Thread: RI-Undocumented workers lash out

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Undocumented workers lash out

12:02 PM EST on Friday, February 12, 2010

By Karen Lee Ziner



Adrian Ventura makes a point as Guatemalan workers detained on their way to Gillette Stadium last month speak out against exploitation on Thursday at St. Charles Church in Providence. See video at projo.com.
The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach


PROVIDENCE, R.I. –– Community advocates lashed out Thursday at immigration policies and lax labor-law enforcement that they say led to exploitation of undocumented Guatemalan workers, allegedly hired through a Boston temporary agency, at Gillette Stadium.

Video

Gillette Stadium workers: 'We were working with dignity and respect and that is what we deserve'


More projo videos They also accused the New England Patriots of turning a blind eye to the fact that illegal workers were shoveling snow and picking up trash at the stadium in Foxboro.

A Patriots’ spokesman reiterated Thursday that the organization was unaware that 60 workers detained by immigration authorities on the way from Providence to Gillette last month were undocumented, and that the contract with Legal Pro Temps of Dorchester, Mass., was severed as soon as it came to light. (Workers have told The Journal that they were hired by a friend-of-a-friend network and paid cash under the table).

Five of the 60 workers spoke at the news conference that was hosted by Immigrants in Action, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and other groups at St. Charles Church. Dozens more surrounded them at a speaker platform. Community and religious leaders also spoke out against conditions that create a flourishing underground economy.

Tomasa Larios Velasques, a 15-year-old Guatemalan girl, said she earned $36 in cash for picking up trash for six hours at the stadium; work she has done at least eight times. Velasques also said she had to pay $5 for a van ride to Foxboro. The minimum wage in Massachusetts is $8 an hour: payment for transportation by a temp agency is capped at $3).

Bernardo Chamorro, of Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers) in Central Falls, called that “wage robbery.â€

Community advocates lashed out Thursday at immigration policies and lax labor-law enforcement that they say led to exploitation of undocumented Guatemalan workers, allegedly hired through a Boston temporary agency, at Gillette Stadium.

The problem is lax immigration enforcement that lead illegal aliens, their advocates and employers to expoit the American taxpayer. Illegal aliens should not be here to be "exploited", they should be deported immediately!

Previously posted at
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-187057-providence.html