On Tuesday, the parking lot of the Home Depot on Thomas Road in central Phoenix was a hive of activity. More than 50 day laborers were hanging out, seeking to flag down drivers for construction and landscaping work. There were no police in sight.
That could change soon, according to pro-immigrant activists. The Phoenix Police Department may soon begin trespassing jornaleros, as the day laborers are referred to in Spanish, which could land them in county jail. There, the jornaleros — some of whom are undocumented — would be screened by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and possibly deported.
Salvador Reza, a community organizer with the group Barrio Defense Committees, said Phoenix police recently gave him a “heads up” that property owners had authorized the department to remove jornaleros from the shopping center that Home Depot shares with Walmart and other businesses. Reza and other activists said that’s a shift in the status quo…