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DON'T PEE ON OUR LEGS AND TELL US IT'S RAINING (We try to straighten out the Daily Pilot about the Job Center, again)
by H. Millard (c) 2001 - 8/30/01
As readers of my columns will probably remember, the City of Costa Mesa, California sits on the Orange County coast next to upscale Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. And while Costa Mesa was once very close to those communities in quality of life issues, it has been driven down to Third World levels over the past few years.
Many citizens of the city blame the problems partly on the Job Center that the city opened to try to handle a few loitering day workers. Instead of solving the problem it has increased the problems in the city. The reality of Costa Mesa is similar to what happens when you feed a few pigeons and soon end up with a flock of thousands of pigeons. These workers now not only use the job center, but they also congregate on street corners all around the city just as they did before the job center. Only now, there are many, many more of these day workers.
In "If anything, fix the Job Center, an editorial appearing in the Daily Pilot on August 30, the newspaper writes, "[It] should be noted that the city does screen workers at the job center to ensure they have the legal status to work there."
Sorry. If the city uses a screen, its mesh is far too big. On more than one occasion I have gone unannounced to the Job Center early in the morning to observe. Each time, I have witnessed busses originating in Santa Ana arriving at the Job Center and disgorging full loads of Spanish speaking men who then line up with the other day workers presumably from Costa Mesa, to be "screened."
The screening consists of these men going single file in front of a desk where there are two Spanish speaking female city employees. The day workers put their ID cards on the desk in front of the city employees. The city employees DO NOT LOOK UP at the day workers to see if there's a match between the papers and the day workers, but simply make marks on a piece of paper. Then the day workers proceed to a seat at the center. It takes about five seconds for this "screening" of each worker.
When I asked Glen Stroud, the city employee in charge of the Job Center, about the screening procedure, he told me that the employees are not trained to determine who is legal or illegal and they are instructed to accept just about any ID cards so long as they "aren't written in crayon."
When I suggested that there might be legal liability for the city acting as a hiring hall for illegal aliens, Mr. Stroud told me that it is the responsibility of the employers to screen their workers. And, of course, we all know that employers do that. Right?
And, what about the employers? More than half of them don't live in Costa Mesa. They commute to our city in order to exploit cheap labor for their financial gain. In fact, the city government of Newport Beach even picks up day workers from Costa Mesa to clean the beaches in Newport.
So, who's paying for all this? The citizens of Costa Mesa both in direct and indirect ways. In direct ways we're paying more than $ 130,000 per year in tax money to support the job center. In indirect ways, we're paying for the fraying of our social fabric, and we're paying for the degradation of our quality of life and the stagnation of our property values as measured against our sister cities of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.
How do the day workers make ends meet on the small amounts of money they earn? Through various charities that give them free medical and dental care, help with the rent, help with the utilities, free food, free clothes and more. To put roofs over their heads many of these day workers live ten to twelve to a room. In fact many of the charities in Costa Mesa are expanding, even in the face of a good economy. I've visited most of the charities, and most of the people using them are Spanish speakers. When asked, the charities say that they don't screen for legal status.
Costa Mesa has become known as an easy touch among illegal aliens, and they are now flocking to this city, partly because of the Job Center. If the Daily Pilot editors doubt it, then they should please tell us why the charities are expanding in a good economy. They should tell us why most of the people using most of the charities are Spanish speaking. They should tell us why Costa Mesa's schools are at Third World levels and some are almost 98% Spanish speaking. They should tell us why we're seeing increasing numbers of day workers loitering all around the city. They should tell us why we have Latino gangs. They should tell us why we have abandoned shopping carts. They should tell us why Westside is slum central, even though it has magnificent views and sits right next to Newport Beach. They should tell us why we have such a high crime rate. They should tell us why the most famous restaurant on the main street of the Westside--19th Street--is a free soup kitchen. They should tell us why we're so different from our two sister coastal cities of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. They should also tell us what they told the family of their long time employee, Donna Jacobsen, who was stabbed to death by an illegal alien who was using the Job Center that is defended by the Pilot.
Please Pilot, tell us all of the above, but to quote Judge Judy, "don't pee on our legs and try to tell us it's raining."