Freeport, N.Y., targets Latin@ workers and community fights back

Romeo Pacheco parked his car in the Staples parking lot next to the Home Depot in Freeport, Long Island, on Oct. 16. Before shopping, he went over to talk to some friends standing on the sidewalk waiting for work. The police arrested him, put him in handcuffs, and confiscated his car.

Gustavo Flores WW photo: Monica Moorehead

A few days later, the police grabbed a young Latino man of 18 years by his neck and dragged him into a police car, manacled, while his father looked on in horror. Terrified, he pleaded with the cops to stop hurting him. A third man, Erasmo Sandoval, was arrested a few days later. He told Workers World that he knows of one or two others who were also arrested in the parking lot, all Latinos.

Carlos Canales, lead organizer of the Workplace Project, went to the parking lot on Oct. 24 to investigate these events, and was talking to two day laborers when the police told him to leave. He said he was not seeking work, and was just talking to his friends. The police went to a Staples security guard, asked him to request an arrest, and arrested Canales.

All those arrested must appear before a judge on Nov. 6.

On the same day Canales was arrested, Gustavo Flores, leader of United Day Laborers of Freeport, was roused from his bed at 6:00 a.m. when Freeport housing inspectors entered his home, demanding to know who lived there, and took pictures of the house and its residents. Flores later found out that other Latin@ homes had also been targeted in his neighborhood. This same type of pre-dawn raid caused New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to sue Freeport back in 2002.

History of anti-Latin@ racism

Officials in Freeport, located about 30 miles east of New York City, say the village is one-third Latin@, one-third Black and one-third white. But the percentage of Latin@s is actually larger. Ten years ago, Freeport was dying—stores closing, residents leaving—when Latin@s moved in and revitalized the local economy, buying houses and opening businesses. The local police responded to the influx of Latin@s rudely, harassing and arresting day laborers who congregated at the Home Depot and Dunkin Donuts.

Carlos Canales came to Freeport to protest this police brutality. He helped organize the workers and Freeport residents to demand a legal and protected “shape-up” site.

Freeport police arrested Canales and other workers in 2002. At the time, the village was facing the suit by Spitzer for discriminatory raids on Latin@ homeowners.

Forced into a corner, Freeport Mayor William Glacken agreed to a legal shape-up site: a dilapidated trailer, hidden from public view and administered by Catholic Charities.

Workplace Project and the United Day Laborers of Freeport worked with a support committee, Freeport Community Worklink Center, to make the trailer more visible and democratic. FCWC, a worker-run committee, briefly won the right to administer the shape-up site.

But when Mayor Glacken and several foundations announced that all day laborers in Freeport had to go to the trailer or face arrest, the workers and support committee said no. They were “fired” and Catholic Charities retook the site, ending the worker-run project.

Glacken bullied the Vornado Realty Trust, owner of the property where Home Depot and Staples are located, along with nearly $14 billion in other real estate assets, to put up “no trespassing” signs. The signs went up in September, giving Freeport police the right to arrest workers in the parking lot.

The village of Freeport has clearly mounted a calculated, racist attack on its Latin@ community. The FCWC and the UDLF have secured a lawyer, Fred Brewington, to take this case. They are organizing in the streets and in the churches, and will be protesting on Nov. 6, marching from Dunkin Donuts on Sunrise Highway to the Village Hall, where they will rally outside and then pack the court while the workers face the judge.

The community has been organizing for sanctuary for immigrants and to defend the day laborers. They are preparing to mount a case of discrimination against the village government. As UDLF leader Flores said, “We have had enough!”