Thread: ROBBERIES FRIGHTEN, DON'T DETER MOST DAY LABORERS

Robberies frighten, don't deter most day laborers

By: COLLEEN MENSCHING - Staff Writer
August 22, 2007


Day laborers wait for work at the intersection of Escondido Avenue and South Santa Fe in Vista last week. Recent robberies of workers have put some on edge, but most continue to seek work.

NORTH COUNTY -- In the wake of a series of robberies targeting day laborers, some workers say that they are wary -- but still returning to the scenes of the crimes in hope of earning a wage.

"We're even scared to get in any car now," Omar Ventura said Thursday though a Spanish translator as he waited to be picked up at a Vista site for day laborers.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported Friday that more than 40 victims have now been identified in a two-month North County crime spree. In each incident, robbers posed as employers, drove workers to remote sites and threatened them with knives to get cash and other items of value, according to police.


A combination of misconceptions and job conditions make day laborers particularly vulnerable, according to police and advocates.

At the same time, their unpredictable income means day laborers don't always make profitable prey. While at least one man reportedly lost slightly more than $100, another victim's wallet is said to have been empty before the robbers got to him.

Money motive

Despite that, authorities believe that the four North County residents charged in the crimes were motivated by money, not an anti-immigrant mentality.

Sheriff's Sgt. Art Wager said there is a widespread belief that many day laborers are undocumented immigrants and would rather let a crime against them go unreported than risk an inquiry into their immigration status. That is a misconception that makes the workers vulnerable, according to Wager.

Ventura, a 39-year-old undocumented immigrant, said he probably wouldn't contact police if someone robbed him. He also said he didn't expect to find a sympathetic ear at a police station.

"Just for being Latino, they don't listen to us anyway," Ventura said.

But Sgt. Wager said this case had revealed many people like Jesus Aguirre, who said through a translator Thursday that he had been robbed this summer, along with two other men picked up at the Vista site. Aguirre said he went to police and would encourage other workers to do the same.

"(The police) took me and they asked me questions, but they treated me very well," said Aguirre, who was back at the Vista site looking for work Thursday morning.

New precautions

The men said they now take precautions such as writing down license plate numbers and descriptions of people picking them up. A camera phone would be added protection, some said, but is too expensive.

Aguirre, 43, said this is his third trip to the United States as a documented immigrant. He said he stays about six months before returning to Mexico. Never, he said, has he had any trouble with employers or been the victim of a crime.

"I never thought of it," Aguirre said.

A study released in 2006 by UCLA suggests that Aguirre may be in the majority, but just barely.

Researchers for "On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States" reported that nearly half of 2,660 workers surveyed in 2004 said they were victims of nonpayment or underpayment by employers in the two months before the survey. In western states, where researchers estimated there were nearly 50,000 day laborers in 2004, the figures were slightly lower.

Of day laborers surveyed in the West, 17 percent reported being subjected to some kind of violence by people who hired them in those two months, while 24 percent said that employers insulted them, according to the study.

Risk factors

Day laborers face particular risks, police said.

As Sgt. Wager put it, "There aren't too many segments of our population that will get in to a stranger's vehicle."

Making matters worse, day labor is part of a cash economy and many workers don't use banks. They carry cash and can be easy -- if inconsistent -- targets.

Aguirre said he lost $80 to the robbers. Another man lost more than $100 in the same incident, but a third had nothing to give, Aguirre said.

Police had questioned the immigration status of 17 percent of workers surveyed in western states, according to the UCLA study.

North County law enforcement agencies consistently said they do not question any victims about immigration status.

"We're not asking that," Wager said. "A victim is a victim."

Consequently, it's hard to tell whether immigration status has influenced victims' decisions to report robberies, he said.

Jurisdictional matters

Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies said there is a line between their duties and those of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Local officers don't turn victims over to immigration officers, according to police. Nor are immigration officers likely to pick up the trail of an undocumented immigrant who came forward as a victim of crime, they said.

That's true even in Escondido, where an immigration officer works out of the Police Department offices, according to police Lt. Bob Benton.

"Believe me," Benton said, "he's busy enough with the criminal aliens ...

"If we start inquiring about the immigration status of these victims, they're going to stop calling us."

Claudia Smith, an immigrants rights activist with California Rural Legal Assistance, said she believes that most police agencies refrain from immigration enforcement.

