M ayor Sheila Dixon?s recent Transition Team Report resurrected support for a Baltimore day laborer center.
The reason: “The need for a Worker?s Center is profound and continues to increase.”
First, the report should divulge the numerical equivalent of “profound,” as in how many workers would use it now? And how many are projected to use it in the future?
Second, it needs to explain why taxpayers should pay CASA of Maryland to run it. The fact that “it was understood that the Center was a partnership between the City and CASA” is not an answer. What will we the people gain from such a set-up?
Taxpayers deserve specific ways it would benefit the entire city, not least because many of those who would benefit from it may not be working here legally. CASA clearly stands to benefit. It operates three facilities in Montgomery County like the one proposed in Baltimore.
According to a Jan. 23 Examiner report, contracts show the group can receive more than $100,000 apiece to run the two facilities. Information on the third was not available, and calls to CASA were not returned Friday.
The group is a Takoma Park-based nonprofit that advocates for Latino immigrant rights. It received all three contracts to run the centers without having to make a competitive bid.
Another reason to question CASA?s motives is that while it?s happy to take money from U.S. taxpayers, it does not seem to like U.S. immigration laws.
CASA officially denounced a late January raid by Department of Homeland Security that carried away about 30 Latinos in Fells Point waiting for work at the 7-Eleven at Broadway and Lombard, saying those taken were “honest people” and the officers “terrorized a community.” No doubt many of those living in the region illegally do so because they want to make a better life for themselves and their families and do not break laws once here.
But taxpayers must not be asked to pay for a group that seems to think the law about not showing up here legally isn’t a law to be obeyed. If CASA can?t or won?t agree to abide by all the laws of this nation, including those it does not like, it should pay for operations with money other than ours.
We’d also like our mayor to explain why she would support such a business.
But first the city must decide if such a center is necessary and explain its reasons to residents.
