Thread: Home Depot

Illegals make Home Depot their home base
Parking-lot hiring bazaars fueled by contractors who shop at stores
--South Florida Sun-Sentinel


State and Local governments go after smokers more than these illegals!

Why doesn't Home Depot call ICE?

I'll tell you why:

http://www.workplacewatchdog.org/

Correction:

http://www.workplacewatchdog.org/

I don't shop at Home Depot because I'm not going to drive 20miles across town to be treated like crap by employees who have an aversion to people who speak English, but a nationwide call for a boycott wouldn't be a bad idea.

I believe this is the article. Please post the article with the link so the rest of us can read it.


http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... &cset=true

15 day laborers at Home Depot near Lake Worth are arrested on trespassing charges

By Tal Abbady
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

March 8, 2006

West Lake Worth · It's early morning at Home Depot, and the flag-emblazoned pickups start to roll in. Their drivers, mostly owners of small roofing and construction businesses, are not there just for the wood and paint, but for the open-air job market that has thrust the retailer into the national fray over immigration reform.

The arrests Saturday on trespassing charges of 15 day laborers at the store's driveway entrance has not slowed things down. In fact, Aurelio Alvarez Gonzalez was right back in the same spot Tuesday where sheriff's deputies handcuffed him Saturday morning before taking him and the others to the Palm Beach County Jail.

"I have three children, and I'm here for them," said Gonzalez, 45, of Chiapas, Mexico, who, along with the others, was detained for four hours and released with a notice to appear in court March 21.

The roundup echoes incidents involving Home Depot stores in other states, including Illinois and California, where parking-lot hiring bazaars are fueled by contractors who shop at the stores and laborers who know they shop there.

Since arriving here six months ago, Gonzalez has found steady work standing among the clusters of men who line the parking lot and fringe both sides of Lake Worth Road outside the store. He is slowly paying off the $2,000 it cost to make the trip to the United States. Every month, he has managed to send $200 back home for his wife and three children, ages 17, 16 and 12.

Deputies on Saturday received a call from Home Depot staff, who for months have complained to authorities that laborers harass customers and pose a threat, according to sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller. Deputies had issued verbal warnings to day laborers before the arrests, he said.

Around two months ago, the Sheriff's Office posted a bilingual "No trespassing" sign at the parking lot entrance.

"No trespassing for whom? The customers? The Hispanics?" asked Jose Cerrato, president of the Honduran Organization of Palm Beach. "These people's crime is that they are trying to feed their families."

Tuesday morning, drivers trolled discreetly for workers. At the slightest call or gesture, the workers would cluster around a driver's window and then two or three would hop into the back in a literal display of the supply-and-demand laws that drive immigrant labor.

"We're not harming anyone here," said Eristeo Martinez, 23, also of Chiapas. "This is where the hiring is at. The clients stop and yell out, `Hey, I need two or three guys.'"

But Don Harrison, public relations manager for Home Depot's southern division, said the laborers are a safety issue.

"If they were in your parking lot, what would you do?" he asked.

A statement from the retailer, e-mailed by Harrison, read, "Like many businesses in the community, the Home Depot maintains a policy of non-solicitation at its stores by individuals and organizations not affiliated with our company. In the interest of safety and convenience, our policy prohibits people from loitering or ... causing safety risks to our ... customers."

Day laborers have been arrested at Home Depot parking lots under similar charges in other states. Yet the retailer has built partnerships with Hispanic organizations such as the National Council of La Raza and collaborated with city governments in California and elsewhere by building day-laborer centers where workers can safely congregate.

Home Depot, in fact, has come under attack by organizations such as Save our State in California that have accused it of "abetting" undocumented workers.

"They've had their arms twisted by local jurisdictions to provide facilities for illegal workers. Accommodating illegal workers is a mistake for any jurisdiction," said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C.

Immigration attorney Aileen Josephs of West Palm Beach said Saturday's trespassing arrests underscore a deeply flawed federal immigration policy that seeks to punish workers whose labor sustains local industry.

"What happened Saturday points to the reality of what the federal government is not doing," she said.

John De Leon, consulting attorney for the Miami-based Guatemalan and Mexican consulates, said he was working with the Sheriff's Office to resolve the case involving Saturday's arrests.

"We understand the concerns of the Sheriff's Office in protecting the interests of private property owners, but everyone knows that workers congregate at Home Depots throughout the country ... The people who were arrested and released are good, hardworking people who should not be targeted based on their national origin," he said.

Mike Doyle, who lives in Lake Worth and owns a roofing business, loaded his truck up with supplies Tuesday. He was among several construction owners shopping at Home Depot who said they were not bothered by the day laborers.

"They're just trying to survive like everyone else," Doyle said. "This is the workforce."

Tal Abbady can be reached at tabbady@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6624.

Simply marvelous, dahlings! Keep that good news coming!