Hire workers within the law

On June 19 and 23^rd, the City of Lake Worth contacted The Mentoring Center to hire some workers to move furniture for the City. The Public Works Director, Joe Kroll, did not specify whether the City wanted documented or undocumented workers. He was only following instructions...hire some people. The Mentoring Center fulfilled the city’s request.

So, who is the employer in this situation? Does The Mentoring Center act as an employer by gathering the I-9 information or is this the responsibility of the person or entity that hires someone registered with them? If there is no I-9 on file with The Mentoring Center, then how can anyone prove that the worker is documented or not? If the City is the employer, than it would have to go through the I-9 process. Who issues the 1099? Because the amount paid is so small, are these workers being paid in cash or is the check charged off to some other department other than miscellaneous wages?

Originally when it first opened it was published that

Workers who come to the center will be offered breakfast, language and computer training, and access to a variety of other services in addition to a chance at finding work. As is the policy at El Sol and Buena Fe, center staffers will not ask the legal status of laborers.

Names, photos, emergency contacts and skills of workers will be entered into a database at the Lake Worth center. Employers who register will be able to search the database for workers by skill or by name. The service is free.

So, if you go by that description, The Mentoring Center does not know if a worker is legal or not and it does not collect I-9 information. How then would the City know if it got documented or undocumented workers?

Ms. Stanton, our city manager, says that the city has been supporting The Mentoring Center. Well, the city government has been supporting it because the commission, on a 3 to 2 vote was for giving over our shuffleboard court building, kicking the legal residents out, to this group for $1 a year in order to get the illegals off our city streets and to stop employers from stopping on the roads and picking up day laborers. This was all done for the sake of "safety."

But the truth of the matter is, it is only the city’s elected government that is in support of this illegal enterprise, not the city of Lake Worth residents, other than a small number of open border and faith based groups, some of which aren’t even located here in our city limits. Whether the Sheriff’s Department or the City of Lake Worth has made a “good faith effort to support residents in the community who are undocumented” is not the question. The City has been forced into this situation because of politics and the 3 votes from the dais. Former Commissioner Vespo as well as Lowe do not get off the hook here because they believed in a mentoring center concept but not at that location.

The argument from those who support this is always that we are a diverse community, brown is here to stay, get over it, live with it and if you say one thing in opposition to people crossing our borders willy nilly, they throw out the race card. Those are their ONLY arguments. My statement has always been, live within the laws of our country. There should be no argument.

We agree that the City has not acted responsibly in enforcing the Federal Immigration and Naturalization statutes and as a legal resident, my feelings on this issue were not solicited. In fact, I spoke out against it. It was all a political decision that is diabolically in opposition to Federal law.

I do not think that it should come as any surprise that it brings about “strong emotions.” The fact that we are a diverse community has nothing to do with it and it is a lame excuse for breaking laws. Who decided that this was to be a Sanctuary City? It was not we, the legal residents here. Contempt for the law by a government is totally unacceptable. We are a land of laws.

We are happy to know that the city manger, Susan Stanton, will only hire documented workers in the future. I would like to know what documents are used to verify that workers can legally accept employment. The Mentoring Center has already stated that it does not ask anyone their legal status or collect that information.

The Mentoring Center is holding itself up as an employer and those who use them need to be assured that workers are documented. The E-Verify program is free to all employers and available in all 50 states. Not all States subscribe to this program and we urge Florida to make it mandatory. An employer finds out the worker’s name, Social Security Number, date of birth, citizenship status and any other non-citizen information on an I-9 form that is submitted to the government and entered into a database. E-Verify will verify the status of that worker and whether he is eligible to work in this country.

The City of Lake Worth has taken one responsible step by saying that it will hire only documented workers but it appears that it is up to the City to determine this status as The Mentoring Center has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

documents that establish identity