Newly Jobless Immigrants Swell Ranks of Day Laborers

By Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 17, 2001; Page B01

It took 16 years for Honduran-born Juan Rivera to steep himself in suburban America: a well-paying carpenter's job, a town house in Gaithersburg and three children doing well in school.

It took just two months for him to feel like an anxious new immigrant again.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Rivera lost his job. Now he may lose his house, and his 18-year-old daughterworries that there won't be money for her to start college.

In the weak economy, increasingly desperate immigrants, many of them from Latin America, are piling into a parking lot in Silver Spring near the Montgomery-Prince George's county line. They arrive at dawn, somewith hard hats in hand, to compete for day jobs painting houses and digging ditches that can pay as little as $8 per hour to as much as $20.

No one knows for sure how many people there are like Rivera: immigrants who had managed to gain a foothold into the American dream but then lost it. Formerly employed in jobs that gave them health insurance and other benefits, these workers now find themselves trying to scrape by withtemporary jobs.

What is clear is that since Sept. 11, Casa of Maryland, the nonprofit services group that runs the University Boulevard job lot, has seen a steep increase in the number of people seeking day jobs. With that change have come new tensions as the day laborers who had considered the lot to be theirs find that more people are showing up each day andcompeting for work.

Until Sept. 11, about 100 men were signed up as day laborers at Casa, which maintains a registration list of workers. Now, about 200 people are signed up.

"We have a big family and have to pay more than $1,000 a month for the house," said Rivera, 45. "I'm hoping and searching for something just to make a little bit of money, to survive the situation."

His need to look for temporary work is not something Rivera is proud of.

Through a translator, he said he is a skilled worker and a member of a carpenters' union. Recently, he came to register at Casa and got an identification card that allows him to get on the job lot, which is run by Casa on weekdays.

Raul Caballero, a day laborer for three years, is not happy to see the new arrivals. For him, it is a simple equation.

"More people and less jobs," said Caballero, 40. "How are we going to survive?"

As he spoke, a woman who wanted to hire movers drove up to the parking lot in a burgundy minivan. Caballero and about a half-dozen other men swarmed the vehicle. Some shouted to the driver to hire them -- even though in theory, Casa has an orderly process that determines jobs by lottery. Since Sept. 11, more workers have ignored the rules, crowding cars and, in some cases, approaching employers before they pull into the parking lot.

"We have the situation under control now," said Daniel Joya, an employment specialist for Casa. "But people are getting more anxious. The people are going to try to break the rules more, especially when they have to pay the rent."

The situation is similar in Northern Virginia, according to social workers there.

The most recent unemployment data do not offer much hope for the day laborers. In October, unemployment was 6.3 percent in the District, 4.4 percent in Maryland and 3.6 percent in Virginia.

For the same month last year, unemployment was 6 percent in the District, 3.9 percent in Maryland and 2.2 percent in Virginia.

The hospitality industry -- a major source of jobs for Latino immigrants -- has been among the hardest hit. A total of 10,000 to 12,000 workers have been laid off in the last few months as fewer visitors have patronized hotels and tourist sites, according to the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C.

The growing number of women looking through job announcements at the Casa office for cooking, housekeeping and factory work is a further sign of the state of the area economy. Before Sept. 11, about 15 women a week made inquiries; now, the number is more than 40 a week, Casa officials said.

In the last decade, the large numbers of Latin American immigrants contributed to a 90 percent jump in the region's Hispanic population as the economy boomed.

Despite economic hard times, the Washington area remains a draw for Latin American immigrants. Even though prospects are bad here, they are worse elsewhere.

"Here, they suffer by themselves," said Gustavo Torres, Casa's executive director. "If they return to El Salvador, there will be 15 of them in one family without any jobs."

On a recent morning, only five day laborers had been hired; during the summer, about 80 people typically are hired each day, Joya said.

During a Casa orientation session for new workers, a young man said he left Northern California after a Napa Valley restaurant cut staff. A mother of six from Miami was laid off from a fruit canning factory. A father of three from Charlottesville lost his cleaning job in a hotel.

Even the food vendor at the Casa lot, by far the busiest person there, has been affected. Mario Guevara, who sells tamales and pupusas, said he is extending credit to many workers, who have run up tabs of $10, $20, $30, which they promise they will pay off once they get a job. A few have left without notice, he said.

"They're hungry," said Guevara, a former construction worker. "What can you do?"

At a brainstorming session between Casa and the workers recently, day laborers promised to help distribute fliers asking for jobs.Torres said Casa officials will call and visit employers and step up requests for food donations.

One worker, Jose Garcia, is trying to start a petition for first lady Laura Bush, who he says is compassionate.

Garcia, 60, a teacher in El Salvador, said he came here 10 months ago because of the rampant crime in his homeland and because "the American dream is a wish that we all have."

One morning, Garcia distributed chocolate muffins donated by a local bakery and talked about his petition asking the first lady to help the laborers.

"This situation is not about just me, Jose Garcia," he saidin Spanish. "This situation is everyone."