Santa Cruz County planners give blessing to Live Oak day worker center

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A long-planned day worker center is set to go into a Live Oak neighborhood after its permit was approved Friday by county planners. The development comes after years of work by supporters of the plan, who hope to create a safer environment for workers and employers to conduct business. But the approval comes amid objections of many neighbors who showed up at a hearing Friday to lodge concerns about traffic and safety. “A lot of happiness, ask very happy, ” beamed day laborer Rodrigo Perez, who spoke through a translator and predicted the center would be popular with workers. “They will come because we need the center. They are already waiting for it to open.” – Santa Cruz Sentinel 03.02.2012

Santa Cruz day laborer house green-lighted – KSBW

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A house in the Live Oak neighborhood of Santa Cruz got a green light from the county zoning commission Friday to be converted into a center for day laborers.  The one-story house at 2261 Seventh Ave. is slated to become a hiring center and hangout for hundreds of day laborers looking for work. A Friday morning vote by the Santa Cruz County Planning and Zoning Commission approved the day labor house project.  For years, day laborer have congregated outside Home Depot and ProBuild home improvement stores on River Street in Santa Cruz and 41st Street in Capitola, waiting in hopes of getting picked up for a job. Supporters of the center, run by the Community Action Board, said it would help match employers with workers’ skill sets, protect day laborers from getting cheated out of pay, and give laborers a place to go instead of public streets and sidewalks. – KSBW 03.02.2012

Baltimore Mayor Signs Order to Prevent Police from Asking About Immigration Status

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Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has signed executive order prohibiting police officers from asking people they come in contact with about their immigration status. “Police are working to make our city safe. We are not working as immigration agents, seek ” Mayor Rawlings-Blake said. The announcement comes just days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it would begin implementing the Se Communities program in Baltimore—the controversial federal program that sends booking information from local jails to a joint database shared by the FBI and ICE. The order bars discrimination against immigrants, and bans the use of city funds to investigate or question people suspected of violating of federal immigration law unless required by the state or U.S. government, [according to WAMU.org] COLORLINES 03.05.2012

Immigrants, city fear divide over status checks – Baltimore Sun

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Julio Cesar Ayala knew he was taking a risk when he decided to overstay his tourist visa four years ago, but he never expected to be threatened with deportation for climbing behind the wheel of the family’s silver minivan. The 53-year-old Salvadoran was stopped by a Baltimore County police officer last year and had to admit that he didn’t have a driver’s license. Hours after he was handcuffed and separated from his 9-year-old granddaughter on the side of the road, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received an automatic notification of his arrest through a controversial and burgeoning federal program called Se Communities. He spent nearly two weeks in jail for a traffic violation. He now faces a deportation hearing in April. “I’ve never had any problems before,” said Ayala, a Cockeysville resident and grandfather to eight children born in the United States. “I feel trapped.” – Baltimore Sun 03.01.2012