[Ole Glory]

LA Times

AMY TAXIN

Associated Press Writer

February 2, 2010 | 4:06 p.m.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Day laborers sued a Southern California city on Tuesday, claiming a ban on seeking work on the street violates their civil rights.

The lawsuit filed against Costa Mesa in U.S. District Court comes after police dressed in plainclothes posed as employers in September and arrested a dozen workers, sparking the ire of immigrant rights groups.

It's the latest in a series of lawsuits filed by day labor advocates against California cities that limit workers' right to solicit employment on street corners. Advocates said laborers have a constitutional right to free speech and cities can't bar them from seeking employment and simultaneously let activists wave signs against the Iraq war.

"Our core constitutional principles of equality and freedom demand that a day laborer enjoy the same right to free expression as a political activist or a member of a charitable group," Belinda Escobosa Helzer, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, told reporters at a press conference Tuesday.

The city located 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles passed the ordinance banning work solicitation in 2005. Costa Mesa also shut down a labor center where workers previously congregated and stepped up immigration enforcement by partnering with federal agents.

Costa Mesa started enforcing the ordinance after residents complained about numerous people loitering and making noise, said Mayor Allan Mansoor. Most people were later found to have been in the country illegally, he said.

"I believe people have the right to express their free speech, but we also have to maintain order in the community," Mansoor said. "There are options for people to solicit work. I encourage people to do that through a legal means."

It is the eighth federal lawsuit filed in California by the ACLU and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund over such ordinances in the last 12 years, Escobosa Helzer said. The previous lawsuits have settled or been won by workers, she said. One was appealed and is pending a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The lawsuit comes as day labor advocates said they have seen more American citizens lining up at labor centers around the country because of the recession. Workers in Costa Mesa said they had yet to see Americans join them, but labor centers elsewhere in Southern California have.

"It is a rogue city in terms of protecting civil rights," said Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which is also representing the workers.

On Tuesday, two dozen workers and their supporters marched in Costa Mesa to voice their opposition to the ordinance.

"They don't want us to be on the corner and we just want to work to sustain our families, and ourselves," said Jose Anaya, a Mexican immigrant who has sought work as a day laborer in Costa Mesa for the last three years.

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