“When they passed the law, a lot of people left,” Mejia said. “A lot went to different states. Some went to Mexico.”
Just a few years ago, when the economy was booming, the area around the Home Depot on Thomas Road and 36th Street in east Phoenix was packed with a couple of hundred men congregating on sidewalks and street corners soliciting work as day laborers.
Day laborers, mostly undocumented Mexican immigrants, also proliferated in other areas around the Valley, places like Avenida del Yaqui in Guadalupe, 43rd Avenue and Camelback Road in west Phoenix and Saguaro Boulevard in Fountain Hills.
But drive by any of those locations now, and only a handful of day laborers are left. And no longer do they rush up to vehicles en masse, waving their hands in a desperate bid to get hired. Now, they are more likely to keep a lower profile, leaning against a tree or sitting on a milk crate. There are several reasons for the change. Arizona’s slumping economy has dried up the demand for day laborers, who typically are hired for yard cleaning, moving, tree cutting, construction and other jobs. Many have left Arizona to look for work in other states, or they have given up and returned to Mexico.
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