State wants job-seeking immigrants out of their backyard.
Women. Brawls. Alcohol. No, this isn't a plug for the next installment of
Girls Gone Wild
but the reasons New Mexico Department of Labor officials give for wanting immigrant laborers who gather by the DOL daily to leave.
For years, the DOL has been the locale where undocumented workers find landscaping, roofing and related jobs from drivers who pull up to the DOL offices on DeVargas Street searching for short-term laborers. DOL Area Director Nancy O'Rourke wants it stopped. In addition to outbreaks of fighting among the men and burglary, O'Rourke says, "There are drugs, flashers, public intoxication. Particularly,
***image1***
women who come to our offices are intimidated." DOL employees, clients and passersby find the men intimidating, she says. "Whenever anyone comes around the corner, they wave at the car, like they're trying to flag the car down and let someone know they're looking for work," she says. "We get tourists who come down this street and their car is mobbed by these people and, sure, they get upset."
Advocates for the laborers, who bring the men coffee and pastries on certain mornings, say they have been told not to park in the DOL lot, even though it is largely empty at 7:45 am when breakfast is served. To boot, laborers say they have been forbidden from even sitting on the curb near the parking lot. This curb, however, marks the place where potential employers first turn onto DeVargas Street. Therefore, waiting there increases the probability of landing work. Overall, advocates for the workers allege that the DOL does not support immigrants, a charge O'Rourke denies.
"There are signs up there that say [the lot] is private property. The parking lot is for people who come in and use our services," she says. "I'm completely not anti-immigrant." But O'Rourke wants the men to gather elsewhere for work because she says they give the DOL an unseemly image. When O'Rourke guides people to DOL offices, they ask, "Is that the place where all those guys hang out?"
Danny Lucero visited the DOL Monday morning. He has mixed feelings about the laborers who gather near the premises. "They are looking for work just like I am," he says. "The only difference is that they are illegals." However, Lucero said he could understand the concerns. "It's a little bit intimidating when they try to flag your car down and you're just looking for work yourself."
As for O'Rourke's assertions of drug and alcohol use, advocate Betty Wollmann said, "I've never seen anyone use drugs or alcohol here." According to the Santa Fe Police Department, most citations issued in the DOL area have involved parking. This year there has been one report of burglary and one citation for trespassing.
José Guerrero, who has found work paying $10 per hour by waiting at the DOL, says he has seen people ticketed for sitting on the curb by the DOL lot and has made sure not to end up the next laborer cited. "That's for the State," he says, pointing to the lot. "That's for the City," he says, pointing to DeVargas Park, which sits across from the lot.
O'Rourke believes the City could squelch all of the tensions between the laborers and the DOL. "I have researched this problem quite a bit and collected information from a number of other states," she says. "For example, in California they have created centers for these people to wait in." If a center is out of reach for the City, O'Rourke would either like the laborers to relocate to the lot of a nearby vacant grocery store or to have DeVargas turned into a one-way street. "If DeVargas was made into a one-way street going from Sandoval to Guadalupe the pickup trucks would be on the same side of the street as the park. You wouldn't have these people on the same side of the street as [the DOL]," she says.
It's an idea City Councilor David Coss is open to exploring. Coss arranged for port-a-potties to be set up in DeVargas Park out of concern for the laborers a few years back. "My thought would be it sounds like an OK idea. I don't think it's a busy or arterial road," he says. "I would be glad to meet with the Department of Labor and the City Manager to see how the City can help."
Mara Taub, an advocate who served the laborers breakfast Monday, believes that a one-way street would be a good idea. However, she thinks matters could also be resolved if the DOL and the laborers formed a relationship. "I think if [O'Rourke] got to know the men, she'd see how wonderful they are," Taub says. "We don't want to make the [DOL] more hostile. We want to work together."
