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Day laborers, advocates urge sanctuary protections after ICE detentions; council asked to act
Summary
Day laborers, advocates and family members said ICE arrests near a Home Depot have terrorized workers who gather to seek work; speakers called for a sanctuary ordinance, a protected hiring site and a halt to police cooperation with ICE.
Multiple speakers and organizing groups asked the City Council to adopt protections for day laborers and to stop practices they said invite federal immigration enforcement.
Organizers and residents described a series of recent detentions of day laborers after public comments at council meetings and alleged that citations, traffic enforcement and other city actions had left laborers vulnerable to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We want an ordinance that says San Bernardino will not collaborate with ICE and protects undocumented residents from unjust detention," said Diane Lopez, a licensed clinical social worker, who urged the council to pass both a sanctuary ordinance and a specific protection for day laborers who gather to seek work.
Alexis Teodoro, worker rights director for the Pomona Day Labor Center, told council staff and members that several day laborers were detained and deported in recent weeks after public comments and that police or traffic officers had ordered laborers to move their trucks. "We want the city of San Bernardino to do more. We want an explicit ordinance that says the city will not collaborate with ICE," Teodoro said, and urged short-term measures including allowing day laborers with trucks to park on 20th Street between Massachusetts Avenue and Lincoln Drive and immediately stopping enforcement that removes laborers from sidewalks where federal courts have previously recognized the right to solicit work.
Speakers described fears that deterrence and citations push workers to more precarious locations and that missing income compounds poverty and housing instability. Family members of detained workers urged council support for legal and social assistance for those in immigration detention.
City response and next steps: Council did not adopt an ordinance at the meeting. Multiple council members and staff acknowledged the requests and the urgency of the issue; organizers said they will seek follow-up meetings with the mayor, the council member representing the Home Depot corridor and city staff. Advocates asked for an immediate stop to street-level enforcement near the Home Depot at 1055 W. 20th Street and for the city to create a formal day-labor hiring site and parking accommodations for trucks seeking work.
Provenance (transcript evidence): topicintro: public comment excerpts beginning at transcript block 6475.98 — Alexis Teodoro and others; topicfinish: repeated ICE and parking allegations in blocks through 7243.895 — "We want City of San Bernardino to do more."
