Mr. Escobar serves as a liaison and advocate between the local government and the Latino community residing in Washington, D.C. As a child of immigrants himself, he urged Chavez scholars who were bilingual to maintain their fluency in their home language and English to serve their own individual and community needs.
TOPIC: D.C.’s Latino Community and
Day Laborers in D.C.
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The biggest problem that Latino immigrants
face is not being able to speak or understand English. Not being able to speak
or understand English prevents an immigrant from asking for and getting the
help they need for their housing, medical or employment problem.
·
D.C. has a language access law that
says the government must be able to provide services to a D.C. resident no
matter what language they speak. In D.C., there are five languages that you can
get information in: Spanish, Chinese, Amharic, Korean, and Vietnamese. If they
cannot find you a person to interpret, you can call a special phone number for
an interpreter over the phone.
·
Many day laborers in D.C. gather the
Home Depot parking lot on Rhode Island Ave NE to find jobs. These workers are
mostly illegal immigrants. There are sometimes 100-150 workers standing outside
at 7 or 8AM looking for work. These workers can be taken advantage of by people
who promise them more money than they actually pay them or by paying them with
bad checks.
·
D.C. wants to build a Multicultural
Vocational Center near the Home Depot to help the day laborers and the people
who are unemployed in Ward 5, where the Home Depot is. A center would make sure
that workers get treated fairly through signing of a contract. Home Depot does
not want the city to build a center because having the workers out front gives
them business.
·
D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Officers
are not allowed to ask to see someone’s immigration papers if they are not
getting arrested.
