Veterans Stand Up to Anti-Immigrant Protestors

Since Portland’s day labor hire site opened in June, one angry man named Tom has kept a protest vigil outside site many mornings, holding a sign that says “NO” and snapping photos of employer’s license plates. This week, he got some company: fueled by Oregonians for Immigration Reform and right-wing KPAM talk radio host Victoria Taft (as well as possibly the profile-raising Oregonian feature about Tom), an estimated 30 people surrounded the site Tuesday morning bearing computer-printed signs saying, “Is Illegal”.

That pissed off one of the day laborers – Army veteran and completely legal U.S. citizen Israel Martinez “They’re just labeling everyone an illegal alien over here just because of the color of their skin and that’s racism. I made me angry because I served this country,” explains Martinez, who says he was stationed in Central America during the late eighties and has recently finished treatment for trauma and depression. As protesters surrounded the site, Martinez grabbed spare cardboard and made his own sign, “Veteran For Hire.” Martinez took his place outside the site and the “Is Illegal” protesters left in under an hour, according to site manager Justin Shear.

No one stopped by to hire workers during the protest, says Shear, but after the sign-holders left the site hired out 23 people – a typical day. The day laborers and organizers heard a rumor that the protesters might be planning to return every week and are scrambling to decide what to do. A counter protest of site supporters, for example, might just draw more unwanted attention to the site. “We don’t know if we want to inflame the situation,” says Shear, “Whenever there’s a spectacle outside, people don’t come in.”

The hire site is actually used by a handful of veterans looking for work – which isn’t surprising, since veterans are unemployed at three times the national average. Of the roughly 25 guys waiting for work at the site this morning, three identified as veterans. Dwight Wallace says he served eight months in Iraq before he was stabbed and returned home on medical leave. “I think that protest was ridiculous,” he says, “We’re all just out here trying to get work.”