Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
Luke E. Williams Jr., Executive Director
1521 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90017
(213) 353-1333
(213) 353-1344 fax

CHIRLA came into being in 1986 as a response to the federal Immigration Act (IRCA), bringing together a multi-ethnic group of immigration-related organizations to promote the civil and human rights of immigrants, with particular attention to the "amnesty" aspects of the law.

Although advocates viewed IRCA as a challenge, Luke Williams said, "In retrospect, it turned out to be a very POSITIVE piece of legislation in contrast with the 1996 Welfare and Terrorism bills."

Covering not just Los Angeles but a broad stretch of Southern California from San Diego north to San Luis Obispo and east through Riverside, CHIRLA now represents 125 grassroots organizations, serving as both a clearinghouse and information provider to agencies and individuals about immigration laws and rights. Working primarily through committees with members representing its various organizations, CHIRLA's two primary committees deal with CITIZENSHIP and LEGAL SERVICES; in both cases, committee members work with immigrants, immigration lawyers and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to identify problems and negotiate to correct them. CHIRLA sponsors technical assistance and training sessions for grassroots groups, and works heavily with media and community groups to influence opinion regarding immigrant issues in California's often-hostile political climate.

CHIRLA has a staff of 10 and a $500,000 annual budget. In addition to its many advocacy, clearinghouse, information and training efforts, CHIRLA also runs two model direct-action organizing projects: CHIRLA Day Labor Project and CHIRLA Domestic Workers' Project, which are described below.

Chirla Day Labor Project
Pablo Alvorado, Coordinator
1521 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90017
(213) 353-1333
(213) 353-1344 fax

What could be more unfair than taking legal immigrants who want desperately to work and support their families, and telling them that they may not look for jobs?

Incredibly, that's exactly what is happening in many Los Angeles neighborhoods, where neighbors chanting "NIMBY" invoke political power and the force of law to ban the practice of manual laborers gathering on commercial street corners offering themselves for casual work.

Under the influence of suburban businesses and neighbors, Los Angeles County supervisors have placed strict limits on day laborers soliciting work on public or private property; and some suburban towns, like Redondo Beach and Ladera Heights, add the force of their own local police to issue citations and fine individuals who dare to ask for work despite the law.

Residents cite a laundry list of problems associated with day-labor sites, Pablo Alvorado said, ranging from traffic congestion and noise to littering, public urination, and fear of crime, drinking, drugs and worse by the congregated working groups. It's hard to believe that racism isn't a factor as well, although in some cases, it's prejudice with an unexpected twist: The site in Ladera Heights, one of the neighborhoods in which a mostly Latino day-labor site has provoked the greatest controversy, is both affluent and predominantly African-American.

For the past three years, CHIRLA's Day Labor Project has sought to resolve the controversy in Ladera Heights by bringing together representatives of the neighborhood, business, local police and county sheriff and the laborers themselves to work out their problems. The day-labor group, while not acknowledging that the workers are guilty of the offenses that neighbors charge, have organized themselves in a self-governing group, holding each other to strict rules of behavior that it would be difficult for anyone to criticize.

The process seems to be working, as problems on the site, have diminished, and at least some of the police and security guards are no longer as hostile as in the past. Meanwhile, the laborers' group has developed so much esprit that its members have formed a soccer team and a band.

I visited the site, located in the parking lot of a Home Base home-supply store at Fairfax and Slauson, early on a foggy morning, when about a dozen hopeful workers had assembled in hope that people seeking manual labor, gardening or construction help would soon come by and offer them a job for the day.

With Pablo interpreting, I talked with two of them, Ramon and Socorro, both immigrants from Guatemala who say they want nothing more than to be able to support their families with dignity. Ramon, a father of four, said he had to give up minimum-wage jobs because the pay wasn't enough to support his children; day labor pays better, he said, when he can get it, sometimes as much as $260 a week. Socorro, a sturdy, wrinkle-faced 72-year-old, said his obvious age makes it difficult for him -- employers doubt that he can handle heavy work -- but his pride keeps him in at it, in a 1990s version of the same old immigrant story that made America great.

CHIRLA Domestic Worker Project

Cristina Riegos, Coordinator
1521 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, Calif. 90017
(213) 353-1333
(213) 353-1344 fax

While CHIRLA's Day Labor project was doing a great job of organizing men, Cristina Riegos said, it became apparent about five years ago that someone needed to do the same for women immigrants, who typically ended up as maids, housekeepers and nannies, a job setting that's difficult to organize but ripe for exploitation in a one-on-one relationship between an affluent, educated Anglo homeowner and a frightened new immigrant, unsure of her rights and typically illiterate in English.

The project began with aggressive outreach, as CHIRLA's staff boarded buses around the Los Angeles Basin, approached Spanish-speaking women who appeared to be on their way to work at domestic jobs, and distributed brochures and information outlining their rights, including a delightful comic book, "Super Domestica en: El Caso de las Trabajadoras Explotadas" ("Super Domestica in the House of the Exploited Workers," in which the title character -- a female super-heroine wearing a cape, a mini-skirt and high boots -- shows a harried and overworked housekeeper how to negotiate appropriately for her workplace rights.

This project had some good impact, as did efforts to organize domestic workers at the parks where they would gather to chat and share stories while watching over their young charges in perambulators; but organizing remained difficult.

It's not easy for a young woman with a marginal job who grew up under a military regime in a war-torn country easily to trust a stranger, particularly if that stranger's message is that it's good to question authority.

But with the help of these measures and good exposure on talk shows on Spanish-language radio stations, the Domestic Workers Project has evolved into a community organizing group with about 30 members (and growing), whose members meet monthly and plan projects to assert their rights. In one early but not easy victory, they won an injunction against an employment agency that had been charging rapacious fees and failing to deliver either jobs or a refund.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

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