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Life & Times Transcript
08/10/05 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --It's an organized way to match day laborers with jobs, but why are critics bent on closing it down? Ira Mehlman>> We don't do a good enough job controlling the border, but even more so, we do nothing at all to go after the employers who hire illegal immigrants. Val>> And then, Next Stop Mars. A hands-on exhibit offers the sights, sounds and challenges of space travel. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val>> We've all seen them. They are immigrant workers hanging around U-Haul or Home Depot hoping to get work. Well, now cities across the country have set up official day labor centers, but like anything with immigration, it's controversial. Now one Southland city is planning to shut theirs down. Sam Louie went to Costa Mesa to find out more. Sam Louie>> At the break of dawn, these men sit patiently waiting for work. There are at least one million day laborers nationwide with twenty-five thousand of them right here in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, giving this region the largest concentration of day laborers in the country. Dr. Abel Valenzuela, Jr.>> This is mostly a male-driven market where men look for work on street corners or what I call open air street markets. They might be in front of storefronts such as Home Depot or Lowe's. They might be in an empty parking lot or perhaps at a park or just your typical intersection. Sam Louie>> Dr. Abel Valenzuela, Jr. is a UCLA Associate Professor of Urban Planning. He's been studying day laborers in the United States for several years and is scheduled to release a national study about the issue in September. Dr. Abel Valenzuela, Jr.>> They live in the neighborhoods where they look for work. A large part of their resources are used to support family members, a spouse, children. Another part of this money is remitted back to their country of origin to help either their parents or a spouse or children. Sam Louie>> With so many men looking for work, the number of organized labor sites is also growing. Dr. Abel Valenzuela, Jr.>> We surveyed sixty-three worker centers across the United States and seventy-five percent of those worker centers were created within the past ten years. So the extent that the growth of these worker centers is an indication of the number of day laborers that are looking for work in different parts of the country, that I think is a good indication of how this market has grown. Sam Louie>> The growth of day labor centers in this country has been matched by increased opposition. Some cities now ban the public funding of these sites on the basis that they encourage employers to hire illegal immigrants. Here in Costa Mesa, the City Council voted to close this facility by the end of the year. Back in 1988, Costa Mesa, an upper middle-class suburb of Orange County, was one of the first cities to start a day labor site. Mark Taylor>> They would be standing on street corners, in the parks, and it presents an issue to some folks who may not want to use the park because there are so many people waiting. Sam Louie>> Mark Taylor is the manager of the job center. He estimates that more than one hundred people show up on any given day with a third of them getting work. Mark Taylor>> All of the day laborers out there wait for our staff to assist in the placement. Our staff approaches the contractor, finds out the requirements of the job, how many hours, what type of job it is. Sam Louie>> The system is simple. As workers arrive, they're given a number and the jobs are given in numerical order. Most importantly, Taylor says the day laborers must be registered with the city, which means showing proof of their legal status with some form of identification. However, he concedes that the city does not check to see if the documents are genuine or fake. Mark Taylor>> We're not an enforcement agency, so we do not verify the accuracy of the information presented to us since we are not the employer of that individual. Sam Louie>> But in May, the City Council voted to stop funding the site which costs just over a hundred thousand dollars to run. Costa Mesa Councilwoman Katrina Foley voted to keep it open, but knows why others voted against it. Katrina Foley>> The government shouldn't be in this type of activity and the taxpayer shouldn't pay for these types of programs to be encouraging illegal immigration. Sam Louie>> She believes the job center serves a vital need and should stay open. Katrina Foley>> A lot of times, people who are doing day worker contract type jobs get taken advantage of and, if something were to happen to either the employer who was hiring the worker or the employee, at least the city has some information about who the parties are. Sam Louie>> But others see this as an example of city's supporting illegal immigration. Ira Mehlman>> When communities open up these hiring centers, what happens is they become magnets for more people to crowd in and look for work. It sends the message that the local community countenances this sort of violation of the