory referral process for the day-laborer center, but according to the planning rules. Leggett can make the ultimate decision. The board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Feb. 8.

  ‘‘People can testify, but for what purpose?” Botwin asked. ‘‘They’ve already started the construction.”

  Lacefield said the county hopes to have the center running by mid-February. The county also hopes to hire the immigrant advocacy group Casa of Maryland to run the center, he noted.

  Casa already operates the county’s day-laborer centers in Silver Spring and Wheaton.

  (Font coloring mine)

• In their editorial (which at the moment can be found at http://www.gazette.net/editorials/#2, it isn’t clear if there is a permanent link) they state:
  

  Presuming the choice gets the green light after a public hearing next month before the county’s Planning Board, whose role is only advisory, the new center will bring to an end a tortured process to come up with a site in Gaithersburg.

  At the same time, it is certain to re-ignite questions about the county government’s long-term role in supporting centers for the laborers, some of whom are in the country illegally, as well as renew the debate over national immigration and workforce policies.

  Leggett’s statement announcing the half-acre site, near 16640 Crabbs Branch Way, called labor centers ‘‘a temporary expedient” that help solve ‘‘a practical problem.”

  In the Gaithersburg case, the ‘‘practical problem” was loitering, littering and public urination in the well-kept neighborhoods around a church parking lot where the workers congregated, sometimes seven days a week.

There were several stories of interest in this week’s Gazette. A number of them addressed the County’s day laborer plans; I’ll put those in a separate post following this one.

• Chris Robinson writes, Annapolis retreat puts city’s needs in focus:
  

  Public safety, Olde Towne revitalization and thoughts on a new senior center were topics of extensive discussion at Gaithersburg city leaders’ annual retreat in Annapolis on Saturday.

  Public safety

  Council members also discussed public safety in Olde Towne, after a spike in violent crimes the past few months in and around that area drew concerns in recent public meetings.

  City leaders said a police beat system would let officers focus on specific parts of the city.

  However, the city currently employs 50 officers and Police Chief Mary Ann Viverette has said they would need 10 more officers before beginning that system due to the draw it would have on police resources, Humpton said.

  The city will hire three to five more officers this year, he said.

  Katz encouraged the city to examine whether police can increase an emphasis on Olde Towne in lieu of the beat system.

  Viverette has been briefed about the request and the city is examining the possibilities, Humpton said Tuesday afternoon.

  Two Gaithersburg residents and two reporters attended the meeting.

• Chris Robinson writes, Revised affordable housing regulations win approval:
  

  Gaithersburg mayor and City Council unanimously approved the revised regulations for the affordable housing ordinance during a meeting last week.

  In a nod to the proposed Broadstone Apartment redevelopment project, which could displace about 350 families that currently live there, the approved ordinance allows eligible tenants displaced by redevelopment to have first pick of the affordable homes once they are available.

  A change also was made in the per-unit fee required of residential developers in Olde Towne from $2,500 to $1, although the mayor and City Council would annually review the amount.

• Chris Robinson writes, Gaithersburg men robbed, beaten with chain:
  

  Two Gaithersburg men were beaten and robbed by eight men at the Festival at Muddy Branch shopping center parking lot Saturday night, police said.

  One of the suspects beat the men with a chain, but no other weapons were involved, Wagner said.

  The 36-year-old victim was taken to a hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries, Wagner said. His status is unknown as of Monday evening.

  Anybody with information about the crime should call Gaithersburg police at 301-258-6400.

  This would be the same incident I posted about a couple of days ago.

Mocoprogressive has the details. Also, there stories in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, Washington Examiner and the AP. From the Times:

BALTIMORE — Federal agents taking a break from an unrelated assignment yesterday arrested 24 illegal aliens at a Fells Point 7-Eleven after the men attempted to solicit “underground” employment from the agents.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were stopped in the convenience store parking lot when the group of Hispanic men approached the agents’ unmarked vehicles, ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said.

Of those arrested, 10 were Honduran, eight were Mexican, five were Salvadoran and one was Peruvian, ICE officials said.

Six of the men have criminal records in the United States, eight of the men have failed to comply with final removal orders from an immigration judge and one man had been caught at the border on four occasions, ICE officials said.

The nonprofit immigrant-advocacy group CASA of Maryland called the arrests an “illegal raid” that was beyond ICE’s authority.

“Asking a bunch of people about their immigration status is well beyond the confines of a specific warrant,” CASA spokeswoman Kim Propeack said.

Gosh, Kim, that must be frustrating. Is it also illegal to ask the men their immigration status if they are soliciting employment — from ICE agents, no less? Perhaps CASA needs to re-focus their efforts on cultural awareness, or possibly start offering classes on “How to identify The Man”.

Update: Mocoprogressive notes that ICE has published a press release regarding this incident.

Update 2: Mocoprogressive notes that ICE has removed their press release regarding this incident.

