COPS SET FOR PROTEST AT HOME DEPOT LABORERS' CENTER STIRS CONTROVERSY.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

BURBANK - Fearing unruly protests against a controversial day-laborer center at Home Depot, police plan to be out in force today when the home improvement store opens.

Officials expect the Burbank City Council's approval of the center late Tuesday to result in protests like those in neighboring Glendale.

``We'll be prepared to make sure that peace is kept,'' said police Sgt. Jay Jette. ``And that, if there are any demonstrations, that they stay within the guidelines of the law.''

The council gave the OK for nonprofit Catholic Charities of Los Angeles Inc. to operate and manage the center at 1190 S. Flower St. Residents lambasted city officials at the packed and sometimes raucous council meeting, saying the facility would help illegal immigrants.

``We're giving away this country and nobody seems to understand it,'' said Jacquelyn Wilson, 58, a retired office worker from Burbank. ``Is there going to be an INS agent there?'' she asked the council, drawing applause from the audience.

But Burbank officials say the center will cut loitering and littering problems attributed to day laborers throughout the city by setting up a single site for them to congregate.

``The day laborers - whether they're legal or illegal - will need to be managed in some fashion in an effort to keep our streets in the immediate vicinity of Home Depot as safe as possible, as clean as possible and as reasonably operational as possible,'' Mayor Jef Vander Borght said just before the vote.

In 2004, the council voted 4-1 to approve the project, for which Home Depot will pay $94,000 annually for maintenance and operation, officials said.

In Glendale, there have been problems with some laborers standing at the entrance to the Home Depot parking lot, instead of at the centers set up for them.

When Glendale city officials tried to enforce an ordinance that barred laborers from soliciting work from city streets, the workers sued, and a judge ruled the ordinance violated First Amendment rights to free speech. The city has appealed the decision and doesn't expect to get a ruling for at least six months, said Ann Maurer, a Glendale senior assistant city attorney handling the case.

Meanwhile, tensions have been brewing over the centers. Saturday, anti-illegal-immigrant groups held a national day of protest called ``Stop the Invasion.''

One of the more rowdy protests and counterprotests occurred in Glendale, said Chris Newman, the legal programs coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. There were no injuries or arrests.

``It signifies an escalation on the part of anti-immigration groups,'' Newman said. ``It represents a repugnant form of demagoguery where anti-immigration groups are picking on one of most vulnerable and disenfranchised members of our community.''

Newman said the centers help keep day laborers out of harm's way and offer shade, sanitary conditions and an orderly hiring process.

Jason Kandel, [phone]

jason.kandel(at)dailynews.com