The PROVIDENCE JOURNAL reports that 60 illegal aliens were hired to shovel snow out of Gillette Stadium before the New England Patriots game against Baltimore.
One woman was pregnant. Seven workers were minors. The youngest was a 14-year-old boy.
On a day that never got above freezing, some were ill equipped for the cold — and the rigors of the job. They shivered in sweatshirts and hoodies and frozen sneakers as they hurled the snow into giant chutes.
U.S. Immigration agents not only knew about the illegal aliens hiring, “In fact, the agents drove them there.”
The workers were more familiar with raising corn or chickens in the K’iché region of Guatemala than hoisting plastic snow shovels. Catarina Castro, 24, told her story Thursday at the Providence storefront office of Immigrants in Action Committee, one of several advocacy groups helping the workers.
Castro came to the office in sandals and bare feet, and a fleece sweatshirt with “Alaska” stitched on the front that, she said, is identical, all but in color, to the one she wore to the stadium. She said she does not own a winter coat.
Castro said through a translator that she crossed illegally through the desert into the United States eight years ago so she could support a child she left in her mother’s care. She picked up trash at Gillette Stadium several weeks ago, she said, but had never shoveled snow until Jan. 6.
On that day, her sneakers froze, “and my pants were all wet … they were soaking wet up to my knees, and my fingers were frozen as well.” When she returned home that day, “My body hurt.”
She and her friend, Roberto Poel Castro (no relation), 20, said they were given just one half-hour break between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., and were each provided a hot dog and hot chocolate for lunch.
They said they had time for “only a few sips” of water, because their “American” supervisor “would yell” if they took too long, or talked too much. Workers snuck toward the back of the stadium to drink water “when he [the supervisor] wasn’t looking,” Roberto Castro said.
Guillermo Ramos, another of the workers, said on Friday, “The gringo said, ‘Hurry up, you are here to work, not to drink.’ ” He said the supervisor wore a Gillette jacket.
Ramos said his socks got clotted with ice as he shoveled in snow nearly up to his knees. He said he does not own a heavy coat or boots.
He added, “If you stop with your shovel, they say, ‘Hey, what happened?’ ”
None of the workers had heard of a company called Legal Pro-Temps, nor had they ever filled out a job application. Workers who crowded into the office of the Guatemalan Consulate in Providence the week after the incident gave similar accounts.
Some of the workers said they were paid $5 to $7 an hour, below minimum wage, and were charged up to $7 a day for transportation, according to members of the Central Falls advocacy group Fuerza Laboral who interviewed them.
The Patriots claimed no responsibility in the hiring of ill-equipped, underage and pregnant illegal aliens to clear snow from their stadium to allow a game to go on:
Two days after the immigration road stop, Patriots spokesman Stacey James said the Patriots had severed its contract with the agency that he said had provided the workers. In an e-mail, he later told The Journal that the agency was Legal Pro-Temps; a company he said the Patriots organization had contracted with since January 2008.
He said the Patriots organization is considering safeguards to avoid such situations in the future.
Common sense of course would’ve told the Patriots on Jan. 6 that a pregnant woman and 14-year-old boy from Guatemala should not be shoveling snow in that situation, but the buck was passed by the team to the temp agency.
The Patriots were under the gun to get the game played, but with likely lawsuits on the way from the workers now, the team might’ve considered taking more responsibility at the time on who was hired.
10:41 am on February 1st, 2010
Ship these bozos out of the country immediately.
Press charges against the temp agency.
10:56 am on February 1st, 2010
“Common sense of course would’ve told” the pregnant woman not to take that job. And I’m pretty sure any of the workers could’ve walked away at any time if conditions were that bad. No self responsibility and a potential payoff from a frivolous lawsuit. They came here for the American Dream and they found it.
11:15 am on February 1st, 2010
Im against illegals coming here.
And I hate the line: THEY DO JOBS AMERICANS WONT DO…..But!!!!, this is a job Americans wont do.
so if they are here already, and they want to do it,…let them do it.
