MORRIS COUNTY (New Jersey) DAILY RECORD November 5, 2006
Panelists: Migrant laborers don't know rights Suggest employment coordination center be created in Morris MORRIS TWP. -- As a former day laborer in San Francisco, Francisco Pacheco knows that migrant workers aren't necessarily aware of the rights they have when they work in the United States. Intimidated by authority or by the threat of being deported, he said, they often find themselves mistreated when they shouldn't be. "They definitely need to learn the civil rights they have as day laborers," he said through a Spanish translator. Pacheco was a panelist at Saturday's "Humane Focus on Immigration"panel, organized by Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center and the Social Justice Council of Morristown Unitarian Fellowship. Pacheco, along with Father Hernan Arias of St. Margaret's Church in Morristown, Saul Solo of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, Texas, and Parastou Hassouri of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Jersey, spoke about problems facing immigrants --particularly day laborers who don't understand the rights they are entitled to on American soil.
Guaranteed rights Alison Hunt, policy adviser for Wind of the Spirit, said all day laborers are granted the protection of the U.S. Constitution if they are in this country. "It refers to people, not just to citizens," she said. Pacheco said Morris County needs to do more to educate undocumented workers about these rights by establishing an employment coordination center. "Wind of the Spirit can't do it all by themselves," he said, referring to the group's mission of providing services to local immigrants, both documented and undocumented. For example, Hassouri said, day laborers should know what agencies they can go to with complaints about their workplace without fear of being deported. Agencies like OSHA, she said, aren't accountable to federal immigration agencies, and day laborers need to realize that. Beatriz Cabrera-Wich, a compliance officer with the Parsippany-area branch of OSHA who attended the panel, said undocumented workers are entitled to the same workplace health and safety standards as all other workers. Not many know that, though, and so they continue to work in dangerous conditions, she said.
Visas Solo said some of the problems faced by day laborers could be alleviated if the government made it easier for them to obtain visas. Right now, the number of work visas granted by the government is "not realistic "because it is too small, he said. And once immigrants have come into the country legally, he said, the government should create a clearer pathway to permanent residency. Nancy Turcios of Morristown, who volunteers with Wind of the Spirit, said she came to the United States from El Salvador when she was 1 year old, and still does not have citizenship status, even though she has been trying to obtain it for about six years. Every year, she must re-apply for temporary/permanent status for a fee of $400, she said. Diana Mejia, co-founder of Wind of the Spirit, said the purpose of the panel was to make the community aware of the plight of all local immigrants. "We are all human beings," she said. "People have to understand that."
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