Day-Labor Group Starts Trek

With the recent arrests of undocumented workers in Orange County fresh in their minds, a dozen day laborers gathered with supporters Saturday in Santa Monica to kick off a cross-country run aimed at calling attention to the exploitation and discrimination faced by immigrant workers.

The group converged at sunrise on Palisades Park, where the Pacific Ocean served as a backdrop for speeches and blessings in Spanish and English. An oft-stated aspiration was that the 3,000-mile run would serve to build peace and harmony between workers and groups opposing illegal immigration.

After a ceremony that featured burning incense, singing and gentle drumming, the dozen runners descended a stairway to a pedestrian overpass that leads to the beach. Once on the sand, many of them -- wearing lime-green shirts imprinted with two runners superimposed on a U.S. map and the motto Day Laborer Run for Peace and Dignity -- doffed their running shoes and waded into the chilly surf.

Each runner carried a “sacred baton” or staff decorated with animal horns, feathers or strips of fabric. Participants had carried many of these staffs, given by indigenous peoples, in previous runs -- from Alaska to Mexico and Alaska to Panama -- in support of immigrant workers’ rights.

Carlos Mares, 32, a day laborer and labor organizer who emigrated from Mexico City 14 years ago and lives in Oakland, said he was motivated by the anti-illegal immigrant sentiment in California and the nation to undertake the challenge. He particularly criticized the Minuteman border-control group and a federal immigration reform bill that calls for a wall to seal off long stretches of the border with Mexico.

“We’re trying to show the federal government they should recognize the contributions of immigrants, especially day laborers,” Mares said through an interpreter. “We demand fair legislation, not just for Latin American workers but also for workers from Africa, Asia and all over the world.”

Day laborers in Los Angeles and other cities often wait on street corners or in hiring centers near large home-improvement stores in the hope of being hired for odd jobs in construction or landscaping. According to a recent study, an estimated three-fourths of day laborers are illegal immigrants, primarily from Mexico and Central America.

Proponents of border controls say they are responding to national security concerns. The Minuteman group, for example, has stationed citizen patrols at the Mexican border and participated in events to protest illegal immigration and day-laborer centers. But many homeowners and contractors welcome the immigrants as a cheap source of labor. The workers say they have the right to earn a living.

The run, expected to take two to three months, is being coordinated by the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network, made up of 30 community-based organizations that address matters involving wages and workplace and civil rights.

The 10 men and two women, making the run across the Southern states to Georgia and then to New York City, will pass through 25 states and 50 cities and towns, said Pablo Alvarado, the network’s national coordinator. One runner is from Los Angeles and one is from Pomona.

The runners will be supported by three vans carrying supplies and water. Grass-roots organizations and contributions from day laborers along the way will provide funding and help the runners cover rent and other expenses while they are away.

A study released in January showed that wage violations, workplace injuries and employer abuses are common in the day-labor community. Nearly half of the 2,660 day laborers who participated in the survey by three universities, including UCLA, had been underpaid or not paid at all in the two months before they were interviewed. Forty-four percent said they were not given food, water and breaks.

Last month, police in Orange, responding to citizen complaints, arrested nine day laborers outside a Home Depot store. One who showed a California identification card was released, but the others, who had no proof of residency, were sent to a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in San Clemente.

After Saturday’s beachfront ceremony, the runners headed down Third Street Promenade and then to a building-supply company on 11th Street. Clumps of day laborers stretched for blocks, gawking as the runners with their sacred batons sprinted past.

The runners made stops throughout the day, including day-labor centers in West Los Angeles and near downtown Los Angeles.

They are expected to arrive this afternoon in Pomona. On Monday at Pomona City Hall, they plan to urge city leaders to support a local resolution opposing the federal immigration reform bill.

That measure was approved by the House of Representatives in December and has been referred to a Senate committee. The bill by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) calls for two layers of reinforced fencing, new lighting, cameras and underground sensors similar to those in place near San Ysidro, Calif. One new stretch would seal off nearly the entire 350-mile length of the Arizona-Mexico border.

Oscar de la Torre, a Santa Monica activist, said he found the idea of such a barrier ironic. Before there was a United States, he said, “these people’s ancestors helped build this continent. We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us.”