Fence up, day laborers off property

LAS VEGAS, NV (KTNV) You could call it a sign of the times, the desperation to find work.

"It is difficult," said Fissmy, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who is looking for any odd-jobs to support his 8 year old son. He says of lately, it hasn't been easy.

"One day, work, another day, no work, one week, two weeks, no working. It's difficult," he tells Action News in Spanish.

But workers like Feesmy aren't joining the lines at the temp agencies. They take their job hunt to the streets. They're looking for someone, anyone to hire them.

"Lady, lady, lady is what they say constantly," Heidi Prieto says. She's a regular customer at the Star Nursery near Cheyenne and 95.

She says over the past few months, the workers' search for jobs has collided unpleasantly with her search for garden plants.

"When I come in, if I'm not paying attention to my surroundings and they pop up there, my heart nearly rips out my chest."

Action News witnessed that first hand, as we camped out at different stores and found laborers swarming cars, on and outside the property and some people even hiring the workers.

"We should be able to shop without being harassed," Heidi says.

Now, Star Nursery is drawing the line with a fence. Workers will have to peek through the barrier and wait beyond the property line in order to find work near Star.

"We don't support day laborers. I understand people's right and need to work but there's a way of going about that," says Pat Chapin, attorney for Star Nursery.

Chapin tells Action News the nursery has spent $200,000 a year on security to handle the laborers after thousands of complaints like Heidi's, claiming they jump on cars, yell, and approach customers in front of the store.

Chapin says the laborers also broke a water valve last summer, resulting in a $5,000 water bill at one store.

Landscaping has also been torn up, plus urination and defecation on the property.

"Day laborers can still do what they have to do on the public streets but star nursery is telling the public and the community and its customers that it's not going to tolerate this infiltration and this trespass and this aggressive behavior," Chapin says.

Star Nursey isn't the only one putting up a barrier. At Moon Valley nursery in Henderson, they're planning to put up a wrought iron fence to surround their property.

Workers like Feesmy don't like the changes.

"It's discrimination," he says.

Customers like Heidi don't think it's enough

"We witnessed another guy take a knife and cut the 'no' where it says 'no day laborers' out of it- and this is the people you want in your parking lot harassing you? he had a knife in his hand and cut it of the sign."

Metro gets calls from local nurseries and home improvement stores every day, complaining about trespassing. Metro says they rarely make arrests, instead issuing warnings. Heidi wishes they'd do more.

"It's like a game. You call metro and you sit and wait to do your report because this has happened. Soon as Metro comes they jump off the property, soon as Metro leaves, they come right back on 10

So now police are taking a different approach. Sheriff Doug Gillespie has introduced a new protocol that should be approved soon. It tells officers how to handle day laborer calls.

"In a problem that we can't necessarily solve right now, this provides some guidance for our officers out there," Captain Chris Darcy of Metro tells us.

A lot of people may not even realize that in the City of las vegas, it's illegal to stop a vehicle in the street to employ a pedestrian. Retailers have been working for years to find a solution to customers' issues with the laborers, but the argument that always wins?

"Day laborers have a right to be out there," says Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU.

"Having several people on the sidewalk calling out to you saying 'hey give me a job,' that's not harassment," Lichtenstein continues.

The ACLU of Nevada has been against proposals to regulate where day laborers can stand and ask for work, but the ACLU tells us they're okay with Star's fence.

"Fencing off your own property is something that people do all the time that's viable in keeping them off their own property. It will not keep them off the public sidewalk," Lichtenstein says.

The ACLU supports the idea of having an area for the laborers to congregate to lessen customer complaints.

At a Home Depot in Los Angeles, the city operates and pays for the area for the workers to gather. In Las Vegas there is no area for workers to gather and the fence was Star's only solution to their customers' complaints.

They say the fence is working. They say their sales have gone up about 5% at locations with the barriers, and they've received positive customer feedback.

But the barrier doesn't deter everyone. Feesmy tells us, he's still going to be out there, trying to get work, "I am not a bad person. I am a good person and I am like many other people waiting for an opportunity."

Star also just found out that they've been cited by the city and the county for having a temporary fence up. They have until December to take the fence down or apply for a permit for permanent fencing.

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05 Nov 2009 @ 11:57 am

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