Loxahatchee Groves Illegal Alien Hiring Hall

Closed long before this posting on November 1, 2013.

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History:

Loxahatchee Groves, Florida Town Council has co-operated with Acts II Assembly of God Church toward the opening of the Buena Fe Day Labor Referral Center.  The site is scheduled to open March 11, 2008.  Town Council members deny expending public funds toward the center facility or operation, which differs from Jupiter, Lake Worth, and Miami-Dade where significant funding has or definitely will occur.

Concerned citizens are urged to make contacts to oppose the center.

Mayor David Browning
Vice Mayor Marge Herzog
Councilman David Autrey
Councilman Bill Louda
Councilman Dennis Lipp

Town of Loxahatchee Groves Office
14579 Southern Boulevard, Suite 2
Loxahatchee Groves, FL  33470
Phone:  561.793.2418
Fax:  561.793.2420
 

Buena Fe Day Labor Referral Center:
13000 Okeechobee Blvd
Loxahatchee, Florida 33470
561-798-3981
E-mail: actmail4@Buenafe.org

The center is sponsored by:
Acts II Assembly of God
13000 Okeechobee Blvd., Loxahatchee
(561) 798-6995
Senior Pastor Calvin Lyerla

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Palm Beach Post Editorial, Saturday, December 01, 2007 (expired link):

Loxahatchee Groves fills feds' immigration void

Loxahatchee Groves is barely a year old but the town of 3,000 already has taken on immigration problems that the federal government has been ignoring for decades.

Last month, the town council approved a church group's plan to open a labor center on Okeechobee Boulevard to give immigrant workers a place to find jobs and services. The Acts II Worship Center plans to open the Buena Fe Day Labor Referral Center on Jan. 2 in a double-wide trailer on the church's property.

The need for the center is obvious to anyone who drives on Okeechobee Boulevard any weekday morning. Dozens of immigrant workers gather at the intersections looking for jobs. A survey by Acts II found an average of about 100 men on the road most days. Getting workers off the streets and into the center not only eliminates potentially dangerous traffic situations but also will help reduce crime. Immigrant workers have been frequent victims of robberies and assaults in Loxahatchee. The center gives workers who have had minimal connection with the community a place to engage with the town and find support.

The need for immigrant labor around Loxahatchee Groves also is obvious. Employers at the area's many farms, construction sites and residential developments can't find American workers to do the menial jobs that must be done. While the federal government continues to ignore the reality that immigrant labor is essential to the U.S. economy, Loxahatchee Groves is responding honestly and progressively at the front lines of the real world.

The model for Buena Fe (Good Faith) is Jupiter's year-old El Sol Neighborhood Resource Center, which also relies on a partnership with a religious group, Catholic Charities. On Tuesday, El Sol graduated 55 more immigrants from a popular nine-week English course.

Complaints are unfounded that immigrants don't want to learn English. In fact, nationally, the demand for classes exceeds the supply. A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that nearly all Hispanic adults born to immigrant parents in the United States are fluent in English. As with immigrants from Europe a century ago, Hispanic families pick up the language through their children, and it can take a generation to become fluent.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a politically moderate Washington think tank, reports that 29 percent of Florida's nearly 3.5 million immigrants are in the country illegally. Nationally, immigrants account for one in eight U.S. residents, the highest level in 80 years. Nearly one in three is illegal.

Congress and the federal government keep finding new ways to ignore these numbers. Jupiter and Loxahatchee Groves are looking for new ways to deal with them.