Chicago day laborers say heightened immigration enforcement has sharply reduced work opportunities at one of the city's oldest informal hiring sites, according to a new report by Borderless Magazine, as fewer workers and employers show up at the Avondale corner where laborers have gathered for decades.
The hiring site near Belmont and Milwaukee avenues once drew hundreds of workers each morning seeking jobs in roofing, painting, moving, dishwashing and construction. This year, workers told Borderless, only about a dozen or fewer laborers are often waiting there at a time.
Several said they believe fear of immigration arrest has kept workers away and discouraged contractors from stopping to hire them.
The decline follows Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign in the Chicago area. In September, the Chicago Tribune reported that federal agents detained several day laborers at home improvement stores and hiring sites around the region, including workers in Naperville and Chicago's Montclare neighborhood.
At the Avondale site, workers said the fear is now compounded by local police enforcement. Borderless reported that Chicago police arrested three men seeking work near the Shell gas station on June 24 after officers had previously warned laborers to leave the site.
The Chicago Police Department confirmed officers responded to complaint calls in the area and made several arrests.
For many workers, the result has been fewer jobs and less income. Gudiel Perez, a Guatemalan immigrant who looks for work at the site, said he used to find two or three short jobs in a day. Now, he said, he is picked up about twice a week. "You can't even make enough to eat," Perez told Borderless.
Other laborers said they continue returning despite the risk because they need income. "You have to walk by the hand of God, because you have no other option," Mario, a Honduran immigrant, told the outlet.
Advocacy groups have responded by creating support systems at hiring corners. The Latino Union of Chicago launched an "Adopt-a-Corner" initiative, sending volunteers to distribute coffee, food, transit cards and Know Your Rights materials while monitoring for possible enforcement activity.
Geovanni Celaya, a migrant worker organizer with the Latino Union, told the Tribune last year that many day laborers cannot simply stop looking for work. "They have to bring food to the table, have to provide for a family member," he said. "I see my family in day laborers. I see my friends in day laborers. I see myself in day labor, because we're all at risk."
