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May 30, 2006


Day-labor market is booming
Opportunities for work abound, but so do risks
By Brendan O'Shaughnessy
brendan.oshaughnessy@indystar.com
May 30, 2006


Every day at sunrise, a few dozen men gather near El Arbol, a towering tree that shades them as they wait for the chance to do work few others want.
Time can drag as they wait for an employer to drive up looking for someone to tear off an old roof, hang drywall or spread mountains of mulch. When a pickup pulls in, the Near-Eastside corner earns its other Spanish nickname, La Liebre -- the rabbit -- as the men rush for the chance to earn $50 to $100 by selling their calloused hands and strong backs.
This black market for labor thrives daily from dawn to late morning at Washington Street and State Avenue, an aspect of the immigration debate that often passes unnoticed. Employers can find someone to work quickly, without paperwork or taxes. Illegal immigrants -- as much as 75 percent of the day-labor pool, according to one study -- can score a job without being asked pesky questions.
The market for day laborers is growing nationwide, and although no one keeps figures for Indianapolis, an immigration expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago said the phenomenon is expanding from larger to smaller cities. While many cities give gathering spots like El Arbol little attention, some have ordered police to shut them down, and others have set up their own day-labor offices to provide protections to workers and employers.
Indianapolis has no plans to intervene in the day-labor market. Mayor Bart Peterson says the real problem is with the nation's immigration laws. He said a solution will come only with federal action.
Opportunities

The first nationwide survey of day labor, released in January, found that nearly 120,000 people across the country show up each day on street corners and in store parking lots looking for jobs.
"There aren't too many opportunities to work at home," Francisco Carranza said in Spanish as he waited for work in Indianapolis. A Honduran who has been in the country about five months, he said he entered the United States legally but had his papers stolen when he was robbed. He said his wife was deported.
"I can make as much in three hours as a week's salary there. I worked four days last week and sent home $250. That's a lot of money in Honduras."
Carranza wore a Los Angeles Rams sweatshirt and rested against the tree with about a dozen other men, chewing sunflower seeds and spitting the hulls to pass the time.
He gets hired most days, Carranza said, and can make more money even with a few missed days than at a factory job that pays $6 an hour and subtracts taxes. He stays with his brother and lives cheaply so he can support three children in Honduras.
Pitfalls

As convenient as the arrangement can be, many pitfalls remain. Most workers say they've been stung by doing a day's work without pay.
They may face unsafe conditions and a lack of insurance for injury on the job. Although illegal immigrants have legal rights, many don't complain when trouble surfaces. The national survey found that about half of the 2,660 workers interviewed said employers cheated them of wages in the previous two months.
Geraldo Ramirez said he crossed from Mexico a decade ago and has come to El Arbol for three years, despite the headaches. "Last November, I dry-walled for a subcontractor on 10th Street for five days," Ramirez said in Spanish. "He gave me a check that bounced."
Worse, he said, he had to pay out of his own pocket the guys he recruited to help.
Still, Ramirez returns to the tree every workday, drawn by the possibility of making "$400 in a good week."
Employers looking for workers on the corner declined to be interviewed.
The Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis, which offers advice for workers, has handled more than 1,200 labor-related complaints since Jan. 1, 2005. Sergio Aguilera, the consul, said some employers and employees don't realize that U.S. law applies to everyone on American soil.
"In cases where an individual is here without documents," he said, "people are very vulnerable."
Regulation

That vulnerability is why some cities have set up official spots for an industry that has little regulation. Indianapolis Latino Affairs Director Ricardo Gambetta said some places in Iowa found that designated day-labor sites soon grew to hundreds of hopefuls.
"We don't want that here," Gambetta said.
In some cities, police have cracked down on the sites, which spring up at home improvement stores or busy corners. Others have sent letters to the IRS about those who employ day laborers.
"But if you do some kind of enforcement," Gambetta said, "you only move the problem from one place to another."
Several police cars passed El Arbol on two recent mornings without stopping.
"Enforcement of immigration laws by local officers is not the best use of our resources," Mayor Peterson said. "Also, undocumented people will be reluctant to talk to police or report crime if they are worried about their immigration status."
The exploitation of day workers, Peterson said, the economic reality of demand for their labor and a general disregard for immigrant hiring rules are parts of a problem that calls for reform of federal law.
But the problem most often falls to mayors to solve, said Nik Theodore, an author of the national study and immigration expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Community organizations across the country have worked with city officials to set up about 65 centers, which work as an informal matchmaker to get day laborers off the street and create safer conditions, Theodore said.
Opposition

Helping immigrants who are breaking the law by being here is wrong, said Natisha Cooper, Marion County co-director of the Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform & Enforcement. Also, she said the immigrants skew the market by increasing the labor supply and driving down pay.
"The problem is they are accepting low wages," Cooper said.
Homeowners near El Arbol said they sometimes call police when the men make noise in the early morning or stay too late.
Otis Flinchum, 67, a retired steelworker whose property is next to the gathering spot, said the day workers' presence is a constant headache.
"It's just a nuisance we can't do nothing about," Flinchum said. "I know they're trying to make a living, but this corner's the worst in Indianapolis."
Ramirez said police officers sometimes ask the day laborers to go home later in the morning.
"Sometimes blacks or whites come by and say, 'Wetbacks, go home,' " Ramirez said.
"We don't listen to them anymore," he said. "We don't pay attention."
About 9:30 a.m. on a recent day, Ramirez hopped in a green van to do cleanup at a construction site. The others fell back to the tree to wait for the next shot at a day's work.
Call Star reporter Brendan O'Shaughnessy at (317) 444-2751.