Protesters force center shutdown

SOUTHWEST GLENDALE ? A small protest by the group Save Our State forced the brief shutdown of the city's day labor center on San Fernando Road Saturday, after protesters entered the center to confront a prospective employer.

An official at the center closed the gates for at least 15 minutes at about 11 a.m. after Save Our State representative Don Silva and another group member equipped with a video camera walked onto the property and asked a patron not to pick up any of the day laborers. The individual, who did not identify himself, left without hiring anybody after Silva gave him the address of a business that hires out only documented laborers.

"The gates were only closed for a few minutes," said Juan Rodriguez, who manages the center on behalf of Catholic Charities. "We are contracted to run these centers and they are interrupting our contracting duties."

It was the first time that Catholic Charities had decided to close the gates of the Glendale center as a result of a protest, said Jess Duran of the city's Community Development and Housing Department.

"They closed it because there wasn't enough coordination with the Police Department to have the patrols that Catholic Charities felt they needed to have" in order to prevent the protesters from entering the property, Duran said.

There were more than 50 people in the center seeking work at the time of the closure. But even before the doors were closed, no one had stopped to hire any workers while the Save Our State protesters were in front of the center. They wielded signs reading "Illegal Aliens are Terrorists" and waved American flags as they urged passing drivers not to pick up the workers, many of whom, they claimed, are undocumented.

The protesters, who typically set up in front of the Glendale or Burbank day labor centers once or twice a weekend, have an effect on business, said day laborer Victor Romero.

"When they see employers coming they stop them and they scare them away," Romero said. "They are only here for a little while, but while they are here they drive away a lot of people. If they were here all day we wouldn't have any work.

"We just want them to at least stay outside the fence and leave us alone," he added.

The protesters have no right to actually enter the day labor center and disrupt business, said City Atty. Scott Howard.