They fought the law, but the LAWA won

1,646 words. Available for reprint.
Story and photo by Cyndy Hardy

Photo: ELPIDIO SOTO crossed the desert and the Arizona border to wash dishes for $7 per hour.

SEDONA, Dec. 30 – Come Jan. 1, a new sheriff will ride a pale horse into town; and its name is Legal Arizona Workers Act. LAWA aims to take up where the federal government left off, ridding the state of unauthorized workers. Trouble is, some of the townsfolk think the sheriff wears a black hat. It’s no secret that the law targets illegal Mexicans.

“The economy is failing. The mortgage industry has crashed. The real estate market has crashed. Now the government will further kill us by taking away our opportunity to hire good employees,” said restaurateur Lauren Levinson, owner of Savannah’s.

LAWA allows county attorneys to bring civil action against employers who knowingly or intentionally hire non-citizens that cannot legally work in the U.S. An employer can lose his business license for 10 days on a first offense; permanently for another violation within three years.

Restaurants and lodging businesses employ about 19.6 percent of Sedona’s workforce, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000. Construction businesses employ about 8.7 percent of the workforce. Hispanics or Latinos hold about nine percent of all Sedona jobs. The census does not break down the workforce by nationality.

Employers interviewed for this article said they strictly comply with federal employment eligibility laws.

“All I know is everyone who works for me is legal. They aren’t going to come out and say they’re illegal. They have proper papers and that’s all that matters to me,” Ms. Levinson said.

However, the number of employees these employers expect to lose is staggering and much higher than the census estimates.

Lucian Daniels legally emigrated to the U.S. from Romania in 1998. He became a U.S. citizen in August 2007. Daniels, who sold Olde Sedona Bar & Grill on Dec. 22, estimates between 40 and 50 percent of Sedona’s restaurant industry employees may be illegal.

Sedona Center recently terminated about 40 percent of its approximately 220 employees, according to Vice President Ramon Gomez, who is also a Sedona city councilman. That is about 88 employees, although he declined to give an exact number. Internal Form I-9 audits uncovered “mistakes” and many employees could not reproduce legal documents, he said.

“Frankly, some said they don’t have them. A couple of guys just said ‘we’re done,’” Mr. Gomez said. The company owns Amara Creekside Resort, Canyon Portal, Sinagua Plaza, Canyon Breeze, Vista Cantina, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Canyon Climb.

Philippe Thelier, a chef at Shugrue’s Hillside Sedona, said LAWA affects about 75 percent of the restaurant’s employees. Owner Mark Shugrue also owns the Javelina Cantina in Sedona; and several restaurants in Lake Havasu City.

If these employers’ estimates are accurate, Sedona’s restaurant and lodging industries are in serious trouble. The apparent “don’t ask, don’t tell” mentality in Sedona may come to an abrupt end. Like most Wild West lawmen in American lore, ‘Sheriff LAWA’ comes with a sidekick: E-Verify, a voluntary federal computer program. Arizona’s new law makes it mandatory.

E-Verify checks the information employees provide on their Form I-9, including a photograph and Social Security number, against both Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases to verify whether newly hired employees are authorized to work in the United States.

It is already a federal crime to “knowingly” and “intentionally” employ an unauthorized worker. Federal law states that “knowing” can include actual knowledge and constructive knowledge, which through notice of certain facts and circumstances would reasonably lead a person to know about something, according to Coconino County Deputy Attorney Dave Rozema in an email interview on Dec. 27.

Some Sedona businesses think their current staff is safe because employers may not use E-Verify to check the legal status of existing employees. That depends on how the courts interpret the law, according to Mr. Rozema.

“The law is ambiguous enough such that it may be interpreted to apply to ‘continuing to employ’ as well as new hires,” Mr. Rozema said.

Many Arizona county attorneys won’t initiate investigations, according to Mr. Rozema. They also will not accept anonymous complaints. Anyone who wants to posse-up must sign a sworn complaint.

Like elsewhere in Arizona, some illegal workers are not waiting around. Some have already left town.

“Some are going back to Mexico. Some are moving on to other states like California and Oklahoma; where they can continue to work,” said Alexandro Lopez, a line cook who admitted he works illegally in a Sedona restaurant.

Four years ago, Mr. Lopez walked across the desert for five days with his wife and 1-year old baby. They crossed the border near Tucson, he said. His first child is now 5; he also has a 3-year-old.

