Outrage in Lake Worth, FL as “undocumented workers” lay seige to local Home Depot

The Palm Beach Post published a story this past weekend about a contentious issue regarding “undocumented workers” (read: illegal immigrants) that is causing massive headaches at a Home Depot in Lake Worth, FL:

Mustachioed and graying, dressed in the uniform of a full-time job he once had, Gonzalo Garcia is out in front of The Home Depot on Lake Worth Road most mornings, and it doesn’t take much to catch his eye.

A braking pickup or the wave of a driver’s hand will send him and several other Hispanic day laborers rushing to the departing vehicle, their eyes bright with the possibility of a day’s work.

Garcia, at 49 a father of four, says he tends to hang back as the younger workers push forward. But his counterparts often run, hoping to be chosen to paint, rip out drywall or lay bricks.

The onslaught, a symptom of the voracious competition for dwindling numbers of day jobs, can be surprising to the unsuspecting, and even frightening.

In recent years, the Hispanic day laborers have become as much a part of the scenery at The Home Depot west of Lake Worth as the fence and hedges, and as more lose full-time jobs in construction or landscaping, their numbers seem to have grown.

The Home Depot is not pleased. Blaming the job seekers for causing accidents and driving away customers, the world’s largest home improvement retailer has been working to discourage them from rushing vehicles in the driveways and trespassing in the parking lot.

But the need for work keeps pushing the men forward, and the result has been an entrenched standoff.

Garcia, an undocumented Guatemalan national who had a regular job in construction until being laid off late last year, said he and the others only want to work and have no other way to find steady pay.

“We’re not here because we want to be here,” he said in Spanish. “We need to be.”

After repeated warnings, meetings and occasional trespassing arrests, the sheriff’s office has resorted in recent months to undercover stings to try to keep the laborers in place.

The workers are allowed to stand on the sidewalk or along the shoulder in front of the store, which is considered public property. But sheriff’s officials say they get into trouble when they block the entrance or wander past the hedges into the parking lot.

[…]

Full-time work has become increasingly difficult to find, they say, and if they’re only looking for work they should be allowed to find a way to earn money.

Others feel differently. Miles said the sheriff’s office receives calls from customers who are frightened or annoyed after being surrounded by job seekers. General contractors and builders often send their wives in trucks to pick up supplies at the store, he said, and the women are sometimes startled when well-meaning workers surround the truck and try to open the doors.

Local store managers declined to comment. A corporate spokesman said in a statement that “the existence of day laborers is a complex social issue beyond The Home Depot’s control. Like many businesses in the community, we maintain a policy of non-solicitation at our stores.”

The sheriff’s department there used to conduct sting operations against the illegal immigrants in an effort to get them away from Home Depot and harassing customers, but they aren’t doing it anymore after an incident in which an illegal found found out the “contractor” was an undercover officer. The illegal jumped out of the truck and hit his head on the sidewalk.

Astoundingly, last month Lake Worth opened up a “resource center” designed to place some of these illegals in jobs:

The Lake Worth Resource Center opened two months ago with the aim of securing employment for day laborers, many of whom probably don’t have work visas. Depending on your point of view, it arrives at either the best, or worst, of possible moments.

The economy is in the crapper, putting seasoned carpenters, contractors, and laborers of all stripes out of work. Lisa Wilson, the center’s director, estimates that 85 percent of the 1,100 job seekers that have registered with the center’s database are immigrants that might normally congregate on street corners or in front of Home Depots in search of odd jobs. She figures that another 10 percent are U.S. citizens.

“Pingmaster,” a commenter to that story, pretty much nailed it:

Originally the reason for having the day labor center was to remove the traffic problems caused by vehicles stopping on Lake & Lucerne Ave to pick-up day laborers. It was also to address the loitering along the main entry and exit in & out of Lake Worth.

This problem still exists because there is no enforcement of any of the loitering, indecent exposure and littering laws.

The illegal immigration laws which are overlooked locally & federally are also turning our city into a third world city.

Unemployment for legal citizens is at an all time high which should make this a priority before hiring illegals. All the rhetoric coming from our elected officials that the immigration system in place now does not work therefore we need comprehensive immigration amendments is hype!

Enforce the laws on the books and they will work, but you have to enforce them before they can work!

I’m definitely down with that, and I say that as someone who is in favor of comprehensive immigration reform as well as enforcement of the existing laws we have on the books.

Think this problem is going to go away anytime soon? No, it’s not. The WH has too many “more pressing issues” to attend to, and this is one of those hot button issues that – considering the knockdown drag out fights over the last several years in Congress – few politicos would dare to touch, especially on the Democrat side. As I’ve discussed before, this was the problem with the warring factions on the immigration bill failing to come to a consensus during the course of the Bush administration. It was an issue that was left for the next administration and Congress to handle, and considering the current make-up of both, any immigration “reform” bill we get over the next four years (if we see the issue brought up) will make the one so many conservatives opposed a couple of years ago look like a Hall of Fame for Best Legislation Ever candidate.

And the beat goes on.