Anti-illegal immigration group wants names of businesses from labor centers

Paula Hipolito, from Peru, sits with other women and their male counterparts in the Casa de Maryland Day Labor Center while they wait for prospective employers to hire them for the day, on Thurs, July 19 in Wheaton. Some employers prefer men to women, however, both men and women show up in the early morning hours to put their names as high on the list as possible and wait, sometimes all day long, for the chance to work and make money.

(Greg Whitesell/Examiner)
Paula Hipolito, from Peru, sits with other women and their male counterparts in the Casa de Maryland Day Labor Center while they wait for prospective employers to hire them for the day, on Thurs, July 19 in Wheaton. Some employers prefer men to women, however, both men and women show up in the early morning hours to put their names as high on the list as possible and wait, sometimes all day long, for the chance to work and make money.

Kathleen Miller, The Examiner
2007-08-01 15:47:00.0
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Montgomery County -

Representatives from a Montgomery County anti-illegal immigration group say they will try to use a federal law to obtain the names and addresses of businesses employing day laborers at county-funded centers.

Brad Botwin, founder of Help Save Maryland, said he will deliver a Freedom of Information Act request for the business and worker information to County Executive Ike Leggett’s office today.

The U.S. Congress approved the FOIA in 1966 to give the public greater access to government records.

“We’re asking for a list of all the employers that have used the centers in Rockville and Silver Spring and Wheaton,” Botwin said. “... We believe this is public information.”

Botwin said he wants to create a database of businesses that use day labor center workers so people opposed to the centers can know which businesses to avoid.

“The citizens of Montgomery County should know what businesses are going in there and hiring illegal aliens,” Botwin said. “This is like a Better Business Bureau on those companies.”

County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the county doesn’t have the information Botwin is seeking.

“Our contractor has that information, not us,” Lacefield said. “You can’t FOIA us for stuff we don’t have.”

The county pays CASA of Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group, to run the day labor centers.

“Generally speaking, we don’t have information generated by our contractors,” Lacefield said. “They might have contacted us before to see if we did have this stuff, to save them a trip.”

CASA of Maryland Executive Director Gustavo Torres said he did not believe his organization would be required to turn over the identities of day laborers.

“We don’t believe instruments like FOIA were created by Congress to allow hate groups to harass private individuals,” Torres said.

kmiller@dcexaminer.com