Arms in the air, palms forward, nearly 100 day laborers stood outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday afternoon, saying they wanted people to see the hands that are building America.
The workers rallied on the Capitol’s west lawn, calling for a moratorium on immigration raids, as part of a four-day convention that an estimated 200 day laborers from around the country are attending. Convention organizers said there are an average of 117,000 day laborers performing or seeking work every day in the United States.
“If you see green gardens and houses painted, you know why,” said Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, a day laborer advocacy group. “These are the hands that are building this country.”
Luis Larin, a day laborer from Baltimore, told the crowd that earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had surrounded a city 7-Eleven parking lot and checked the identification of people looking for work.
“They separated the Latinos from the other day laborers, they only wanted to see our identification,” Larin said. “Without documents you don’t exist in this country.”
Event organizers told the crowd they understood immigration reform was necessary, but raids need to end because they create fear in immigrant communities, discourage immigrants from contacting police about crimes and are disrespectful to people who willingly do undesirable work.
“We’re rebuilding New Orleans,” said Dennis Sorriano, another day laborer. “It’s very sad to see now they don’t want us there, even though we’ve been living 20 to a trailer trying to get the city back to what it was.”
A member of the Maryland Minutemen, Silver Spring resident Mark Fennel said he does not feel sympathy for illegal immigrants who have had children in the United States and fear their family being torn apart.
“Most of these babies are born on the backs of taxpayers,” Fennel said. “The intent is to play on the sympathy of the American public and, in turn, ride on the backs of these babies to American citizenship.”
