Tensions Mount As Day Laborers Face Arrest Threat

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 21, 2006

Police told day laborers yesterday that they would face arrest if they continue to gather at a Gaithersburg parking lot each morning to wait for employers to hire them.

About a dozen Gaithersburg police officers arrived before sunrise to monitor the shopping center parking lot at 117 N. Frederick Ave. in response to a request from the property's owner, D.C.-based S&B Partnership.

A demonstration at the parking lot yesterday drew few of the 75 to 100 day laborers who have gathered there regularly in recent years. Most of them feared arrest, said those who did turn out.

The dozen or so laborers who were there, all of them immigrants, had a prayer vigil and marched to City Hall with seven ministers and priests from local churches and officials from CASA of Maryland, a nonprofit advocacy group for immigrants.

No arrests were made, but Gaithersburg Police Chief Mary Ann Viverette said officers would continue to enforce trespassing laws indefinitely. "This is not an immigration issue," she said. "It's a trespassing law issue."

The controversy has polarized the city of 58,000 and heightened tensions between city and county officials. The County Council has pushed Gaithersburg, which is 20 percent Latino, to open a center similar to county-funded facilities in Wheaton and Silver Spring, where day laborers learn English and computer skills while waiting for jobs such as painting houses and laying brick.

Last year, the city agreed to refurbish a nearby building, at 17 N. Frederick Ave., if the county leased it. But those plans were scuttled when residents complained. Since then, city officials have been searching for another site, but county officials have questioned their commitment.

"We remain committed to assisting the City in getting a center operable, but are concerned that Gaithersburg has made little progress in identifying a permanent site," the county's chief administrative officer, Bruce Romer, wrote to Gaithersburg City Manager David B. Humpton on Tuesday.

Humpton said the city has worked for a year to find a center, considering and rejecting 30 locations. He said the city is in discussions with another shopping center owner. "It is difficult here," he said. "It is difficult everywhere to find a worker site."

Paul Meehan, the property manager of the shopping center, said S&B Partnership asked police to enforce the trespassing law because "the neighborhood put a lot of pressure on the owners to stop people gathering in the parking lot."

CASA of Maryland officials and the clergy members advised the laborers to begin gathering this morning in the parking lot of the county-leased North Frederick Avenue building that was going to be converted into a center.

Last night, county spokesman David Weaver said Humpton had sent county officials a letter asking them to authorize city police to enforce trespassing laws at the county-leased building at 17 N. Frederick Ave. Romer sent a letter declining to do so, and he said the county would consider accepting an offer from the pastor of Gaithersburg's St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church to place a temporary center there.

Similar controversies have divided communities throughout the country, including the Fairfax County town of Herndon, where voters this year ousted the mayor and two Town Council members who supported a day labor center. Some have called for a halt to the use of public funds in operating the center. Others want it moved, possibly to an industrial or commercial area. The council is expected to schedule a hearing on this issue this year.

In Gaithersburg, the proposal to open a site sparked the creation of the Maryland branch of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an Arizona-based group that opposes illegal immigration. The Maryland Minutemen have periodically monitored the parking lot.

Stephen Schreiman, the Maryland chapter director, said yesterday that the group, which has about 100 members, would start a petition to recall city leaders if they open a center.

"I would hope that the city sees the writing on the wall and realizes that opening a day laborer center is an illegal activity, a violation of federal and state law," he said.

Yesterday morning, police officers watched quietly as clergymen and day laborers prayed and waved signs that read "To Work is Not a Crime" and "Dignity for All." The demonstrators had a brief news conference in the parking lot, and newspaper and television reporters, photographers and camera operators surrounded them.

"This is not fair. This is not justice," said David Rocha, pastor of Gaithersburg's Camino de Vida United Methodist Church and one of the day laborers' key leaders.

Isaias Hernandez, 36, a Gaithersburg resident who left his native Mexico 13 years ago, burst into tears as he told his story. "It makes me sad that we are treated this way," he said in Spanish. "I've been here for 14 years and believe me, I haven't done anything wrong."

Only one counter-demonstrator appeared, a man who carried an American flag and wore a National Rifle Association cap. He told reporters that his name was Jerry but would not give his last name. "I see all these illegals," he said. "It's not right. They broke our laws."

After a brief prayer vigil, the laborers and their supporters marched along Route 355 to City Hall to demand a meeting with the mayor or city manager.

Humpton complied. He sat across from Hernandez at a picnic table and heard his plea for a center. "I want you to know that the mayor and the overwhelming majority of the council supports a center," Humpton told the day laborers. "The question is where."