Va. Day Laborers Being Photographed, Followed

But he said the group had a successful first week.

"We accomplished more than we set out to do," Taplin said. "The main thing we wanted to do is start building our database with images of the different workers and employers. We also wanted to prove what most people thought, and what we had put forth -- this idea that the vast majority of the people who were there were illegal and the employers were regular employers, not people who came every once in a while looking for workers."

He said members of the group took pictures of workers and employers and then followed the employers to job sites to document the locations. "We found that some vehicles were coming back again and again, serving as taxis, to bring workers to the same work site," he said.

Nancy Mathis, a spokeswoman for the IRS, declined to comment on what the agency would do with the information if the Minutemen handed it over, "because taxpayer information is confidential."

When members of Taplin's group tried to take photographs, workers often turned their backs, Taplin said. He said he took that as a sign that they were in the United States illegally and did not want their pictures taken.

That may not be the case, though.

Many of the workers have attended workshops in recent weeks to prepare them for the move to the new hiring site next month. Among the points they were given on dealing with the Minuteman members and the media was the suggestion that they turn their backs if they did not want to be photographed.

"It really wasn't a workshop specially on the Minutemen," said Bill Threlkeld, director of Project Hope and Harmony, a nonprofit group that will operate the job center. "But certainly, since it is a current issue, it did come up. We just talked about these groups who will try to intimidate with video cameras and that they had a right to take pictures as long as they were in public spaces. The workers don't need to be concerned about that. They can ignore the photographers or just turn around."

As part of the agreement to open a job center, the workers have been told to form a governance team, which they have done, Threlkeld said. He said the team will be involved in the operation of the center, which will open behind the old town police station.

Until the center opens, he said, he has encouraged the workers to communicate with the employers about what is going on at the 7-Eleven site and to use the hiring location as a meeting place to be picked up for scheduled work. He said workers have been told to take down information on the people who hire them to protect themselves in the event they are not paid or are left at job sites, as sometimes happens.

The workers have been given some media-relations pointers, too. "It is important to have a consistent message," Threlkeld said. "They aren't criminals. They are just people who want to work, and they have not come to destroy. They have come to build and help out the community."

For Lopez, the presence of the Minuteman Project is a reminder of how his status has changed. In Bolivia, he said, his position as a teacher made him well known in the community, someone who people looked up to and always greeted warmly on the street. Now he feels like a targeted outcast, he said.

Five or six men gathered around Lopez as he spoke, nodding. "Now I am just a humble worker like every other man here," he said.