A reason to change places

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, May 2, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

On a day when thousands of people protested and marched for immigration policy reforms, 21-year-old Jose stood at his normal spot on Eastern Avenue, looking for work.

Jose, a day laborer in paint-spattered jeans and T-shirt, was one of nearly 100 men who had gathered earlier Monday at the spot, hoping for work on a day of boycott.

"Why should I march ... if what I need is work?" said the self-described jack-of-all-trades construction worker, painter and gardener, who declined to give his last name.

It was the best of boycotts for casino workers who didn't want to jeopardize their employment and happily signed a petition and attended an evening rally to show their support for immigration reform.

And it was the worst of boycotts - just another crummy day - for laborers such as Jose who have no union, no boss, not even a steady job.

Driving north along Eastern Avenue in the suburban stretch of endless palm trees and Spanish tile, it soon became clear that lunchtime for many would not include burritos, tacos or cerveza Corona.

At area malls, Roberto's Tacos, La Barca seafood restaurant and even one El Pollo Loco were either closed or with a bare-bones, take-out only staff.

The car radio was set at KRLV 1340-AM, where phone lines buzzed with calls from across the valley.

One caller showed "what we feel about this country" by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, with a few prepositions switched here and there.

A string of callers sitting in their houses and taking the day off from work said that construction sites near their houses were "like ghost towns."

Another caller used the same term to describe a shopping center in a heavily Hispanic North Las Vegas neighborhood.

Shortly after noon, one spot that wasn't at all ghostly - and in fact rather lively - was Sunset Park at Eastern Avenue and Sunset Road.

About 20 fellows of varying girths and ages had just finished a soccer pickup game and retired to a grassy spot to cool off with a little shade and some cold cans of suds.

The workplaces of these guys read like a what's what on the Strip: MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, Venetian, Treasure Island.

Restaurants in each of those tourist meccas were fairly limping along while this crew chilled out in protest, if they were to be believed.

Mario Guerra, who makes salads for a restaurant in Paris Las Vegas, said he would probably lose his job because of his decision to skip work, but added, "I've been tossed out of better places."

Others said they had received permission from their bosses to leave work.

Guerra also seemed to savor the image of "the manager washing dishes" - an image that was impossible to confirm.

Jose Escalera, sitting nearby, said the point of the day's walkout, marches and other activities was for people such as Guerra's manager to "see what we're worth."

Escalera, in the United States for 8 1/2 years and a legal resident - the step below citizenship - said he hoped some sort of reform could be reached in Congress for all of his friends and family members who have not gained legal status, since "all we want is to work."

The off-duty hotel kitchen workers thought the day's shows of protest would snowball into further demonstrations of support for reform.

The workers noted they had seen television reports of Las Vegas student marches last month and reasoned, "Why not us?"

A man who sat out the soccer game because of an injury said that "the bad laws" - presumably, the House version of reform being discussed in Congress, a bill that would make illegal immigration a felony - "have forced us to come together on this issue."

Even though, Escalera noted, "there are no leaders" in Las Vegas - "not like Cesar Chavez."

That refrain is echoed constantly among those evaluating the prospects of a pro-immigrant movement locally.

David Thronson, one of the founders of the immigration law clinic at UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law, noted that the biggest employers in town - casinos - will always make Las Vegas "somewhat of an anomaly."

The relatively good relations between casinos, the 60,000-member Culinary Union - at least 45 percent of whom are Hispanic - and employees means this city "is not going to turn out 50,000 for a march," he said.

In any case, the end goal of the marches and boycotts - a new law - will come out of a closed-door compromise, a conference committee, Thronson reminded.

"It's not clear what all this will mean at that point," he said.