law, that they're simply going to look the other way at the fact that these people have violated immigration laws and helps them find jobs that they're not supposed to have. Sam Louie>> Ira Mehlman is with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or F.A.I.R. Ira Mehlman>> We don't do a good enough job controlling the border, but even more so, we do nothing at all to go after the employers who hire illegal immigrants. So the message has been sent all across the world that, if you can get to the United States, somebody will hire you and the law enforcement agencies will do nothing to try to prevent companies and individuals from hiring people who are in the country illegally. Sam Louie>> Mehlman believes that day laborers benefit only a few people, with society taking on the additional social costs of supporting undocumented workers. Ira Mehlman>> Whether it's health care, whether eventually these people bring their families to live in the United States and then we become required to provide education for their kids, all the human services that people require and can't afford to pay for because they're earning such low wages then get passed along to the taxpayers. Sam Louie>> Juan Fernandez says he's a legal resident who moved to Costa Mesa from Mexico City ten years ago. He says that he prefers day labor over a regular job because he can get more money from day labor. Juan Fernandez>> Right now, they pay me twelve dollars, fifteen dollars. Sam Louie>> Fifteen dollars an hour? Twelve dollars an hour? Juan Fernandez>> Yes. Sam Louie>> More than minimum wage. Juan Fernandez>> Yes, exactly. Sam Louie>> Although the vast majority are immigrants, there are a few American citizens. Three years ago, Tony St. Onge says he was making minimum wage and was homeless. Tony St. Onge>> I really was virtually on the street sleeping behind, you know, dumpsters and things like that. I was working out of another day labor agency, but it only paid minimum wage and you can't live on minimum wage. Sam Louie>> He says the Costa Mesa job center gave him an opportunity to make more money and turn his life around. Tony St. Onge>> Well, it got me off the street. I have a place to live now. Before, I was living on the street. Now I'm renting a room out of a house. I have a place to live. That's how it's changed my life. Sam Louie>> Tony and other American citizens make up the minority of day workers. According to the study, seventy-five percent of them are here illegally. Mehlman says that it's the illegal workers who take jobs away from Americans. Ira Mehlman>> The simple law of supply and demand says that, if you flood any labor market, the price of labor is going to go down. And for the people who used to do those jobs, that's really unfair especially if the competition is coming from people who are in the country illegally. Sam Louie>> In the meantime, workers like Tony are afraid they'll be homeless again. Tony St. Onge>> If they close this place down, I'll be back on the street again. Most of these guys will end up on the street if the city closes this place down. You know, nobody lives for free. We won't be able to pay the rent. All these guys have families, they have kids they have to support. That will hurt a lot of people. Sam Louie>> And some City Council members are concerned that, without the site, workers will be exploited and past problems resurface. Katrina Foley>> They had hundreds of labor transactions going on in the public parks, so it was deterring families from being able to go and have a picnic or play, you know, in the tot lot at the local parks. Sam Louie>> Although this day labor site is scheduled to close in December, a future site could spring up with the help of nonprofits. Day labor sites make up just a sliver, about ten percent, of the illegal immigrant work force, but these sites are growing. So although Costa Mesa will be shutting this one down, experts say that it's unlikely to make a big impact on the overall illegal immigration problem. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times". Val>> It was forty years ago this week that the Los Angeles Watts riots of 1965 broke out. It was a dangerous time if you were a white reporter, but that didn't stop Karl Fleming who was the Bureau Chief for Newsweek at the time. Fleming was your classic intrepid reporter. He covered all the major events of the civil rights movement. As a southerner, he was able to infiltrate the KKK. He was born into poverty and understood blacks' frustration and blacks in turn trusted him and often protected him. But it was a different story when Karl moved to Los Angeles. I talked with Fleming about how he was nearly beaten to death in Watts. Karl Fleming>> I came out here to be the Los Angeles Bureau Chief for Newsweek in early 1965 and thought I was leaving all the violence that I had been a part of in the south covering the civil rights movement, and then Watts blew up. Whereas, in the south, I had often taken refuge with black people when my life was endangered by white people, sheriffs, Klansmen, other segregationists, out here suddenly I was the white guy and I was the enemy. Val>> So