According to the City Police Crime Summary,

Armed Robbery

On 01/23/2007 at approximately 2:45 pm, a twelve year old walking home from Forest Oak Middle School, was approached by two Hispanic males. One of the suspects pulled out a folding knife and demanded the victim’s cell phone. The victim gave the suspects his cell phone and MP3 player. The suspects then walked away last seen walking into the woods next to Kelley Park. An investigation is ongoing.

Suspect 1: Hispanic Male, 18-20 years old, 5-10 to 6-00, 150-160 pounds. Wearing blue jeans, red winter coat with a black strip on the sleeve, and a white bandana covering his face. Armed with a folding knife.

Suspect 2: Hispanic Male, 18-20 years old, 5-10 to 6-00, 150-160 pounds, wearing a white sweater and blue jeans.

Forest Oak Middle School is on Saybrooke Oaks Blvd, between Girard St and Mid-County Highway, just east of North Summit Ave/Goshen Rd.

There’s a lot in this world that I don’t understand. Robbing a 12-year-old — of anything, in any circumstances — is definitely one of them. But another thing on this list is stealing a cell phone. Can someone explain this to me? Are they trying to steal the cell service? If so I’d think that there’d be only the briefest of windows during which this would work, because the owner will be calling the carrier to have the phone disabled, and in that window all calls will be logged and the phone could potentially be tracked to a location. Are they trying to steal the phone itself? And if so, are they planning getting it to work with their own cell service (problematic and costly, I’d think, unless both were from a GSM service that used SIM cards, which AFAIK means Cingular or T-Mobile around here) or is there really much of a black market on deactivated cell phones? Of course, another option is that the thieves are stupid or just plain mean…

In yesterday’s Washington Post, Miranda S. Spivack writes: Instead of Safety, Md. Footbridge Brings Muggings:

Since the bridge opened in August, linking walkers to the Forest Glen Metro stop north of the Beltway, there have been three armed robberies, two at gunpoint and one with a knife. The incidents have frightened commuters and residents and caused headaches for police and county public works officials who are struggling to find ways to stem the crime.

The robberies have stood out because violent crime in the area is uncommon. In 2005, there was one robbery in the neighborhood. In 2006, there were six, and two of them were on the footbridge, police said.

In Olde Towne, however, we’ve recently (January 9) had two robberies in a single day. And following the third Olde Towne robbery in just over a week (on January 5), the Gaithersburg Police stated that (quoting the Gazette) the “case doesn’t necessarily indicate a spike in robberies and no additional police patrols are planned.”

Continuing with Ms. Spivack’s story,

Police have made no arrests in the robberies. Capt. Betsy Davis, who commands the Silver Spring police district with jurisdiction over the area, said she and her officers have stepped up patrols and have been in frequent contact with public works official Tim Cupples about lights that repeatedly failed.

They are looking into a variety of ways to make the bridge safer, including installing cameras and call boxes, Davis said. The lights are working now but might need to be brighter, she said.

What will it take for Gaithersburg officials to take the problems in Olde Towne as seriously as Silver Spring appears to take theirs?

I’ve written before about the developments in Hazleton, PA, where the local government has been trying to levy penalties on those who would hire or rent to illegal migrants. Although the law grew from a frustration that many of us share, it also had a number of troubling aspects, such as requiring tenants to apply at City Hall for a permit — and pay a fee — before renting property in the city. Last November, a federal judge blocked the law. The court battle over Hazelton’s law is continuing; last month the judge refused to order the ACLU to reveal the names of some of the plaintiffs, who are illegal migrants.

Hazelton has a lot of company. An AP story in Sunday’s Baltimore Sun states:

According to an analysis by the Center for Community Change, an immigrants rights group based in Washington, 35 towns have approved illegal immigrant laws, 35 have defeated them and 35 others have ordinances pending.

Other localities mentioned in that article include Escondido, CA, Valley Park, MO, and Farmers Branch, TX:

After a federal judge blocked Escondido, Calif., from fining landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, the City Council killed the measure and agreed to pay $90,000 to the opposing lawyers.

In the Valley Park case, St. Louis County Circuit Judge Barbara Wallace issued a restraining order and said there were “big holes” in the city’s ordinance, which would target businesses and landlords.

Even though the laws have yet to be enforced in any of the places where they have been challenged, many Hispanics - illegal or otherwise - have left. Hispanic business districts in Hazleton, Farmers Branch and Riverside, N.J., all report steep declines.

Kris W. Kobach, a University of Missouri law professor who is defending the ordinances in Hazleton and Valley Park, maintains that his clients have federal law and Supreme Court precedent on their side.

“Most of these temporary restraining orders don’t represent a judicial consideration of the issues in any significant sense,” said Kobach, an immigration adviser under former Attorney General John Ashcroft. “They are just agreements by the attorneys to preserve the status quo.”

Regarding Farmer’s Branch, Patrick McGee, a staff writer for the Star-Telegram, writes in a wire story last week, In Texas, a city divided over illegal immigration:

“The issue has divided the city. It has put neighbor against neighbor,” said Salvador Parada, a Farmers Branch resident who opposes the City Council’s stance on illegal immigration. “I don’t think we’re going to sit down and agree on things. It’s just going to get worse.”

