INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FL -- John's Island, a luxurious waterfront community of more than 1300 properties, is taking its "exclusive" reputation to a new level.
Starting February 1st, the John's Island Property Owners' Association launched a new policy requiring anyone who wants to trim hedges, clean houses, or do any kind of business in the neighborhood to "have a valid U.S. Driver's License or ID card."
Workers are now asked to show proof of I.D. at the front gate to the development. They're given a copy of the new policy, written in both English and Spanish, which reads: "If you have an employee that is an illegal alien DO NOT send them to John's Island."
The policy goes on to state that anyone without a U.S. license or I.D. will be "turned away."
Chuck Sereika owns Clean House Services, a housekeeping company that's done business on John's Island for two years. He said he recently had an employee who is a U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican heritage turned away at the gate because he did not have his driver's license with him.
"It's profiling," says Sereika, who says neither he nor any of his caucasian employees have been asked to show I.D.
Peter Young, general manager of the John's Island Property Owners' Association says the policy "wasn't geared toward any particular group or ethnicity." He says it was designed to "strengthen our security."
Karen Merrill, vice president of Elliott Merrill Community Management, represents 85 homeowner's and property owner's associations in Indian River County. She says she's never heard of a policy like this.
She says she doesn't see the relationship between keeping out undocumented workers and improving security. She envisions long tie-ups at the security gates as every worker has to present a valid I.D.
Jerry Burr, direcotr of security at John's Island, says his employees have had to turn workers away at the gate, but he says after a month of the policy, most day-laborers who don't have documentation have stopped coming to the community.
He says John's Island has had no problem finding hundreds of landscapers and other laborers who are willing to do work on property who can present a U.S. driver's license or work visas.
