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.
