Off-duty cops singled out migrant day laborers and beat them while handcuffed, suit says
UPDATE: This story has been updated with a statement by Home Depot.
There are very few ways for recent arrivals to the United States to make a living after they make the lengthy trek from South America.
It takes approximately six months for people seeking asylum in the United States to get work authorization, according to the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. But, in Chicago, migrants only have 60 days in city-run shelters.
Without a stream of income, new arrivals face the risk of homelessness after their two months in the shelter. So, they look for informal ways to make a living.
Many migrants turn to day labor to put a roof over their heads. Day laborers are often seen outside home improvement stores hoping to catch the eye of a contractor or homeowner in need of temporary construction or home improvement work.
Because the work isn’t through official channels, however, day laborers are subject to mistreatment.
At one Home Depot location in Chicago, day laborers were “aggressively handcuffed” and beaten by off-duty police officers, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Aug. 6.
Five workers, four from Venezuela and one from Columbia, are suing the off-duty police officers working as Home Depot security along with the Chicago Police Department, Home Depot and the city.
The Chicago Police Department and the city declined to comment on the case.
“We take allegations of violence very seriously and are investigating this issue,” a spokesperson for Home Depot told McClatchy News in an email. “We believe in respecting all people, and we don’t tolerate violence or discrimination.”
Targeted by off-duty cops in uniform
The Home Depot location located at 47th Street and Western Avenue on Chicago’s Southwest Side has been a popular spot for day laborers, known as Jornaleros in Spanish, for over a decade.
However, “the Chicago Police department has a long history of abusing day laborers seeking work at corners and hardware stores,” according to the lawsuit.
When an influx of migrants started coming to Chicago in fall 2023, more day laborers popped up at the Southwest Side Home Depot location. So, the store hired off-duty Chicago police officers as security personnel beginning in October 2023, the lawsuit said.
With a gun on their hip and a “POLICE” vest donned, the officers did not look off-duty, according to photos and descriptions of the officers in the lawsuit.
When day laborers came into contact with the off-duty officers, they were assaulted, handcuffed and dragged inside a secluded room in the store, the lawsuit said.
In December 2023, a 26-year-old day laborer from Venezuela went to the Home Depot in search of work. He entered the parking lot of the home improvement store and was asked by an officer to leave the premises, the lawsuit said.
The man left the parking lot and went to the public sidewalk adjacent to the store when he was approached a second time by officers with police vests, including the person who originally asked him to leave. One, according to the lawsuit, was outfitted in a Chicago Police Department uniform.
Officers threw the 26-year-old to the ground, hit him in the stomach and handcuffed him, according to the lawsuit. He was then dragged into a secluded room inside the Home Depot where he was repeatedly hit in the face, ribs and stomach, the complaint said.
At one point, an officer choked the man as others laughed, according to the lawsuit. One officer told the person “that he should stop or he would kill (the man),” according to court documents.
As the man was punched and choked, security workers lobbed racial and xenophobic insults at him, calling him “trash” and threatening to get him deported, according to the lawsuit.
He was released, but the 26-year-old fractured his hand and wrist as a result of his detainment, according to the lawsuit.
Three other plaintiffs — a 37-year-old from Columbia, a 37-year-old from Venezuela and a 45-year-old from Venezuela — faced similar treatment in the secluded Home Depot room from the off-duty officers, but these day laborers were also charged with criminal trespassing, according to the lawsuit.
Two laborers’ charges were dismissed while one is awaiting a hearing on Aug. 14, the lawsuit said.
Harassment of day laborers
Recent arrivals told City Bureau, a Chicago-based journalism lab, day laborers have been taken advantage of.
”Whenever I spot construction work, I’ll ask if they are looking for someone,” David Cegobia told City Bureau. “I’ve only worked four times, and I got paid only $25 a day. They take advantage of us because we’re migrants.”
Other workers said their lives are threatened while working the short-term jobs, according to City Bureau.
Regarding police, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has opened an investigation into officers’ treatment toward day laborers, City Bureau reported in the Chicago Reader.
The federal lawsuit points back to a 2008 lawsuit filed by day laborers that alleged similar treatment toward them by off-duty officers at the same Home Depot location.
Chicago police officers are permitted to hold a second job and are also allowed to carry a weapon and handcuffs without a license in Illinois, according to the lawsuit.
Both the Department of Justice and Chicago’s Office of the Inspector General recommended review and regulations around second employment policy in 2017, according to the lawsuit.
“Chicago must do better. When we recognize work as a human right we can end the abuse of Jornaleros, we can have safer communities for all.” Miguel Alvelo-Rivera from the Latino Union Chicago, a group that represents both migrant and U.S. born laborers, said during an Aug. 6 news conference.
This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Off-duty cops singled out migrant day laborers and beat them while handcuffed, suit says."
