VISTA - One year after adopting a controversial day-laborer hiring law that thrust Vista into the national illegal immigration debate, city officials on Tuesday announced the end of a lawsuit that had challenged the law as unconstitutional.

In a settlement with two civil rights groups that filed the suit, the city agreed to make minor modifications to the law, which requires street-side employers to register with the city, display permits in their car windows and present day laborers with written terms of employment before making a hire.

Under the settlement, first-time employers would have a chance to register when they approach workers, instead of first obtaining a certificate at City Hall. For the last year, anyone caught hiring a day laborer without a certificate could immediately be fined.

City officials called the changes "insignificant."

"The city continues to be able to do what it has been doing since the ordinance was passed," City Attorney Darold Pieper said.

The city made headlines last summer when it introduced the law. City officials said it was a way to protect workers who gather on local street corners seeking jobs, but civil rights groups decried it as an attack on the livelihood of those mostly Latino laborers.

Though Vista officials have denied the city's law was intended to target illegal immigration, it has struck a chord with advocates on both sides of the issue and has been compared to the city of Escondido's failed attempt to implement a rental ordinance that some said unfairly targeted Latino residents.

The Escondido ordinance, passed by the City Council in October, would have punished landlords who rented to illegal immigrants. It was blocked by a Superior Court judge in mid-November, and the council decided Dec. 14 not to fight the court's order, effectively killing the law before it was put into place.

The Vista lawsuit, filed last summer by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties as well as California Rural Legal Assistance Inc., alleged that the law was motivated by discrimination.

In a written statement Tuesday, David Blair-Loy, legal director of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was glad to see the suit resolved.

"The ACLU is pleased to work with the city of Vista to resolve this case in a pragmatic way that addresses everyone's interests," he said. "We hope this agreement will protect both employers and workers who fill an important role in the local economy."

As part of the settlement, the city agreed it would not immediately release the names and contact information of registered employers. If the city receives a request for that information, it will wait 10 days to give the employer's attorney time to seek a court order that would stop the release.

Anti-illegal immigration activists sometimes videotape would-be employers, hoping to deter the hiring of day laborers by focusing on those who use their services.

Some of those activists, who had endorsed the hiring law, said the settlement weakens the city's law unnecessarily.

"What's next?" said Mike Spencer, of the Vista Citizen's Brigade. "If you get caught without a driver's license, you get to sign up on the spot?"

Since the law took effect July 28, the city has issued 111 registration certificates and 54 citations to employers at what was once the city's most popular hiring spot, a shopping center parking lot near the intersection of Escondido and Santa Fe avenues, Deputy City Manager Patrick Johnson said Tuesday morning.

The civil rights groups filed the initial lawsuit on behalf of two day laborers, Asuncion Hernandez and Raymundo Serrano, as well as one day-labor employer, Virginia Calderon. But Calderon, who is also president of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, later dropped her name from the suit after moving from the area.

- Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 631-6621 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.