Perceptions

In Carlsbad, she said, the perception among day laborers is that police are working "hand-in-glove" with immigration officials, with police questioning workers at pickup sites with immigration enforcement following close behind.

"Certainly, that's gotten around," she said. "Then you do not have victims coming forward, or witnesses, should they be undocumented."

Carlsbad police Capt. Mike Shipley said the department has a directive prohibiting officers from questioning the immigration status of victims.

"A victim should be secure in contacting us to report their victimization," Shipley said.

Likewise, there is a directive to notify immigration officials if a suspect in a crime is an undocumented immigrant, he said.

Passing information on to immigration officers in other situations is not "standard operating procedure," but nor is it out of the question, Capt. Shipley said.

"We frequently have people complain about certain issues, and we might pass that info along," Shipley said. "Generally, we're not fishing for migrant workers without documentation."

Hate versus opportunity

Tina Jillings, co-founder of the advocacy group known as the Coalition for Peace, Justice and Dignity, said attacks on migrants fall into one of two categories, or a combination of both.

"Sometimes it is a crime of opportunity, but in other cases, it is a hate crime," she said.

Authorities say these robberies appear to have a strictly economic motive.

On Friday, police made a fourth arrest in the multiagency investigation. April Marie Lewis, 24, of Escondido, joined the ranks of suspects Nicole Couch, 32, and Thomas Malcolm Graham, 32, both of Escondido, and Kevin Anderson, 32, of Vista. All were arrested last week and all know each other, officials said.

Detective Daniel Laibach of the Encinitas Sheriff's Station got a break in the case after day laborer who had been robbed in July spotted his assailants 10 days ago.

"They were in different cars, but ... he recognized them," Laibach said.

Laibach said the suspects, though some share an upper-class Escondido address, are unemployed. They don't own the home they lived in, Laibach said. A relative does.

Drugs involved

Laibach said suspects Couch and Graham told him they committed the robberies to support a drug habit. Couch possessed drugs at the time of her arrest and Anderson was caught with drug paraphernalia, according to county booking logs.

Booking charges against the other two suspects did not involve drug offenses, logs showed.

Jillings believes anti-illegal immigration activity by groups such as the Minutemen has influenced attacks against day laborers.

"In this climate of racist activities becoming acceptable and so blatant ... people don't really look at it as a crime," Jillings said.

Day laborer Ventura said that Latino immigrants are often depicted as thieves or worse, but that the stereotype stands in contrast to the Anglo names of the suspects.

"(Critics) say that we are thieves and we came here to steal but, as you see, it's not us," he said.

Opposes violence

Michael Spencer, leader the Vista Citizens Brigade, said his group opposes illegal immigration, but doesn't support violence against undocumented immigrants.

"None of us condone anything ... that's really violating a human being, regardless of his immigrations status," Spencer said. "People who do that should be prosecuted."

Ultimately, the district attorney's office decides what charges to bring against defendants.

Prosecuting attorney Bryn Kirvin said that no hate crime charges have been filed in the case and none are anticipated.

"That's not to say that this (crime) isn't taking advantage of a population that we assume doesn't call the police," she said. "But we don't believe that the (suspects) have any association with the Minutemen or that these (victims) were targeted for anything related to their status."

-- Staff writer Waldo Nilo contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/08 ... _21_07.txt

The criminals are having crimes commited against them. Quick let me grab my tissues

Something sounds screwy here! Could it be that due to some illegals aren't getting work are robbing the ones that are? And the media makes a SOB story that we are to feel bad for them! I am getting robbed too and wheres the story for me or you who is being robbed too?? Every week I am robbed about 30% of my wages that pay and provide criminals and there illegal family members to get better benefits then me and my parents and grand parents who need it the most!!!

Right! So where is our news story???

I will save my tears when the United States loses its independence and freedoms, from the citizens that are asleep at the wheel!

Presedente Booosh set these people up for failure by letting them mass migrate (If we let him tell the story) Illegally cross into our country is a more accurate statement...... although it broke every law on the books and continues to do so.

What happened was Illegal both ways... the Illegal Alien Crossing the border and a President that selects to enforce or refuses to enforce laws that were put on the books from far more competant people than himself and heaven forbid Karlos Rove

These people kill each other for money and American citizens for kicks and we are left to clean up the mess and foot the bill

Republicans and Democrats... look out, we are cleaning house and a lot of you are out the door