Don't feel sorry for Home Depot - Dignity for L.A.'s day workers

Former Speaker of the House and great Bostonian, Tip O’Neill, once said that all politics is local. He was advising politicians in Washington that the key to their success is meeting needs of their constituents back home. I’ve never seen a better illustration of this basic truth than the difference between the way the federal government and our city government are handling the issue of illegal immigration and undocumented workers.

First, let’s do the math. By most estimates, there are about 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. By the way, I don’t call them “illegal immigrants” because to me, the label “illegal” implies that person has gone through some sort of process and been determined to have entered and/or stayed in the country “illegally.” It’s documents, or the lack of documents, which would determine whether or not an individual is here legally. So until that person has gone through they system and been determined to have broken the law, the proper way to refer to someone who has immigrated to this country, but may not have gone through the proper channels, is “undocumented,” not “illegal.” Feel free to tell Lou Dobbs.

Not counting the ones with criminal records (a.k.a. “criminals”), the real number of “illegal immigrants” is about 500,000. These are “fugitive aliens,” or people who have received deportation orders from judge. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, the only agency that can enforce our immigration laws, recently started a program called “Operation Scheduled Departure” targeting those fugitive aliens and offering them (if I may quote Gladys Knight) a, “one-way ticket back to the lives they once knew” and a scheduled deportation. The program started in Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; San Diego and Santa Ana, California.

As a solution to the problem, it’s a Band-Aid on a gaping head wound. In the first week, this effort netted a grand total of six people – and only three who would have crossed our southern border. There was one Estonian in Phoenix, an Indian couple and a Guatemalan in Chicago, a Salvadoran in Charlotte, and one Mexican in San Diego. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a single person who volunteered to be deported from Santa Ana.

Of those 12 million undocumented people, about 8 million are in the workforce. Like the rest of us, they’re getting up every day and going to work, raising their kids, paying their bills, and trying to live their lives while worrying about how much it costs to fill their gas tanks and feed their families. Unlike the rest of us, if they’re being abused or taken advantage of at work, they can’t complain without having to worry about being the target of an (unscheduled) deportation. Imagine what it must be like to leave the house every morning knowing that the last time you saw your kids might be the last time you’ll see your kids. Think about all the grief your boss gives you at work, then think about how much worse it would be if your boss had the power to kick you out of the country if you mess up on the job. I was always one step away from choking the boss with a bike chain, so I know I couldn’t handle that kind of stress every day of my life.

But such is the power of a job. As a lure to this country (and this city), the promise of a work is so strong that they keep coming by the millions, even when our economy is weak. Our City Council knows this and, led by Bernard Parks, recently passed an ordinance that would grant “conditional use” permits to new big-box stores (like Home Depot) that would require them to provide shelters for day laborers equipped with trash cans, restrooms, and drinking water. The retailers are pitching a fit because they know they’ll eventually have to provide the same amenities at existing stores, but Home Depot can cry me a river – then build a bridge and get over it. Part of the appeal of these places is that homeowners and contractors can pick up parts, supplies, and workers all in one shot. It’s not too much to ask that these workers have a shady place to sit and water to drink when it’s 100 degrees in the Valley, is it?

America is well on its way to being a majority minority country and the fastest-growing segment of the population is Latino. In the next few decades, one-in-three Americans will be Hispanic. In L.A., the percentage of whites and Latinos is about even at 47%. By the time kids now in kindergarten graduate high school, whites will be a minority in this city and our politics will be local - and brown. Start brushing up on your Spanish.