At issue are three measures the City Council approved by 5-0 votes in November that are meant to curb illegal immigration:

• An ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting apartments to illegal immigrants.
• A resolution making English the city’s official language.
• An order to have a city police officer trained to enforce federal immigration laws.

Opponents responded with lawsuits and a petition that put a referendum on the rental ordinance on the May municipal ballot. They say that immigration is a matter for the federal government and that Farmers Branch’s stance is alienating Hispanics.

Farmers Branch is becoming more diverse. In this middle-class city of 27,500 residents, 37 percent of the population is Hispanic, according to the 2000 Census. A quarter of the residents were born in another country, and of those, 82 percent were born in Latin America.

Rick Johnson, a resident who supports the council’s efforts, says he worries that the schools are being dragged down partly by illegal immigrants and their children, who he says often show a “general lack of respect” and are part of drug and gang problems.

David Landes, professor emeritus of history and economics at Harvard University who studies the role of culture in human affairs, says he believes that most opponents of illegal immigration hide their prejudices behind claims that they just want to see the law enforced.

“I think the Anglos are unfavorable or hostile to the culture of Mexican immigrants or would-be immigrants, and would like to enforce the law as a way of keeping them out,” he said.

But that view is not shared by Lawrence Harrison, a senior research fellow at the Fletcher School, a graduate school of international affairs at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., who focuses on culture.

He says he believes that there are too many Hispanic immigrants for America’s melting pot to smooth out differences - and that citing the law is not wrong. He says deference to the law illustrates a cultural difference between Anglo-Americans and Hispanic immigrants.

“The rule of law is something that is much more well-established in our culture than it is in Latin American cultures, so it is relevant,” he said. “It’s sort of a symbol of the cultural difference.”

But Rose Villazor, an assistant professor at the Southern Methodist University Law School, says Latinos might question bold talk about the rule of law because U.S. law has failed to protect minorities in the past.

“They look at this and say, ‘Is this really about the rule of law … or is it really about trying to drive out a population from a certain place?’” she said.

In an article by Mr. McGee in today’s Star-Telegram, we learn:

Both sides in the illegal-immigration debate are gearing up for aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns now that the City Council has decided not to enforce a ban on renting apartments to illegal immigrants unless voters approve it in May.

The council voted 5-0 Monday night to let voters decide on the ban in the May 12 election.

The council’s vote also changed the wording of the ban, adding a right to a hearing for people denied occupancy and some protections for elderly people and immigrant families with mixed legal status.

The city’s stance against illegal immigration has attracted lawsuits from Farmers Branch business owners, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

One lawsuit led to a temporary restraining order that blocked implementation of the rental ban, which had been scheduled to go into effect Jan. 12.

Councilman Tim O’Hare, who proposed the anti-illegal-immigration measures, said Monday’s move had nothing to do with any alleged violation of open-meetings laws.

One lawsuit contends that the council did too much of the work on the measures behind closed doors in executive session.

Despite these setbacks, more and more communities are considering similar solutions. From Springboro, OH, Lawrence Budd writes in the Middletown Journal, Group urges crackdown on illegal immigrants:

An incident last summer in which a Miami Valley man was allegedly killed by a Mexican man or men without Social Security numbers, American citizenship or any legal basis for U.S. employment is sparking a campaign to change laws that allow illegal immigrants to live and work in America.

Tonight, Citizens for Legal Communities will press Mason City Council to pass local laws fining or criminally charging employers or landlords of illegal immigrants. Next month, the group will bring its campaign to a Springboro City Council meeting.

An another article, Mr. Budd writes, Group’s campaign targets employers, landlords of illegal immigrants:

Citizens for Legal Communities was formed after the stabbing death of Kevin C. Barnhill, a well-known former athlete at Little Miami High School.

Barnhill, 27, of Mason, was last seen alive on Aug. 26, being chased behind the Mason Pub, moments before he was alledgedly stabbed to death.

Police say Barnhill had fought earlier that night with Jose N. Mota, 40, of Mexico, charged in connection with Barnhill’s death, along with his brother, Humberto Mota, 30, and Enrique Torres, 36, also both Mexican citizens.

Neither Torres, still on the loose, or the Motas, who are in custody, have Social Security numbers or any documents allowing them to legally live or work in the U.S., authorities said. However, they all were living in a rental on Tylersville Road in Mason, and Jose Mota was employed by a Fairfield roofing company, court records show.

Some landlords and business owners worry the proposed laws will create problems for them and conflict with federal laws limiting their inquiries of prospective employers and tenants.

They run the risk of violating other federal laws that prohibit discrimination, said Charles Tassell, director of government affairs for the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky & Southern Ohio Apartment Association.

“That’s the kind of place between a rock and a hard place we’re in,” Tassel said.