The Problem

Day Laborers’ Support Group

Undocumented community members of the Village of Utopianeck are being harassed and robbed for their cash wages daily and are not reporting these crimes to the local police department. The victims of these crimes are newly arrived from Guatemala and Mexico. Most of them do not have any sort of identification, have limited English proficiency and low educational attainment. These men have come to the States to work as day laborers in the construction, gardening or restaurant industries. Unfortunately, their immigration status hinders them from opening up a checking account at a bank to safely store their cash wages. Therefore, many walk around carrying cash in their pockets and are constantly harassed, bullied and robbed. Many of these day laborers experience verbal threats, pushing and shoving, gang beatings, knife threats. Allegedly, the perpetrators of these crimes are members of the African American community, who live in the Georgeville Housing—also known as the “flats”—area of Utopianeck and know that day laborers carry cash and will not report harassment cases to the police. The immigration status of these day laborers and their fear of being flagged as an illegal in a small community, detained, and eventually deported back to their country stops the newly arrived from reporting any crimes against them. Not only does this lack of communication exist from a cultural perspective, but there is a history of distrust between local law enforcement and day laborers from a 2006 lawsuit for the right to stand at a park to wait for work that was won with the support of local nonprofit agency, Latino Rights Center (LRC). Village of Utopianeck Administrators must respond to the lack of security these members of the community are facing regardless of their immigration status and history with local law enforcement. It is important to keep this community safe for everyone.

Policy Options

1. Officer Patrolling or Surveillance Cameras: First it is advised that police patrol the Georgeville Housing area more often at night. While it is not suggested that the police offers emphasize the fear that day laborers have against them, it is important to establish more of a presence at night in order to reduce crime rates immediately. It is not clear what the cost of extra police patrolling will be. Therefore, an alternative option is to install surveillance cameras on lamp posts throughout the flats area in order to establish a safer community. Cameras can be set to record all activity and can be checked weekly or stand as evidence that day laborers are being harassed daily. This action should be taken in the hope that the perpetrators will be less inclined to harass or attack day laborers if they see a police patrol car drive around the neighborhood more often. These actions should be taken in the hope that the perpetrators will be less inclined to harass or attack day laborers if they see a police patrol car drive around the neighborhood more often or are aware that there are surveillance cameras. However, it is advised that it not be promoted that cameras will be installed as they may lead to the spread of criminal acts in areas that are not installed with surveillance cameras.

2. Cultural Awareness Training and UPD Bilingual Brochures: The Utopianeck Police Department should consider receiving a cultural awareness training in order to properly serve all the members of this ethnically diverse community. According to the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), “cultural sensitivity training can help law enforcement improve relationships, gain the trust of the community, and better help them address local crime problems”. The NCPC advocates community trust between law enforcement and ethnic communities in order to effectively serve the community and encourage establishing substations in local immigrant communities. This justifies the argument that police training and community agency collaboration yield positive results in terms of safety. Although the department prides itself on hiring experienced and culturally competent officers and also on recently hiring Spanish-speaking officers, there still seems to be a foundation of distrust and cultural misunderstanding. The underlying issue is not about language, it is about understanding that these day laborers come from different backgrounds and values, paired with instilled fear of all uniformed authority because they are undocumented. Furthermore, it is important to remember that communities often change often, so refresher training on cultural awareness and dealing with undocumented immigrant communities would help the situation at hand in Utopianeck. After the training, the UPD should consider making their own bilingual brochure encouraging the undocumented immigrants of Utopianeck to report crimes, regardless of their immigration status. The LRC would help distribute such brochures.

3. Community Forums with UPD and Local Banks: Organized and consistent community forums at local agencies like the Latino Rights Center should be held in Utopianeck. These forums should include undocumented community members as all well as documented community members and stakeholders like village administrators and the UPD. Having organized and consistent—whether quarterly or yearly—forums  opens up the opportunity for issues like underreporting of crimes to be discussed at the community level. To target the issue of cash wages being robbed, it is suggested that the first organized forum include local bank representatives that offer low requirement saving accounts for undocumented members of the community. For example, the local Wells Fargo bank has stated that no social security number or tax identification number is necessary to open up a simple checking or saving account (A. Gomez on bank accounts for undocumented immigrants, personal communication, January 10, 2014). However, it would help if day laborers had a choice between branches. Therefore, it is recommended that Mayor Pierce encourage Wells Fargo and other local banks to join the community forums and discuss options available for these day laborers to keep their wages safe.  Since day laborers are likely to feel more comfortable at community agencies, it is recommended that these forums take place at the Latino Rights Center.