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The day labor divide

Police step up enforcement, but residents say it's not enough

Mel Meléndez
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 13, 2006 12:00 AM

By 6 a.m. Mario Quiroz has secured his favorite spot on the corner of 35th Street and Thomas Road. There he'll stand with about 20 other jornaleros, or day laborers, hoping they'll be picked up for work.

But Quiroz and hundreds of other day laborers who gather on Thomas Road are facing greater police scrutiny after complaints from local residents and business owners about traffic hazards, littering and bad sanitation.

Phoenix police recently assigned additional patrol officers to Thomas Road between 35th and 38th streets to issue citations to drivers and day laborers, most of them likely undocumented. Fines can range from $100 for traffic violations to $500 for trespassing, including standing in businesses' parking areas.

It was unclear this week how many additional police officers had been assigned to the area, but the workers say police are vigilant about citing them for trespassing on private property.

"I'm very careful about standing on the sidewalk and not stepping on the parking areas because we know the fines are $500," said Quiroz, who's originally from Ozumba, Mexico, and has lived in central Phoenix for a year. "But most of us don't have problems with police because we try to respect the laws."


A lightning rod


The crackdown is the latest attempt to address one of the most contentious issues in the city, as some residents and business owners say the laborers litter and trespass on private property, cause traffic accidents, urinate and defecate in public, and frighten away customers.

The Phoenix debate highlights the ongoing struggles linked to curbside hiring throughout the Valley as communities from Avondale to Chandler attempt to balance day laborers' right to seek work with guarding the safety of residents and the interests of business owners.

Phoenix police say they have been fighting the ills linked to sidewalk job searches for years. They recently have pumped up enforcement on the Thomas Road strip, which draws laborers because of the road's many stores, including Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

"This isn't new. We've been fighting this in that area for about five years or more," said Detective Tony Morales, a Phoenix police spokesman. "But they don't fear the police. They know the chances are very remote that we would arrest them."

It's not illegal to seek work on public sidewalks, a practice stemming from the Depression, said Stephen Montoya, a civil rights attorney in Phoenix.

"People act as if this is a new crisis, but looking for work on streets is part of America's labor history," Montoya said. "It's the American way. It's also not something that's going away anytime soon."

Statistics on day laborers are scarce because state and federal agencies rarely track them. But the U.S. Department of Labor recently estimated that day workers likely total more than 1 million nationally. The study didn't estimate what percentage of the workers are undocumented.


No way out


Quiroz said immigrants, documented or not, will continue to flock to the Phoenix area, where day laborers are in top demand because of the region's housing boom. Although the work is sporadic, it typically pays better than the minimum wage of $5.15, he said.

"That's why even people with papeles (papers) do day labor work," Quiroz said. "The money can be good."

On a good day, Quiroz can make $20 an hour because the 49-year-old is skilled in construction and electrical work. On a bad day, he can wait for hours and not be chosen or, worse, work and not get paid.

The undocumented immigrant says he has few options to support his family, which lives in Mexico.

"It's a hard life with a lot of uncertainty," Quiroz said. "But what choice do I have? There's no work back home, and my wife and kids need to eat."


Critics target workers


Still, the practice has raised the ire groups against illegal immigration, such as the Minuteman Project, which recently picketed on Thomas Road to protest the undocumented workers.

Some local residents, including Michelle Dallacroce, also object to their presence. She recently took her concerns to the Phoenix City Council, where she reiterated that Phoenix police will not arrest the illegal workers.

"I'm not anti-immigrant. I'm against illegal immigration," Dallacroce said. "These workers make it dangerous for us because I've seen them cause accidents.

"But the police won't touch them, which perpetuates the problem. The citations are fluff. They're not really enforcing anything if they're not arresting them."

Federal law allows the U.S. attorney general to deputize police officers for immigration enforcement. Few law enforcement agencies, including Phoenix, opt for that route. Most fear that undocumented immigrants will be discouraged from reporting crimes to police if they act as immigration agents, Montoya said.

Some Valley communities established day labor centers to match workers with prosepective employers and cut back on traffic congestion, trespassing and bad sanitation.

In Phoenix, a day labor center near Cave Creek and Bell roads recently received a reprieve of sorts when city officials postponed a decision on whether to extend its temporary-use permit. The site is funded by the non-profit groups Chicanos Por La Causa, Valle del Sol, Friendly House and Tonatierra.

Still, few Valley day labor centers have opened or survived because of criticism by opponents of illegal immigration. Hence, sidewalks throughout the Valley will likely continue to serve as unofficial employment lines for day workers.

"It's not that they're there, because they can look for work on the street," Morales said. "It's the stuff that comes with their looking for work on the street that's creating problems."