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 Business News | December 2007 
Businesses Feel Early Pinch of Workers Law
 Lindsay Butler - Phoenix Tribune
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| | SHUTTING DOWN: Businesses are closing on the southwest corner of Stapley Drive and Main Street in Mesa. (Tim Hacker/Tribune) |
Bad. Bad. Bad. That’s how Mesa business owner Ramon Quintana describes the crisis facing Hispanic-oriented companies as people in the Latino community lose their jobs and flee the area for friendlier frontiers.
The problem comes from a mix of fear of recent immigration arrests and the pending crackdown on employers who hire illegal residents.
Hispanic-oriented businesses are paying the price.
At the height of the Christmas shopping season, some businesses reported less than half the revenue they had last Christmas.
Those who remain are struggling to pay the rent, both on their homes and businesses.
“Everybody is complaining,” Quintana said.
And the situation is only going to get worse, he said.
EMPTY STORES
The windows at U-Care Thrift Store are still plastered with “Happy Holidays” and “Peace on Earth Good Will to All,” a merry message compared with the story on the other side of the glass.
Neighbors say the owner fled about a month ago, leaving rows of clothing racks and a store full of merchandise behind.
A sign on the door says the landlord has seized the store “due to the tenant’s failure to pay rent.”
U-Care Thrift Store is the third shop on the corner of Main Street and Stapley Drive to close.
Quik Cash payday loans and a former party store are already empty.
Those probably won’t be the last to close on that corner, Quintana said. Other vendors tell him they worry about making the rent.
Quintana retired from the California construction business and moved to Mesa about a year ago to help his friend run the Carniceria Murrieta’s stores.
At the Main and Stapley location on Thursday, the store was empty save for the occasional visitor.
“Last year the lines were out the door,” Quintana said.
Shoppers who would usually come in to buy 5 pounds of meat are opting to buy half a pound at a time.
Yolanda Gutierrez, who works at Mesa men’s store Shoes Town, said Christmas numbers were way down this year.
“They were 50 percent off,” she said.
And though they still see patrons, Gutierrez said customers come in and don’t buy anything.
Carniceria Murrieta’s, Rancho Grande market, Food City — the clients at those stores are 90 percent to 95 percent Mexican, Quintana estimated.
“What are those stores going to do?” he said.
Right now it’s bad, Quintana said, but after Jan. 1, it’s “going all the way down.”
'NO MORE ARIZONA’
Tuesday marks the start of the Legal Arizona Workers Act, also referred to as the employer sanctions law, which will punish employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants by suspending or revoking their business licenses.
Business owners are encouraged to check job applicants’ eligibility through a system called E-Verify, an electronic federal database of Social Security numbers.
Quintana said he is waiting to see what will happen after the law goes into effect, but others don’t have that luxury.
He said he knows people who are being fired from their jobs in anticipation of the new law.
“Sometimes they’ve been working there for 10 or 15 years, and they’re getting fired,” he said.
With no income, people are moving from Arizona to nearby states or Mexico to find work. Some have lost their houses, not able to make the mortgage, Quintana said.
Many of them have lived in Arizona for a long time, Gutierrez said.
The most popular states seem to be New Mexico, Idaho, Colorado and Utah.
Anywhere but here.
“No more Arizona,” Gutierrez said.
And though moving to Mexico is a gamble when it comes to work, it’s worth it to some, Quintana said.
“At least in Mexico, you may be poor, but you can do stuff and not be scared,” he said. “There’s no fear that Arpaio is going to come get them.”
'THEY ARE SCARED’
In the past two months, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dispatched squads of deputies into Mesa to enforce immigration laws.
Deputies arrested dozens of suspected illegal immigrants in Mesa after stopping vehicles on suspicion of traffic violations.
Meanwhile, the Mesa City Council has sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security requesting information on training city police officers to act as immigration officers.
If Mesa receives the funds, only officers who serve in city detention facilities would be trained — it would not include patrol officers.
Maria Elena Martinez has run a discoteca CD store near Broadway and Dobson roads for seven years.
“They are scared” of Arpaio’s measures, she said. “All the people in the area.”
Her business has posted withering numbers for November and December.
What is she going to do?
“I don’t know.” |
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