A couple of weeks ago, shortly after the arrest of two dozen day laborers in Baltimore, I mentioned that it had been a year since funding had been approved for a day laborer center in Baltimore. In today’s Baltimore Sun, Kelly Brewington writes about how the arrests seem to have refocused efforts on getting this center started:
The arrest of two dozen men waiting for work in a convenience store parking lot on charges of being illegal immigrants renews the urgency to establish an indoor employment center in Southeast Baltimore, say city officials and advocates.
Because indoor employment centers shield illegal migrants from ICE agents? I don’t get it.
Despite last month’s arrests, a throng of mostly immigrant day laborers continue congregating outside the 7-Eleven at Broadway and Lombard Street, seeking to earn their living each day as part of the area’s thriving underground economy.
But immigrant advocates say the system desperately needs to be changed. They say some workers are exploited by unscrupulous employers who prey on Latino immigrants who have little knowledge of English and of American workplace rights. And some area residents complain that the crowded street corner - where workers can often be found on sidewalks and medians - has become a neighborhood eyesore.
CASA employees say they have spent the better part of a year researching potential sites and reaching out to Southeast Baltimore neighborhood groups, merchants, residents and religious leaders to build support for a center. They say Baltimore has been more welcoming to immigrant workers than other cities and that many community residents in Southeast Baltimore have voiced support for a center.
But last spring, the first site CASA proposed at East Lombard and South Eden streets was rejected by parents at City Springs Elementary School, adjacent to the proposed site.
“I’m not against anyone having a job and feeding their families, everyone has the right to seek employment,” said Sharone Henderson, president of the school’s parent teacher organization and mother of a second-grader. “But not close to the school.”
Henderson said female students have complained about being harassed by men at the 7-Eleven, which is around the corner from the school.
“One of them said something to me, by the way,” said Henderson. “This is a K-8 school. And frankly, these kids see a lot of stuff in the community as it is. They don’t need to see that.”
CASA eventually gave up on that location. Although the new location is also claimed to have supporters in the community,
Dennis Sherman, president of CARE, said he is worried about increased traffic along Fayette Street and a possible decrease in property values in this small residential neighborhood, bounded by Washington, Fayette and McElderry streets and Patterson Park Avenue.
“People are starting to rehab their homes, and their property values are going up,” said Sherman, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years. “We don’t think this is going to help.”