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Workers, Neighbors Begin Dialogue
Jana Meyer translates from Spanish as Francisco Pacheco addresses a roomful of churchgoers, immigrant advocates and Dupont and Logan Circle residents.
(By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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But after the meeting, he gently questioned an immigrant advocate about whether it was proper for the city to support a day-labor center.
"How does the D.C. government, which is supposed to uphold the laws, work for people who aren't even supposed to be here?" he asked.
Norberto Martinez, an outreach worker from the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, assured the crowd that the government was committed to helping the workers and avoiding a situation such as the one in suburban Herndon, where a proposal for a day-labor center recently blew up into a controversy of national proportions.
"The workers are here, and they're not leaving. We have to find a solution," Martinez said.
By the end of the meeting, immigrant advocates and the day laborers were talking about forming a task force to study the idea of a worker center. Several day laborers said they had taken to heart the residents' request for a commitment to stop harassing women.
"Sometimes people are right about what they say about the corner," Aragon said. "There are people there who seek work, but there's a little group that goes to drink and smoke marijuana. So a girl passes, and some are drunk, and they say, 'Hey, pretty girl.'
"Those of us who don't drink have to say, 'Don't bother her.' "
"Commitment! Commitment!" Delgado, the day laborer from Nicaragua, implored the workers. He gazed around the emptying room. "From today onward, the corner will improve."
