Trespassing In More Ways Than One

Mustachioed and graying, dressed in the uniform of a full-time job he once had, Gonzalo Garcia is out in front of The Home Depot on Lake Worth Road most mornings, and it doesn't take much to catch his eye

A braking pickup or the wave of a driver's hand will send him and several other Hispanic day laborers rushing to the departing vehicle, their eyes bright with the possibility of a day's work.

Garcia, at 49 a father of four, says he tends to hang back as the younger workers push forward. But his counterparts often run, hoping to be chosen to paint, rip out drywall or lay bricks.

Garcia, an undocumented Guatemalan national who had a regular job in construction until being laid off late last year, said he and the others only want to work and have no other way to find steady pay.

"We're not here because we want to be here," he said in Spanish. "We need to be."

Garcia is NOT an "undocumented worker". He is an illegal alien, part of a massive invasion of MY country. He came here to take work away from legal residents, and in so doing drove wages down for those who play by the rules. I have zero sympathy for him and nothing but contempt for the unscrupulous bastards who employed him in the full-time job he lost.

The workers are allowed to stand on the sidewalk or along the shoulder in front of the store, which is considered public property. But sheriff's officials say they get into trouble when they block the entrance or wander past the hedges into the parking lot.

"I think it's solely a financial situation for them," said Palm Beach County sheriff's Capt. Paul Miles. "If someone else is standing out front and getting in the truck, they're getting the money."

This year the situation has worsened. In just January and February, deputies were called to the store 21 times for trespassing violations, compared with 27 such calls in all of 2008, sheriff's office statistics show.

Here's a thought, Capt. Miles. Put the sting operation on the assholes picking these guys up and paying them off the books without any taxes or Social Security or Medicare withholding.

The police in this town are enforcing trespassing laws because that's all they can do. The Federal Government is malfeasant in it's lack of enforcing the more serious law these people are breaking, which is illegal immigration.

The day laborers are almost all Guatemalans and admit good-naturedly that they occasionally trespass onto The Home Depot's property. They say there is no other way for them to get the attention of potential hirers.

Hey, why not be good-natured about committing a misdemeanor? They are getting a free pass on committing a felony.

"We're here for our families," said Moyno, 22, who came to Florida from Guatemala a year and a half ago and declined to give his last name because he is in the country illegally. "I have a father and mother to support."

I have a family, too. You are harming them, Senor Moyno. You are a criminal, period. Go home.