Standing on the Corner

by Joe Lyons

            The Business Journal has invested quite an amount of ink in the immigration issue, especially recently.

            Now, rather than looking just at the big picture, let me focus on a small issue.

            I am referring to the day labor pool that hangs out at the corner of Arrow and Grove in Upland.

            To be accurate, that corner is neither in Upland nor Rancho Cucamonga. It is unincorporated county land, but you won’t find the San Bernardino County sheriff’s department traveling out of their jurisdiction and through the cities to get there.

            Somehow, new visitors to our country have figured out that this is a great place to hang out waiting for day work. Signs have even been put up in English and Spanish explaining that such gathering violates the law, but like I said, everyone there knows it is not going to be enforced.

            Now a day labor center has been set up. It is not much more than a tent with some tables and chairs. And even that is being ignored. There are still illegals hanging out down on the corner, leaning against those signs.

            Some years ago, the City of Riverside thought that the way to deal with the problem was to build nice clean little shelters at these gathering points. The thinking was, it must be better to build a restroom than to let them use the bushes. Others complained that nice new facilities would encourage more to come, and the new facilities would, in turn, begin to become sanitation problems in themselves.

            So the question remains.

            Build shelters that will encourage illegal day laborers to hang out, or do nothing and let them trash the place. And if they’re going to ignore the facilities anyhow, then why build them.

            What to do? What to do?

Could it be that, contrary to what that movie said, if you don’t build it, they will come anyhow?