Day Laborers Displace Black Workers in Washington, D.C. As Residents Complain
"Regina James says she drives past Rhode Island Plaza every weekday
morning and has mixed feelings at the sight of more than 100 Latino men waiting for day-labor jobs in the Home Depot parking lot. The increasing number of laborers, some of whom residents say leave trash on the ground and urinate along a nearby barrier wall, has heightened tension and stirred mistrust between the Latinos and the mostly black residents of the working-class Brentwood neighborhood in Northeast," the Washington Post reports. "In the District, Latino advocates say the Home Depot is the largest day-labor site since one of two paint stores closed at 15th and P streets NW. During the summer, residents say they have seen as many as 200 day laborers at the Home Depot. Residents say police have not acted on their complaints about loitering because the parking lot is private property."
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