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Crackdown makes a dent
Jobs drying up as businesses fight day labor

Mel Meléndez
The Arizona Republic
May. 12, 2006 12:00 AM


Isaia Perez Sanchez knew he was taking a risk two months ago when he paid a coyote to bring him into the country illegally from Chiapas, Mexico.

But the lure of day-labor work was too strong to keep him from taking that risk to help his impoverished family back home, he said.

"All I heard in Mexico was how much work there was to be had here," Perez Sanchez said. "But then I get here to find out that police are cracking down on day laborers, so there's no work."

Perez Sanchez had hoped to join the ranks of day laborers who once used the sidewalks on Thomas Road between 35th and 38th streets as their employment lifelines.

But a recent crackdown there has Perez Sanchez scrambling to find work.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," he added. "I need to work."

One of the busiest pickup spots for day laborers in east Phoenix is no more, after local businesses hired three off-duty Phoenix officers to keep the workers off their properties.

The officers are the latest chapter to the business strip's ongoing day-labor struggles, including complaints from business owners and residents of increased traffic hazards, littering, trespassing and public urination.

Private businesses often hire off-duty police officers for security and enforcement, and having them there has stemmed the flow of day labor-employer transactions, said Phoenix Lt. Adrian Ruiz. No citations have been issued to workers or drivers since the officers began their patrols.

Like other Valley communities, from Avondale to Chandler, Phoenix has long struggled to balance the undocumented workers' right to seek employment with property owners' concerns.

Looking for work on sidewalks is not illegal. But obstructing sidewalks, standing on private parking areas or conducting business transactions there can result in citations of several hundreds of dollars. Repeat infractions can lead to arrests.


Businesses react
Business owners along the formerly packed stretch of Thomas Road say the additional patrols have cut back on trash and public urination.

"It used to be really bad. But it's so much cleaner now and safer," said Santiago Romero, manager of the Master Pawn shop on 35th Street and Thomas. "The business owners and neighbors really banded together to help turn this around and things have really improved."

Scant numbers of workers, including Perez Sanchez, can still be seen on street corners outside of the 35th through 38th street section. But they're hard-pressed to find those willing to pick them up because of the increased police patrols, they said.

"It's gotten very bad. I used to work every day and now I'm lucky if I work two days out of the week," said 24-year-old day laborer Trinidad Gomez Perez. "How can you eat and pay your rent on that? It's awful."


Temporary solution?
Activist Salvador Reza, who in January organized a protest at the Home Depot off 36th Street, called the increased enforcement efforts ineffective.

"They'll just go elsewhere to look for work, so this solves nothing," Reza said. "What's needed is a day-labor center run by the city."

Phoenix helped fund a day-labor center in the northeast part of the city about three years ago. But it has since backed away from using taxpayers' dollars. It's unlikely it would fund another center anytime soon.

City officials say they are not targeting the workers because of their undocumented status. But property owners have repeatedly complained of trespassing, traffic woes and public sanitation issues linked to the laborers, they said.

Ruiz believes the off-duty officers won't be used for long because at $30 or more an hour, off-duty officers are an expensive remedy. She'll soon have just one full-time patrol officer paid by the city for enforcement in the Thomas Road area, she said.

"What that will mean is anybody's guess," she said. "We don't know if the workers will stay away or come back in full force. Only time will tell."