Sandinator
07-17-2005, 09:42 AM
O.C. Day Laborer Site Target of Protest
Demonstrators oppose Laguna Beach partly funding a center used by undocumented workers with money from the Festival of the Arts.
By Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writer
About 100 opponents of illegal immigration lined a road leading to Laguna Beach's Festival of the Arts on Saturday to protest city funding of a day laborer site with money partly generated by the annual summertime event.
The site helps workers, many of them immigrants, find jobs regardless of their status.
The Laguna Canyon Road protest, which ended shortly after noon without any major incidents, marked the latest in a string of tense Southland illegal-immigration demonstrations in recent months.
"These rich people in Laguna Beach should be able to pay Americans an American wage," said Michael Jackson of Long Beach who joined the demonstration. "Illegals depress wages and that's why Americans aren't doing these jobs."
Across the street from the demonstrators, a half dozen supporters of undocumented immigrants held signs with messages such as "Stop the Hate."
The protesters "have a hidden agenda that is hate," said Naui Huitzilopochtli of Westminster. "They are scared of the browning of America."
At issue was the art festival's indirect funding of the Laguna Day Worker Center, which is a few miles north of the site of Saturday's protest.
The festival pays rent for the two months it uses city property. The money goes to Laguna Beach's general fund, which helps subsidize community groups, including the Cross Cultural Council, which runs the day laborer center.
The center, which opened six years ago, receives about one-third of its $75,000 annual budget from the city, said David Peck, chairman of the Cross Cultural Council.
"It's a real shame," center manager Irma Ronses said by telephone earlier in the week of two protests that preceded Saturday's. "These men are not criminals," she said. "They want to work. The protesters make it out like they are doing something to hurt someone."
About half of the 70 men who come to the center each day find jobs, mostly construction work that pays $10 an hour, Ronses said.
If undocumented immigrants left Laguna Beach, the city's infrastructure would collapse, Peck said.
Saturday's demonstration came two months after a tense protest in Baldwin Park over a Metrolink art monument that a Ventura-based citizens group said was anti-American. But the group was far outnumbered by counter protesters. There was no violence, but police had to escort group members to their cars.
Ten days later in Garden Grove, foes of James Gilchrist, founder of the citizen border patrol campaign known as the Minuteman Project, clashed with his supporters who had come to hear him speak. Five people were arrested.
Gilchrist attended the Laguna Beach protest. So did Barbara Coe, one of the authors of Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot measure which sought to deny public benefits to undocumented immigrants.
The demonstration was mostly peaceful. However, during one skirmish, one protester was restrained by police. No one was arrested.
Artist David Milton of Laguna Beach, who was participating in the festival, watched the protest and was not amused. He handed out homemade fliers that called the protesters "right-wing nuts" and included pictures of hardware nuts.
"These people do not represent Laguna Beach," he said.
Demonstrators oppose Laguna Beach partly funding a center used by undocumented workers with money from the Festival of the Arts.
By Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writer
About 100 opponents of illegal immigration lined a road leading to Laguna Beach's Festival of the Arts on Saturday to protest city funding of a day laborer site with money partly generated by the annual summertime event.
The site helps workers, many of them immigrants, find jobs regardless of their status.
The Laguna Canyon Road protest, which ended shortly after noon without any major incidents, marked the latest in a string of tense Southland illegal-immigration demonstrations in recent months.
"These rich people in Laguna Beach should be able to pay Americans an American wage," said Michael Jackson of Long Beach who joined the demonstration. "Illegals depress wages and that's why Americans aren't doing these jobs."
Across the street from the demonstrators, a half dozen supporters of undocumented immigrants held signs with messages such as "Stop the Hate."
The protesters "have a hidden agenda that is hate," said Naui Huitzilopochtli of Westminster. "They are scared of the browning of America."
At issue was the art festival's indirect funding of the Laguna Day Worker Center, which is a few miles north of the site of Saturday's protest.
The festival pays rent for the two months it uses city property. The money goes to Laguna Beach's general fund, which helps subsidize community groups, including the Cross Cultural Council, which runs the day laborer center.
The center, which opened six years ago, receives about one-third of its $75,000 annual budget from the city, said David Peck, chairman of the Cross Cultural Council.
"It's a real shame," center manager Irma Ronses said by telephone earlier in the week of two protests that preceded Saturday's. "These men are not criminals," she said. "They want to work. The protesters make it out like they are doing something to hurt someone."
About half of the 70 men who come to the center each day find jobs, mostly construction work that pays $10 an hour, Ronses said.
If undocumented immigrants left Laguna Beach, the city's infrastructure would collapse, Peck said.
Saturday's demonstration came two months after a tense protest in Baldwin Park over a Metrolink art monument that a Ventura-based citizens group said was anti-American. But the group was far outnumbered by counter protesters. There was no violence, but police had to escort group members to their cars.
Ten days later in Garden Grove, foes of James Gilchrist, founder of the citizen border patrol campaign known as the Minuteman Project, clashed with his supporters who had come to hear him speak. Five people were arrested.
Gilchrist attended the Laguna Beach protest. So did Barbara Coe, one of the authors of Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot measure which sought to deny public benefits to undocumented immigrants.
The demonstration was mostly peaceful. However, during one skirmish, one protester was restrained by police. No one was arrested.
Artist David Milton of Laguna Beach, who was participating in the festival, watched the protest and was not amused. He handed out homemade fliers that called the protesters "right-wing nuts" and included pictures of hardware nuts.
"These people do not represent Laguna Beach," he said.