Gaithersburg’s quest to contain day laborers brings charges of racism

Proposed law would forbid people from asking for work or hiring on the city’s streets

Friday, Nov. 24, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Chris Rossi⁄The Gazette Elbridge James, a vice president of the Montgomery County NAACP, speaks at a public hearing Monday about Gaithersburg’s proposed anti-solicitation legislation. ‘‘This is an attack on people trying to do honest living,” James said. ‘‘It is an attack on the American spirit.”

Emotions ran high on Monday night as lawmakers heard from some new voices on the proposed law. Most of those packed into City Hall decried city leaders for considering the law.

It has no place in a city that claims to follow the Character Counts model of promoting good citizenship, some said.

‘‘I see no character at all in this measure. I see bigotry,” said city resident Joe Schuler, who lives near the North Frederick Avenue parking lot where the day laborers gather.

Gaithersburg officials have struggled for years to find a resolution to what has become known as the city’s day-laborer problem. Dozen of workers, many of them illegal immigrants, congregate in an Olde Towne parking lot each morning and wait for contractors or others to come to hire them, raising the ire of some.

The proposed ordinance would make it illegal to solicit work or hire on city streets.

A revised version of the law included slight changes that repositioned the measure as a public safety issue.

A diverse range of groups testified Monday against the measure, expanding the debate to human and civil rights.

‘‘This is an attack on people trying to do honest living. It is an attack on the American spirit,” said Elbridge James, a vice president of the Montgomery County chapter of the NAACP.

Latino business leaders also made their first public comment on the issue.

‘‘You know and I know that this proposed legislation is not about a pedestrian safety issue,” said Jorge Ribas, president and CEO of the Western Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. ‘‘... This is not about protecting citizens. It is about using the heavy hand of government to intimidate and harass people.”

He continued, ‘‘It should be about enlightened and courageous leadership, not about the pusillanimous leadership that avoids doing what is right and meekly listens to what a mob has been telling them to do. Illegal immigration is wrong, but to try to correct it in this manner ... is worse.”

Supporters of the law — six of the 32 who spoke — argued that it is simply a way to bring order to the chaos they say has become the norm.

‘‘Please pass this worthy and just law and end the nightmare that my neighborhood has endured for over a year now,” said Mike Stumborg, who also lives near the day laborer gathering site in the Olde Towne historic district. ‘‘Because no one else was willing to sign up to let their neighborhood be destroyed by this activity doesn’t mean it’s fair to continue to let our neighborhood bear the brunt of this problem.”

While the hearing offered no insight into what city leaders will do with the proposed law, it exposed the depths to which opposing sides have been divided.

The Rev. Mark Brennan of St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church argued that even if the city passes the law, day laborers will continue to live in Gaithersburg.

‘‘You’re setting up a real confrontational situation, and I hope you avoid that,” he said.

At that point, tempers flared in a brief but tense confrontation in which one speaker tried to grab a placard another was holding.

As Olde Towne resident Lauren Husted thanked the city for ‘‘taking this bold step,” the Rev. David Rocha of Camino de Vida, a day-laborer advocate, stood behind her in line holding a sign that read ‘‘To Work is Not a Crime.”

He held it high and close behind her as she spoke.

Sitting nearby, Stumborg rose and ripped the sign away from Rocha, who turned and smiled his response: ‘‘I forgive you.”

Stumborg then called Rocha a derogatory name.

Mayor Sidney A. Katz urged calm, and the tension passed, but speaking a few moments later, the Rev. Simon Bautista, who is assigned to Episcopal Church of the Ascension, said he worried that the exchange could be a harbinger of things to come if the city were to pass the law.

‘‘We have just seen here a piece of what is going to happen ... the hate getting into our hearts as we lose control of our emotions,” he said.

But Bob Drzyzgula, another Olde Towne resident, saw it differently.

‘‘We just saw a demonstration of an inability to wait one’s turn, an inability to demonstrate respect for other peoples’ opinion,” he said. By holding up the sign, he said Rocha ‘‘was demonstrating his arrogance and his impatience.”

Drzyzgula added, ‘‘What I see in the anti-solicitation ordinance is an effort to ask people to not try to take over property that doesn’t belong to them. ... I don’t see that this has anything to do with racism or hatred. I think it has to do with wanting to see public order restored.”

Public comment on the proposed law will continue to be accepted for 30 days.