(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has expanded its investigation of day laborer sites for illegal aliens to include the City of Laguna Beach, California, home of the Laguna Day Worker Center. Documents recently obtained by Judicial Watch under the California Public Records Act indicate the city spends thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to operate the facility, which helps day laborers find jobs. According to several studies, many of these day laborers are undocumented aliens who are not legally eligible to work in the U.S.
In addition to funding portable restroom facilities and trash removal for the day laborer site, the City of Laguna Beach also provided a $21,000 “community assistance” grant in 2006 to the Cross Cultural Council, a non-profit organization which operates the facility. According to the Laguna Beach budget for fiscal year 2006-07, the Cross Cultural Council received more “community assistance” funding than any other single organization, including the Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach, Long Beach Seniors, and the CSP Youth Shelter, a local shelter that provides emergency housing to victims of abuse.
Federal law prohibits the hiring of an undocumented worker and makes it unlawful to “encourage or induce an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.”
The Laguna Day Worker Center investigation is an extension of Judicial Watch’s campaign to help enforce federal immigration laws. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on behalf of local taxpayers against the Town of Herndon and Fairfax County, Virginia in 2005 for using taxpayer funds to bankroll a day laborer site. That lawsuit is currently pending before the Circuit Court for the County of Fairfax. Judicial Watch is also investigating a taxpayer-funded day laborer site in Houston, Texas as well.
“How can our borders be controlled when cities such as Laguna Beach are providing taxpayer-funded employment assistance to illegal immigrants? Laguna Beach’s illegal immigrant day laborer site flies in the face of federal immigration law and is an affront to the rule of law,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch will continue to investigate the Laguna Day Worker Center and may take further legal action.”
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently ordered the City of Laguna Beach to shut down the Laguna Day Worker Center after it was discovered that the facility had been operating on state-owned property not permitted for its use. On July 10, 2006, however, Caltrans agreed to lease the property to the city for “fair market value.” The lease expires June 30, 2007.