Jupiter laboring well

The effort to control migrant, often illegal labor in Jupiter extends appropriately to ensuring that rental homes don't become overstuffed with laborers.

Such properties have been criticized for harming neighborhoods because of the renters' unruly behavior, along with the overflowing garbage and junked cars. Some residents portray Jupiter as being overly welcoming to the migrants, particularly those who entered the country illegally. Plans for a center to keep laborers from lining up on Center Street to await employers are prompting threats of lawsuits.

The labor center, however, is a way to protect residents who fear the pre-dawn crowds near their homes, and it can provide an orderly way to conduct a transaction that, however controversial, has become a key part of the South Florida economy. But the town also knows that it must protect older neighborhoods from the abuses that come when landlords allow too many laborers in an apartment.

Neighbors expect this protection. Landlords dispute it. A lawsuit filed by John White argues that Jupiter violated his tenants' constitutional rights with a "pre-dawn raid." Code enforcement officers, however, noted that most of the residents went to work before dawn. They arrived early to get a true count of the building's inhabitants and, following standard procedure, received permission to enter. Among the agents' findings: 14 of the 30 apartments were uninhabitable.

Those are the kinds of issues a court can decide. But the town can't be intimidated by lawsuits from doing what is best for residents. That means establishing the labor center to control pre-dawn hiring. And it means enforcing town codes despite uncooperative landlords.