laborers

But the two sides disagreed over whether agents may stop people because they appear to be Latinos and work as day laborers, at car washes or other low-wage jobs.

With each enforcement operation, the number of day laborers who show up has dwindled, said Pineda as he stood beneath a blazing sun.

They said agents should be allowed to act on the common sense belief that Spanish-speaking Latinos who work as day laborers, at car washes or in landscaping and agriculture are likely to lack legal status.

After a federal district court judge temporarily barred agents from conducting raids in the Los Angeles area, Bovino briefly moved north to Sacramento in July, detaining Latino day laborers in a Home Depot parking lot.

“We are disturbed by what can only be described as an act of terror and indiscriminate roundup of Latino street vendors, day laborers, and people who were going about their daily lives,” the organization stated.