San Diego takes a big step in the right direction.

[75th]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20051014-9999-1mc14esco.html

Divided Escondido council backs illegal-immigration state measure


By Booyeon Lee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 14, 2005

ESCONDIDO – A divided council threw its support Wednesday behind a state proposal to create a police agency dedicated to tracking down illegal immigrants.

The City Council voted 3-2 to support the measure, called the California Border Police Act, which would authorize construction of prisons to house illegal immigrants and create a police agency devoted to enforcing immigration laws at the U.S.-Mexico border and across the state.

Councilman Ron Newman and Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler dissented, saying that while illegal immigration is a significant statewide problem, the initiative is not the right way to address it.

Councilwoman Marie Waldron requested the council's endorsement of the initiative by Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Temecula. At the council meeting, she connected the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with the presence of illegal immigrants in California.

Waldron, who is running for an Assembly seat, said, "Everyday the border is not secure, we're putting our families at risk," adding that the issue is personal to her because a friend died in the 2001 terrorist attack in New York City.

Waldron said the initiative would be especially effective because it would allow police officers to arrest employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Councilmen Sam Abed and Ed Gallo supported the request.

Waldron and Abed emphasized that the measure does not target Latino residents, but illegal immigrants.

Newman, a retired police officer, said a police officer stationed in Escondido to enforce immigration laws inevitably would stop residents because they appear to be Latinos.

Newman added that the initiative includes no training criteria for the police officers, which would create a safety hazard when working with the municipal police departments and the California Highway Patrol.

"I want to support this. I do. Conceptually, I understand why we need this," Newman said. "But I can't, when the L.A. sheriff's deputy association is the only law-enforcement agency in support of it."

 

[EnderJE]

Racist!

Seriously, kudos to them. Let's hope the other places (and Canada) pick this up. I'm all for legal immigration, but illegal?

 

[fogg88]

.

 

[Lestat]

San Diego is overrun already.

 

[75th]

San Diego is overrun already.

Every great journey begins with a single step my son.

 

[Razorguns]

This also mainly has to do with real estate.

Illegals running the borders is annoying real estate developres who want to buy precious land that is left undeveloped, yet will never hold value for prospective homes and factories, due to annoying illegals running around in those areas.

Most of the land within 10 miles from the border are no-mans land. No wants to build a house or factory there. Ask any ranch owner who via their location ensures their property value will never rise.

 

[Creepusmaximus]

This also mainly has to do with real estate.

Illegals running the borders is annoying real estate developres who want to buy precious land that is left undeveloped, yet will never hold value for prospective homes and factories, due to annoying illegals running around in those areas.

Most of the land within 10 miles from the border are no-mans land. No wants to build a house or factory there. Ask any ranch owner who via their location ensures their property value will never rise.

Interesting take on the illegals.

 

[Island Son]

And on the other hand... this from TIME magazine a couple of weeks ago.
Businesses depend on cheap labour
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1113903,00.html

Slim Pickings in California
The nationwide housing boom is pulling thousands of farm workers to better-paying jobs in construction. Will the shortage of labor cripple this season's harvest?
By LAURA LOCKE

Posted Tuesday, Oct. 04, 2005

California's raisin grapes are withering on the vine. In the Central San Joaquin Valley, source of nearly all the raisins sold in the United States, 30% of the season's grapes are still waiting to be picked. The reason, growers say, is an unprecedented shortage of field laborers. A typical six-week harvest requires more than 50,000 workers; this season, raisin farmers are short by 40,000 and stand to lose as much as 60% of their annual $500 million production.

It's a "pending disaster" says Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, which represents 3,000 farmers that grow, pack, and ship half of the nation's fresh fruit, vegetables and nuts. Already, he says, California's Central San Joaquin Valley is missing about 70,000 of the workers it needs. Growers worry that the lack of manpower will next hit the $1 billion winter lettuce crop in the border region between California's Imperial Valley and the Yuma Valley in Arizona.

The nationwide housing boom is responsible for much of the worker shortage. Field workers, mostly undocumented immigrants from Mexico, are increasingly ditching the minimum-wage, back-breaking temporary work offered in agriculture for more lucrative construction jobs, which pay from $11 to $15 an hour. An estimated 40% of the region's illegal agricultural workers have already migrated to the construction industry. The growers insist that their margins on produce are too small to offer higher wages, a claim that unions are challenging.

But wage competition isn't the only culprit. The United Farm Workers, a 27,000-member union in California, says workers are simply looking for better working conditions; this summer several California farm workers died from heat-related illness. A crackdown on illegal immigration by U.S. Border Patrol and vigilantes called "Minutemen" is also choking the supply of new workers.

Whatever the cause, Nassif, a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, is using the crisis to lobby for an emergency waiver that would allow undocumented immigrants to work during the current season. (Congress won't begin to look at any legislative remedies until later this fall, too late for this year's harvest.) "The President, the Administration, and the U.S. Congress have the ability to fix this," Nassif says. "They just have to believe that there is a pending crisis."

Critics have accused the big growers, like those in Nassif's organization, of exaggerating worker shortages to prevent tougher enforcement of immigration laws. But Manuel Cunha, Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League in Fresno, Calif., whose organization represents 1,000 small farmers, says this year's shortage is real, and likely to affect much more than the Central San Joaquin Valley. Winter lettuce, broccoli, and other crops could be next, then the large-scale agricultural producers in Texas and Florida, not to mention hotels, slaughterhouses and restaurants. "Businesses across the country depend on unauthorized foreign labor," Cunha says. "Congress must develop good immigration policies, now rather than later."

 

[nycgirl]

In Fairfax County, VA, there is a group of men that drive around and look for day labor workers hanging on corners or in parking lots waiting for work. If spotted, they call the police. Its there way of dealing with illegal immigrants. I think it is also in response to an ordinance passed by the City of Herndon in that county to build a center for day laborers to gather. I assume the rest of the county doesn't want something like this in "their" neighborhood.

Furthermore, there is concern about property values falling in that county. How far can the value a 750,000 townhome or 1.5 million Mcmansion fall?