More than 200 day laborers and advocates are expected to gather in the Washington area to protest immigration raids in communities, brainstorm ways to combat negative stereotypes and discuss job standards during a weekend convention that begins today.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a day laborer advocacy group based in Los Angeles, will host the event. Its leaders say they expect day laborers from 13 states and the District of Columbia. This afternoon, the day laborers will meet with their congressional representatives and hold a rally outside the Capitol to call for a moratorium on immigration raids.
NDLON officials said a UCLA professor’s study released in 2006 said an average of 117,00 day laborers are looking for work each day or performing jobs they got at a day labor center or off the street.
“We want to give workers an opportunity to assert themselves in the immigration debate,” NDLON staff laywer Marissa Nuncio said. “We want their representatives [in Congress] to know them so they can feel included in future debates. We want workers to be able to discuss their impact on local economies.”
Members of Montgomery County’s CASA of Maryland will participate in the convention, but Executive Director Gustavo Torres says the immigrant advocacy organization will not contribute any funds to weekend events.
Torres said his organization had invited Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and state Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk from Prince George’s County to attend events
as well to honor them for their commitment to immigrant communities.
“We have a great, progressive county in our area that strongly supports the day laborers,” Torres said. “In other jurisdictions like Virginia, we don’t have that kind of leadership or commitment from the politicians.”
Leaders of the Laborers International Union and the AFL-CIO will address day laborers about overlap between the goals of their membership and day laborers.
“They’re frequently cheated out of pay, and they work in some of the most dangerous conditions,” AFL-CIO spokeswoman Esmeralda Aguilar said of day laborers. “We’re all working within the same industries side by side, so we have reason to make sure there are some blanket standards.”
Day laborers from the following areas will be represented:
Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington
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