The day laborers should pay it. After all, only they benefit from a place for them to look for work.

What a joke!

Please be serious with your comments people. The day worker center certainly isn't a joke that benefits only the day workers. The alternative is more day workers waiting for work along El Camino Real and I can't imagine that the above commentators would prefer more of that.

Believe it. It is a joke. Illegal workers should be arrested. Picking-up illegals along El Camino Real and transporting illegals in a vehicle should be against the law in Mountain View, CA as it is in AZ. The police in Mountain View have no business pulling citizens over for anything (revenue raising) while this lawlessness continues.

The Day Worker Center is a great idea. Let's make it better by requiring any person or business who uses it to provide their name, address, and total hours and wages paid. For the workers, name, address and total income will work. The information would inspected on a monthly basis and made available to the public, as with any other government agency. Deal? Yeah, I thought so.

Daniel DeBolt - I was very serious with my comment. That wasn't an attempt at censuring our ocmments, was it?

So you are saying that the day laborers will blackmail us, and you condone that? If we don't spend our money on them, they'll overcrowd our sidewalks and private property?

Ever notice how they don't stand on sidewalks? Because that is public property, which gives police the authority to deal with them.

They shouldn't blackmail property owners, forcing the owners to allow them to loiter and solicit. Nor should property owners just put up with it. If they do, I'll take my business elsewhere.

But since you feel soliciting work is fine, why not allow solicitation of ALL work. Think real hard, and I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean.

These people are not going to blackmail me.

One good thing about centralizing this activity is that loyal American citizens can photograph the license plates of disloyal American citizens picking up scab labor.

That's right, laugh it off. And keep laughing when you pay higher and higher taxes for government "services" that hold only certain people accountable to the law.

Posted by Alan:

"...Let's make it better by requiring any person or business who uses it to provide their name, address, and total hours and wages paid. For the workers, name, address and total income will work. The information would inspected on a monthly basis and made available to the public, as with any other government agency..."

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Actually, Alan, all employers who use the Day Worker Center do indeed provide their name, phone number, number of hours of work needed, and hourly rate they pay to the DWC staff when they come to pick up a worker. Similarly, the workers all register with the DWC and provide their personal contact information as well as some basic demographic information. The DWC is a 501(c)3 non-profit, not a government agency. Do other non-profits that provide services (to battered women, alcoholics, the elderly, people who don't have money for food or shelter or legal aid or medical care or counseling, etc) make available to the public personal information about their clients?

I didn't think so.

Okay Robin, employers need to report the names of workers to the government, not to the DWC. They need to pay payroll taxes. The DWC seems like a convenient work around to avoiding taxes on both the employers side and the workers side. Why the effort to conceal that they are providing employees to employers? It's a farce. A scam. And you know it. What protects it from being a source of exploitation? You should look into some of the stories behind that aspect of it.

Day laborers wouldn't be needed or around if good ol' red-blooded Americans didn't hire them. Does anyone stop to think about that?

And how much more are you all willing to pay if/when all the illegal immigrants here go home? Are you willing to pay double for your fruits and vegetables? How about a third more for your kitchen remodel?

These people aren't taking jobs Americans want, they are taking jobs that Americans NEED to get done. Without question, the whole California agricultural economy would collapse if they left and employers had to hire people at minimum wage with OT and disability laws applying to them... if it could be done at all since few Americans want to work those jobs right now as it is.

If you want to stop illegal immigration, the solution a lot simplier and expensive than locking up and deporting illegals: you lock up the people who hire them. But since they are our neighbors and pastors and friends and co-workers, we don't want to do that. So we pick on illegals instead.

Hope you illegal bashers are proud of yourselves, you exemplify America at its best.

Day laborers wouldn't be needed or around if good ol' red-blooded Americans didn't hire them? So you're saying that only American citizens hire them? Illegals don't hire illegals?

These people aren't taking jobs Americans want? Wrong again! I stood out near the corner of El Camino and San Antonio beside Rite Aide for two days. No one hired me. No one! Yet people who fit the perfect profile of a day laborer were continually hired? Why? Because employers want no accountability if something goes wrong. I have also tried working in the fields near Salinas. Again, no one would hire me. Why not...? After all, you say they aren't taking jobs that American's want. How naive. And are you also saying that they wouldnt take better jobs if given the chance?

Answer me this: What happens to the money that they earn? Does it stay within our economy?

It is a joke. Why? Because the city is using tax dollars to set up a place to allow those here criminally to "hang out" and wait for someone looking to hire workers for a low wage and not worry about benefits. Supporting criminals is criminal.

Last time I checked, none of the illegals living on California or standing up and down El Camino Real were picking fruit and vegetables. More likely they are undermining American jobs and prices for gardening, house cleaning, nanny jobs, and simple construction projects that some Americans are too cheap to pay a fair wage for. Many work as dishwashers in local restaurants that our many citizens love to hang out at. Some on California Ave work in the meat packing facility in San Jose. Some of those used to be good union jobs. My guess is more are saving a buck by exploiting illegals that screwing Americans out of jobs. It's called exploitation. And no taxes are being paid on their wages to help support the strain they put on the welfare system. The point ignored is that they could be given a seasonal work visa status. My bet is they wouldn't want that. Better to set up shop here, cry discrimination, and then get on the government welfare, since it's sure better than what's being offered in Mexico.

We need illegals and the DWC. Everything is so expensive. It cost $14,000,000 t0 build trail underpasses. City and hospital "public" workers and police and fire are paid insane pay and benefit packages. If it were not for the illegals bringing down the cost of other things, we would be taxed to death. Hooray for them. Through their exploitation they are saving us quite a bit of money.

Saving us money? How are they saving money when much of the money they get will be sent out of the USA in the form of money orders,etc. Next time you're at a local store offering money orders, ask how much money they send outside of the USA.

There is nothing right about inviting and encouraging people that gained entry into the country via illegal methods.

Also, if these people are here legally then they should be checking out the local unions. When I worked for a union and things were slow I'd head over to the union and some times find a contractor looking for legal hires. People that hire people that don't have the right to work in the States is more guilty for knowingly hiring these people.