Pedro Nunez, 21, is an illegal immigrant whose parents brought him to Arizona when he was nine months old. Mr. Nunez works construction in Sedona and Flagstaff. “I am not a U.S. citizen,” he said.

Nunez was educated in public schools. “Everyone knew we were not legal,” he said. His parents divorced when Mr. Nunez was 15. They went back to Mexico. Mr. Nunez wanted to stay.

He quit school because he had to work to support himself, he said.

Until recently, Mr. Nunez had a steady job. “The boss said he had to fire me on Jan. 1,” he said. Mr. Nunez quit and found a job that would pay him under the table.

When asked why he doesn’t go to the government to get legal status, Mr. Nunez said he doesn’t believe he’d find help. Four months ago, two of his friends tried to get help from the government to become legal. They were immediately deported, Mr. Nunez said.

“I don’t know what to do,” Mr. Nunez said.

Immigration has closed its doors, according to Juan Rodriguez, who owns a Sedona Mexican restaurant. Mr. Rodriquez legally came to the U.S. about 22 years ago because he had a dream to own his own business, he said. He is now a U.S. citizen. Mr. Rodriguez looked into sponsoring some of his employees, but his lawyers in Phoenix told him that he “can’t do anything,” he said. “They don’t want anyone here,” he said.

“There is a lot of fear in both the front and back of the house. People I thought were secure – some with 15 years – are getting the boot,” said Joy Keeber, a territory manager for a restaurant supply company.

Mr. Shugrue has employees who have worked for him for 15 to 20 years. “These are good solid people. They’ve raised their kids here. The kids don’t want to go to Mexico. They don’t even speak Mexican,” he said.

Others, like Elpidio Soto, don’t speak English. Soto walked across the Sonoran desert for two days and one night to cross the border. He came to the U.S. to pay rent for the home in Mexico where his wife and 6-year-old son live. Mr. Soto’s 18-year-old son works as a landscaper in Washington. Mr. Soto has been in the U.S. for two years and plans to stay for three more years.

Mr. Soto works as a dishwasher for $7 per hour – often seven days per week and sometimes double shifts. He has fake documents, Mr. Soto said in Spanish. Mr. Lopez interpreted.

“In Mexico he would make about $6 a day,” Mr. Lopez said.

Employers said they hire Mexicans because they are better qualified.

“There are not a lot of qualified Americans sitting around [in Sedona] without jobs. I can’t find them,” Mr. Daniels said.

Ms. Levinson said she can hire a chef right out of school, but they can’t cook as well as the Mexicans. “They have no work ethic. They want a lot of money but they have no passion; and they can’t cook as well as the Mexicans,” she said.

Mr. Rodriguez said he tries to give unskilled employees a chance to move ahead, for example, training a dishwasher to be a prep cook and then a line cook. “It takes two years to train a good cook to where I can leave him alone in the kitchen,” he said.

Employers said they also hire illegal workers because there are not enough legal workers to fill the jobs. “Bring in legal people and we’ll hire them,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

So far, those legal workers are not coming to Sedona. They can’t earn enough to live here.

The city has the highest median asking price for homes in the state; half cost more than $586,000, according to Buyers Brokers Realty of Sedona. Sedona employees would have to make $84.50 per hour to buy a home without significant financial burden, according to a report distributed at the Governor’s Housing Forum in September 2007.

Half of Sedona renters pay more than $1,200 per month– a 40 percent increase between 2000 and 2006, according to the Sedona Housing Commission.

Median household incomes increased 13 percent – from $43,466 to $49,225, but 42 percent of household incomes included Social Security income and 22.8 percent included retirement income, according to the census.

The average worker only earns about $31,350, according to the census. Sedona’s unemployment rate is about 3.7 percent, according to the Arizona Department of Commerce.

Sedona Center management realized that it had focused on containing costs instead of trying to get the best employees, Mr. Gomez said. The company “bumped” wages by 20 to 30 percent and upped its employee-referral bonus. “Now we’re going for the best,” Mr. Gomez said.

Other employers said they are waiting to see what happens. Winter is a slow season for Sedona; they don’t need as many workers right now. Some Mexicans leave to visit family for a few weeks and come back when tourism picks up again in March, according to Ms. Keeber.

This time they might not come back. Meanwhile, Sedona’s economy lies tied to the railroad track, waiting for a hero – or a cavalry of legal workers – to save her.

“This law is the kiss of death,” Mr. Daniels said.

©2007 CyndyHardy. Reprints by permission.