Today’s New York Times reports that the Home Depot at St. John’s and I-35 has been faced with the problem of day laborers congregating in its parking lot to look for work. Apparently, the city’s day labor center, located nearby at 51st and I-35, is not attracting enough employers to fulfill the needs of the day labor workforce, made up mostly of illegal immigrants. Due to their immigrant status, day laborers have often faced public opposition. Arizona recently passed a law banning cities from even having day labor centers and Austin’s old day labor center at Cesar Chavez and Lavaca was forced to relocate when the city signed a deal to make way for Computer Sciences Corporation and a new City Hall. NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) is the operative term.

Why don’t the workers just use the official day-labor center, you might ask?

Jos