CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : ENCINITAS : Emergency Declared Over Day Laborers

The City Council made Encinitas the first community in California to declare a state of local emergency after failing to independently solve its migrant laborer problem. The declaration calls for the federal government to allot more resources to the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as to provide jobs, education and emergency housing for an estimated 800 to 1,500 homeless migrants living in the San Diego County city. Among a list of 21 reasons for calling the state of emergency was the constant presence of undocumented workers who solicit work from parking lots and street corners, “creating traffic congestion, safety hazards, litter and disrupting business.” A spokesman for the state’s Office of Emergency Services said he knew of no available funding for the city’s migrant dilemma. Migrant advocates called the declaration more rhetoric than action.