On rainy days it’s a flood at Mexican consulate in LV

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004 | 9:06 a.m.

To get an idea of the Mexican worker's role in the local construction industry, go to that country's consulate downtown on a rainy day.

Like Monday.

Turns out when it rains, many construction sites shut down. And Mexican workers take advantage of the forced day off from work to get what's called a consular identification card. Many of those in line Monday said they needed the card because they had no other form of documenting their identity.

And so Monday the consulate was swamped -- or flooded -- by more than 300 people, mostly men in jeans and dirty boots -- or about four times the amount in a normal day.

All but several dozen sought the consular identification card, said Euclides del Moral, vice consul. The official said 11 of the consulate's staff of 13 had to wait on the public Monday -- including the consul, Berenice Rendon -- where normally five would be enough.

"Since it's raining, work has stopped," said Vicente Ruiz, from Hidalgo, out on Main Street at 2 p.m. during a brief stop in the day's showers.

"We came to get a way to identify ourselves, just in case it's needed," he said.

He was with two friends from his hometown -- Luis Pacheco and Jesus Lopez.

All three work for a plastering company. Two of them needed the coveted card, a source of controversy in recent years as banks and police departments nationwide have begun accepting the Mexican document as a form of identification. Some say the practice lets immigrants who are here illegally get a foot in the door to U.S. society.

Monday, cement workers who work on houses in Henderson and laborers from a site "on Tropicana over by where the sun sets" each paid $28 for their cards. Some had come to Las Vegas seeking work 15 days ago. Others, 12 years ago.

But nearly all worked in construction, said del Moral, who said he had seen statistics indicating that about 70 percent of the Mexican community in the Las Vegas Valley worked in construction.

That would be nearly 200,000 workers, which is way above state figures for November 2003, which said there were 83,000 workers in the entire industry.

At least some of the difference between the two numbers may be due to the very nature of the beast -- documenting the undocumented.

Stephen Miller, chairman of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas economics department, compared studying the undocumented workers to tracking the growth of the underground economy, or the use of the dollar in the international marketplace.

According to a nationally broadcast episode of "Nightline" last week, many Las Vegas employers look the other way when it comes to hiring undocumented workers who do jobs and accept wages that Americans won't. The show mentioned the construction industry as a draw.

Pablo Llamas, who came to Las Vegas three years ago from Jalisco, was waiting at 3:30 p.m. to receive consular ID cards for his wife and teenage daughter. He already has one. Without it, "you tend to live a little in fear," he said.

He said he works as a laborer for $8 an hour as part of a house-building crew that is about three-fourths Hispanic on the west side of the Las Vegas Valley.

Llamas, who at 55 has the lined face of someone who has worked decades outdoors, said he contributes to the local economy with his labor and the taxes he pays.

He hopes to stay "the two or three years work I still have," save up some money and return to his hometown. There, he hopes to fix up his own house, which still needs some plaster.

The day off was appreciated to take care of business for his family.

But it also worried him, since his $675 rent is due later this week.

"I make little here, but it's better than I would in Mexico," he said.