PHOENIX -- A north Phoenix day labor center, targeted by protesters for the seventh straight day, opened as usual Friday morning.

Salvador Reza had considered closing the center, near 25th Street and Bell Road, for a few days, and moving the day laborers to a nearby Home Depot, but he decided otherwise and opened the gates at 6 a.m.

Members of groups demanding a crackdown on illegal immigrants and enforcement of Arizona's new employer sanctions law were on hand, too. But Reza vowed they would not shut down the labor center.

"These guys don't care about the community. None of them live here, they don't know this community," he said. "We've been working in this community for the last seven years and they're not going to close us."

Reza said the center has taken day laborers off the streets, a claim challenged by protest leader Rick Galeener with United for a Sovereign America.

"Let's think about the will here," Galeener said. "He's not going to give in, our laws are not going to change."

Reza said it was impossible for the two sides to discuss the issue.

"Talking to them is like talking to a wall, they're just driven by hate," he said. "A lady comes in with her 4-year-old son and they started harassing her, telling her to go back to Mexico. She's a U.S. citizen."

Protester Barb Heller countered, "They have no permit. Their temporary permit has been shut down."

She vowed to protest as long as it takes, saying, "They talk about how they'll go out onto the streets. We have people in all these locations where these guys stand, taking pictures. They don't know where we are, they're never going to know where we're at or whether we're there or not."

The protesters said they would forward pictures of people who picked up day laborers and send them to the county attorney and the sheriff for prosecution under the employer sanctions law, which provides stiff penalties -- including possible loss of business licenses -- for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

However, one businessman in the area of Reza's day labor center said he thinks there's a loophole in the law that exempts those who hire day laborers for short-term work.

Keenan Strand, who owns a McDonald's, said the law does not cover people who work no more than three days and make no more than $600.

'It's not illegal to hire a day worker," Strand said. "There's a casual labor law in this country. You can hire somebody for three days or 72 hours or $600 without having to get documentation."

Day laborers who gather at Reza's center said the protesters were interfering with their work.

"We do the jobs, the hard labor that Americans don't want," said one, who said he had three small children back in Mexico.

Another said, "We all come to work, not to make problems for ourselves. We come to earn money for our children."

He said the tactics of the protesters seem to work. "They don't let bosses come in. If they do pick up workers, the protesters chase them down and block their cars until the workers get out."

One worker said, "Just let us work. Give us a work permit, so we can do it legally."

Meanwhile, the protesters took some credit for putting a day labor center at the Good Shepherd of the Hills Church in Cave Creek out of business.

"I think that's wonderful news," said protester Valerie Roller. She said the church pastor had called her and other protesters "a nuisance." "But I think we helped highlight the problem to bring it to public attention. I'm sure that was part of the decision... I know we've had a presence out there over the last year to make sure people were aware of what's really going on."

Reza said there would be no immigrants' rights supporters marching Saturday outside Pruitt's Furniture Store in east Phoenix, where weekly Saturday protests were staged in November and December after the store owner requested help from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in keeping day laborers from congregating in the area.

"We're just going to have a prayer vigil at a church and hopefully work to find a solution," he said. "What we're probably going to do is start doing pilgrimages from different churches, but not against Pruitt's."

He said he hopes to eventually start a day labor center in that area.