11:32 am on February 1st, 2010
Yes, I’m sure they could have refused the job and “walked away”, and of course the (obviously completely ethical) temp agency would have just understood and sympathized, and in no way would they have told the pregnant woman, or any of the other workers, that they would not be getting any other work in the future, and would of course not do anything like, say, threaten to anonymously report them to the authorities. And even if that happened, the illegals would just go and get another job somewhere else, easy as pie, and then they’d all go home to their mansions and have dinner parties and champagne and caviar.
I don’t support illegal immigration either, and there are even some legal immigration policies that I consider ridiculous and unfair. But I do understand that when people are poor and hungry, they don’t turn down work, no matter how difficult, dangerous, or degrading, especially when the people who are handing out the jobs have them over a barrel like these “employers” clearly did.
11:33 am on February 1st, 2010
This was a small, one-off job and the Patriots were too lazy to police what was going on.
They could’ve run a Craigslist ad and gotten the job done probably twice as fast with no such external issues.
As far as Illegals, they should’ve been stopped at the border and their employers should be thrown in prison. (I know, pie in the sky, but I can dream can’t I?)
Nothing against the Illegals, but they shouldn’t have been here in the first place. I honestly don’t blame them for anything, I blame us for not enforcing the laws we already have on the books.
1:11 pm on February 1st, 2010
Like they would have been able to find any american that wanted to do that shit job.
1:45 pm on February 1st, 2010
“Like they would have been able to find any american that wanted to do that job.”
Plenty of other teams actually have, via public cattle calls.
1:47 pm on February 1st, 2010
I agree I dont blame the illegals, heck there has been over 16,000 death due to the drug war in Mexico within the last 37 months.
I would want to get a better life for my family too.
But how does a illegal alien from Mexico end up in New England?
and it cant be for the bomb-ass high paying snow shoveling jobs,
that would be the last place i would go, you would stand out like a Mexican in Boston, also its cold, it doesn’t get that cold in Mexico, also if you look different why try to live in a place where everyone looks the same..and not like you, where do you get mexican food in Boston? other than Chilis.
That makes as much sense as when they freed the slaves, im sure one didnt say ” SWEET! im free, im movin to Utah.
4:26 pm on February 1st, 2010
As far as Americans doing the job or not goes: I might do something like that as a one-off. I have been looking for a job since 2007. I am not above doing a 1 day labor job just to get by.
4:29 pm on February 1st, 2010
“But how does a illegal alien from Mexico end up in New England?”
Exactly!!!!! I was wondering the same thing.
It’s about 3,000 miles between New England and Tijuana right?
4:38 pm on February 1st, 2010
As part of the immigrants compensation, they each received 2007 New England Patriots SuperBowl XLII Champions t-shirts.
5:41 pm on February 1st, 2010
You just can NOT get good help at the Home Depot anymore…fug!!
9:41 pm on February 1st, 2010
BUNCH OF IDIOTS!!! THAT’S WHY THE WORLD DOESN’T LIKE AMERICANS, YOU BETTER STAY IN YOUR FRAGILE BUBBLE OF IGNORANCE.
7:49 am on February 2nd, 2010
Who cares what the world thinks? USA! USA! USA!
12:07 pm on February 2nd, 2010
no one was putting a gun to their heads…it’s safe to say that worse could have happened in their own country.
trust me. my grandmother is from columbia…no good.
anyways they had a choice to walk away.
8:24 pm on February 2nd, 2010
I’m having a hard time believing they couldn’t find any Americans willing to shovel snow before, or during, an NFL game. I’d expect that paying even minimum wage would attract a bunch of fans. They might say that they’d lose too much money paying minimum wage, but that would be total bullcrap. They seem to have made out like true rule breakers!
9:15 pm on February 7th, 2010
They take more than temp jobs. They also collect welfare for their anchor baby children. When the pregnant one gives birth the tax payers will be paying for it.
3:51 pm on February 8th, 2010
Caught cheeting and now this. BOOOOOOO THE PATRIOTS ORGANIZATION!!!!!!!