you came here in early 1965. What was the Los Angeles police like? What were they like at that time? Karl Fleming>> I got to the PR from the sheriffs and the police to show me around South Central and I was stunned to hear these guys use the "N" word as freely as I had heard it used by the most redneck sheriffs and cops in the south. Then I went to the 77th Street Precinct station in South Central and there on the wall was a picture of Eleanor Roosevelt and underneath it was scrolled the "N" word lover. I was shocked. The cops looked different riding around in their air conditioned cars in their crisp uniforms, slender, military, polite, but underneath this was the same racism that I had seen in the south which was in part a cause of all the anger that erupted and caused the big Watts riot which happened a few months after I got here. Val>> So it was the summer of 1965 and you found yourself in a very dangerous situation and you know danger. Karl Fleming>> I had been in many violent situations down south, been shot at, been beat up and threatened with hanging, been followed at night in cars, had my phone tapped, had my copy destroyed. It was a danger, but this was all by white people. Suddenly here in Los Angeles, the anger was from black people and I was shocked. I'd never seen this before. I got off the freeway when the riot broke out, drove off Manchester Boulevard and it was like bedlam. Great plumes of smoke and flame going up in the air, cops racing back and forth, fire trucks racing back and forth, guns going off, black people running and screaming, "Kill Whitey", carrying loot, stores on fire. It was hell and suddenly I was threatened. Two black guys walked up to me and said, well, with a lot of profanity, "What are you doing down here, Whitey?" I said, "I'm a reporter". They said, "You'd better get your honkey butt out of here or you're going to get killed." I walked over to a cop and he said, "You'd better be careful. They just beat a white guy and pulled his eye out." So there was a huge amount of black rage directed to anybody white who happened to be around and I happened to be around. Val>> So what was the turning point that put you personally in danger? Karl Fleming>> In the following months, a black guy was driving his wife to the hospital. She was pregnant and about to have a baby. He had a white handkerchief tied to his radio antenna which, in his native Georgia, was a signal of an emergency. When a cop started chasing him, he thought it was an escort, but, of course, it was not. The cop finally got him over to the curb, something happened and the cop ended up shooting him dead. Of course, there was another explosion of anger and I was covering one of these demonstrations. People were getting angrier, angrier, angrier. You could feel the electricity in the air. I could always tell. I ran and put my camera in the trunk of my car and was walking back when suddenly it was lights out and I woke up on the sidewalk looking up at these angry black faces. I could see my blood running down the street and I thought I was dying. I thought, no, not like this, not like this. I don't want to die lying face down on some street in Los Angeles after all I'd seen in the south, all I'd been through, and being almost killed, I later learned, of course, by black people. One hit me across the head and then several tried to stomp me to death. It was quite an emotional shock. Val>> So your skull was fractured and other injuries as well, but you managed to recover from this? Karl Fleming>> I had two broken jaws, some spinal cord damage. I had a sudden eruption of asthma which persists to this day. I still have a limp, but I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter at all about any of that. It was my great good fortune to be involved in the civil rights movement. I've been down to South Central a lot in the last while and much has changed. Thousands and thousands of black people have moved up into the middle-class. The police are better. Problems persist, for sure. There are huge drug problems, there are huge problems about families, there are huge problems about education, but things have changed. I walked into the 77th Precinct station, for example, and there was a black and a Hispanic cop smiling behind the desk and off to the side was a black Explorer Scout troop serving lunch and having a fundraiser. I thought this was truly symbolic of a profound change in South Central. Val>> This is the place you'd seen the Eleanor Roosevelt poster? Karl Fleming>> Correct. So I thought that was a big symbol of a lot of change. Not to be glib about this, because there is a huge problem. There's a kind of an attitude in white Los Angeles and around the country of this. You burned the town down. We came here and we poured millions and millions and millions of dollars into the black community. We don't want to hear any more about it. Work it out. We're done here. And that's unfortunate. But still, having said that, huge positive change has been made. I think this current police chief is better than some of his predecessors, so I think there's improvement. I don't want to forget the riot