Redondo Beach to ask U.S. Supreme Court to uphold day laborer law

Redondo Beach to ask U.S. Supreme Court to uphold day laborer law

By Matt Stevens | October 6, try 2011 | 2:27pm | Source: L.A. Now Blog (LATimes)

 

Redondo Beach to ask U.S. Supreme Court to uphold day laborer law

Photo: Day laborers and supporters march on Redondo Beach City Hall. Credit: Brian van der Brug.

In what’s likely to be a final effort to salvage its controversial day laborer law, officials in Redondo Beach said they would urge the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling that declared the city’s anti-solicitation ordinance unconstitutional.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-2 last month to strike down the law, which has been on the books in Redondo Beach for about two decades.

Experts said the ruling could have consequences for dozens of other cities that have adopted anti-solicitation laws, which are often used to control day laborers who gather on public streets and sidewalks while seeking work.

City officials have maintained that the ordinance was meant to promote traffic safety, but it sparked controversy in 2004 when police arrested more than 60 laborers in a monthlong operation dubbed the Day Labor Enforcement Project.

Though the appeals court was decisive in its ruling, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski issued a sharply worded dissenting opinion, arguing that “when large groups of men gather at a single location, they litter, vandalize, urinate, block the sidewalk, harass females and damage property.

“The majority is demonstrably, egregiously, recklessly wrong,” he continued. “If I could dissent twice, I would.”

City Atty. Mike Webb said Redondo Beach modeled its law after a nearly identical Phoenix ordinance that the 9th Circuit upheld in 1986.

“If cities can’t do that then there’s no way for cities to be able to responsibly protect public safety and welfare,” Webb said.

But Pablo Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, one of the plaintiffs in the case, called the appeal a “scam of taxpayers’ money.”

“This is a violation of human and civil rights,” he said. “I thought this was going to be a time for dialogue, for openness, for finding constructive solutions — not engaging in this type of back-and-forth anymore.”

Photo: Day laborers and supporters march on Redondo Beach City Hall. Credit: Brian van der Brug.

Day laborer center to host fundraiser

By Scott Brinton, sbrinton@liherald.com

Coloki, Inc., a nonprofit group set up by Merokean Liz O’Shaughnessy to run the Freeport Work Hiring Trailer that aids impoverished day laborers, will host a benefit fundraiser at Mulcahy’s Pub and Concert Hall in Wantagh on Saturday, Nov. 19, from 5 to 9 p.m.

The evening will include an open bar, open buffet and live music?featuring Cat Parr & Friends.

Tickets are $50 each. Tax-deductible donations of $50 per ticket should be made out to Coloki Inc. and sent to Liz O’Shaughnessy, 27 Surrey Drive, Merrick, N.Y. 11566, or donations can be made safely via PayPal on Coloki’s website at colokiinc.com.

Tickets sold on the night of the event will be $60. For more, call Liz at (516) 996-9298.

The Freeport Work Hiring Trailer, which is made possible in part by a grant from the nonprofit, Port Washington-based Hagedorn Foundation, provides immigrant day laborers with a warm, dry, safe place to stay while they wait for landscapers and contractors to pick them up for jobs. A the same time, the trailer offers warm meals to dozens of day laborers who might otherwise go hungry, along with English language lessons.