Lounges for Illegal Laborers

In the,what can we do to make business more onerous category, the LA City Council-last seen imposing restrictions on fast food outlets-now wants one business to build shelters for day laborers. Predictably, the NY Times thinks this is a swell idea: "It’s rare, in the parched landscape of the immigration debate, to come across policies that are simple, realistic and humane. But here is one: The Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote on Wednesday on an ordinance requiring big-box home-improvement stores to protect order and safety when day laborers gather in their parking lots looking for work."

Now, aside for a second the wisdom of the idea in the first place, why is it the store's responsibility and not the city's? It seems to us that if the city doesn't want to take the responsibility for providing shelter for these folks than a single business shouldn't be, well, singled out. And than there's the status of the workers themselves.

As the Times points out, in its usual invidious way when it comes to illegal immigrants: "Opposition has erupted from the usual camps. Not all day laborers are undocumented immigrants or even immigrants, but a lot of them are, and the thought of doing anything that would make their lives easier makes some restrictionists howl and clutch their chests. “Lounges for Laborers?” one headline read." Heaven for fend!

And then the paper cites this as a safety ordinance: "Like any land-use law governing things like parking-lot lighting, curbs and sidewalks, the ordinance treats milling crowds of laborers and idling trucks as an integral fact of Home Depot’s business that should be managed before it becomes chaotic and hazardous. The solution is basic prevention, and could be as simple as setting up an area somewhere on store property with shade, toilets, drinking water and trash cans." Will cots and showers be next.

Now we know that the Times doesn't want to enforce the country's immigration laws, but we can see where this is going. Instead of a serious law enforcement effort to insure that the folks in this country are here legally, the paper wants us to roll out the red carpet for folks who didn't feel it was necessary to wait on line like millions of others have done.

And let's not forget the fact that in New City New York it was an illegal immigrant day laborer who raped and killed Mary Nagle in her home. There's a public safety consequence for the refusal to enforce the immigration laws. The NY Times doesn't care; and now it wants the citizens of Los Angeles to provide the illegals with towels and soap as the LA City Council washes their backs.