at all. I would not do that, but I'll tell you this. Black anger is always under there, always under there, and it can be provoked. I hope it will not be. I hope things will continue to get better. I believe they will. Val>> Well, Karl Fleming, thank you so much for an incredible career and a wonderful book. We appreciate your time. Karl Fleming>> Thank you. Val>> You can read more about Karl Fleming's life and career in his book, "Son of the Rough South: An Uncivil Memoir". To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val>> We've all seen it as we drive along the 5 Freeway through Santa Ana. It's that big black cube. Well, have you ever wondered what's inside? Well, it's the Discovery Science Center and, as Orange County reporter Roger Cooper found out, it's a great place for kids' imaginations to soar. Roger Cooper>> The Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, its famous cube right beside the 5 Freeway, and Janet Yamaguchi, the Discovery Science Center has a new half million dollar exhibit about space. What's it called? Janet Yamaguchi>> Well, it's called "Space: Next Stop Mars". Roger Cooper>> And it starts right here. Let's take the tour. Janet Yamaguchi>> Yes. Let's go. Roger Cooper>> The Shuttle. Janet Yamaguchi>> The Shuttle we're using to help inspire the youth of Orange County to get them interested in the field of space and get a chance to see what it would be like to sit in an actual space shuttle. This is a replica. Roger Cooper>> This is a museum dedicated to young people. Janet Yamaguchi>> It is, hopefully to get them interested in learning science and mathematics and engineering. They get an opportunity to actually see the size and the scale. They get a chance to see how really tiny this compartment is. There's no wasted space on a flight deck. Roger Cooper>> Janet, if you were five years old and in here, what would you think? Janet Yamaguchi>> I would think there sure are a lot of buttons and toggle switches in here (laughter). Roger Cooper>> Can they flip them all they want? Janet Yamaguchi>> They certainly can and, hopefully, I won't hit the one that launches us. Roger Cooper>> And the part we don't normally see, the lower deck, or what goes on. Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. This is where the crew would be. Directly upstairs is where the pilots are sitting. This is the main crew deck. You can see they have a lot of lockers for storing the equipment that they're going to need during the flight. The monitors help them see what's going on outside. They also have some units that help them perform experiments while they're here on the space shuttle. Roger Cooper>> And, again, this is not as big as you probably thought it was. Janet Yamaguchi>> Not at all. Roger Cooper>> Space is kind of claustrophobic. Janet Yamaguchi>> It is. I think that that's probably something that goes along with the training, how to be able to maintain yourself in tight quarters. Roger Cooper>> Are we turning out enough young people interested in science? Janet Yamaguchi>> I'm afraid that we're not right now, particularly women. So we're hoping to get young girls more interested in knowing the science and particularly engineering as an achievable career for young girls. Roger Cooper>> Janet, we're inside Discovery Science Center at the beginning of your Mars exhibit, the new one. What do we have here? Janet Yamaguchi>> Well, we're starting off with a globe of Mars. The kids get the opportunity to see some of the features, to be able to touch them. Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system as well as the largest and deepest canyon in the solar system. Roger Cooper>> More than the Grand Canyon? Janet Yamaguchi>> Much more. This will stretch all the way across the United States. Roger Cooper>> This is the real thing. All of this provided by the people who make them for real. Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. Here we get a chance to talk about the different layers, the different types of components that make up the space suit. Roger Cooper>> What does that mean to a young person to actually touch one? Janet Yamaguchi>> Well, I'm hoping that it will inspire them to think about the wonderful things that have gone on in space and the fact that it's something they might be able to do in their lives. Roger Cooper>> How many come through here in a year to get this experience? Janet Yamaguchi>> We see about seventy-five thousand students coming through the Science Center a year, all different ages from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Roger Cooper>> Schools all over the area send their -- Janet Yamaguchi>> -- all over Orange County and our surrounding counties as well. Roger Cooper>> And they send their teachers over here as well? Janet Yamaguchi>> They do. We'll see over nine hundred teachers in teacher education programs. Roger Cooper>> These are from the Jet Propulsion Lab? Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. These are replicas of the Spirit and Opportunity that are currently up on Mars right now. They thought they'd only last for a ninety-day mission and they're still working up on Mars sending back information. Then we have a replica of the Phoenix which we're very excited to have. It's going to launch in 2007. It will drill into the northern ice cap of Mars looking for sub-strait ice, both water ice and carbon dioxide ice. Roger Cooper>> Janet, this is planetary mechanics that you can become a part of if you're a kid. Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. We call it our virtual solar system. Essentially you can capture a planet and, when you do, it will give you a text box. It will also start to spin on its axis in the correct inclination. Here we've got -- try to catch earth or you can bat it away. Roger Cooper>> It helps to be a member of the Lakers to play this planet thing. Janet Yamaguchi>> (Laughter) I think so. I might be a little short. Roger Cooper>> There's a great feeling of power in this. Janet Yamaguchi>> (Laughter) Isn't there? Masters of the Universe. Toss the planets around. Here's little Pluto right here. Roger Cooper>> And you get a feeling for the relative size. Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. Most people don't realize that Mars is only half the size of the earth. Wrap your arms all the way around and use your shadow. Roger Cooper>> Janet, what is this? It's another world. Janet Yamaguchi>> It is another world. If you want to push the button, what we'll see is the material will start to rise up from underneath and, if you hold the button down, you'll see some doming effect where the material rises up and, when you release it, it starts to collapse again. This shows some of the geological processes that goes on on the planet Mars where carbon dioxide comes up to the surface, bubbles through and then, once that pressure is released, it starts to collapse again. This is actually one of the activities that does go on, but it requires a long, long time for it to occur on Mars whereas here it occurs in just a matter of seconds. We've got the process sort of sped up so you can see it over time. This actually is used in Space Camp. It was donated to us. The idea is that he's strapped in now. We're going to be able to pivot him around just as if he was doing an untethered space walk. Roger Cooper>> He's up for this. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> He's got the hang of it, I think. Janet Yamaguchi>> Yeah, I think he's figuring it out. Roger Cooper>> Being an astronaut has its ups and downs (laughter). But this is a learning experience. Janet Yamaguchi>> It certainly is. It's not easy being up in space (laughter). Roger Cooper>> Janet, this looks like cold. Janet Yamaguchi>> It's very cold. We've simply got some dry ice, little chips of dry ice, frozen carbon dioxide, that will come down this conveyor belt and, when it hits the shallow pool of water, it will start to sublime which means it goes directly into a gas. So this is carbon dioxide gas. Over here, you can see, for example, it will provide a cushion of gas for the dry ice to spin and move on, leaving trails much in the same way that a comet leaves vapor trails out in outer space. Roger Cooper>> That's pretty impressive. Janet Yamaguchi>> Isn't it beautiful? Roger Cooper>> Janet, this is something that Boeing designed right here in Huntington Beach? Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. This is a one-to-fifteen scale model of the Delta Four rocket by Boeing. We're really pleased to have it here at the Science Center. Roger Cooper>> And these are working things that are working all the time? Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. Looks like it's getting ready to lift off right now. [Film Clip] Roger Cooper>> So much of what you are dealing with here at this exhibit is Southern California, Orange County, Southern California aerospace, space exploration, some JPL, Pasadena. Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. We're hoping that some of these young people realize that there is a wonderful career waiting for them in their own back yard. Roger Cooper>> Well, Janet, it's going and ready for young people from throughout Southern California. They get a taste of science and a taste of what it would be like to go to Mars. Janet Yamaguchi>> That's right. We're open, this particular exhibit, through the middle of September. Roger Cooper>> Well, thank you. I hope you get lots of chances to see young people and give them an interest in science here at the Discovery Science Center. Janet Yamaguchi>> Thank you so much for coming. Roger Cooper>> Thanks, Janet. Val>> Now this Sunday is KCET Day at the Discovery Science Center, but you have to RSVP. So be sure to call the number on your screen. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val>> Next time on Life and Times -- The Watts Prophets were at ground zero forty years ago. Today they bear witness to how some things change and some things stay the same. >> You can be born black and still in the Ghetto they're all the same. They're all the same. The only difference is in the name and I remember Watts. Val>> That's next time on Life and Times. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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