Under a penetratingly warm morning sun, with the immigration debate's politically, culturally and racially charged scepter hovering guillotine-like over there heads, four men wave at passing trucks on south Eastern with the same fervor as those smarty-pants kids who try to answer every question in class first.
Spotting the fellows on a sidewalk abutting Moon Valley Nursery on south Eastern, a driver in a white Jeep Cherokee heads north to Pebble, busts a U-turn, flips another U near the Interstate 215 on-ramp, then turns right into the Moon Valley parking lot. Like sprinters out of their starting blocks, the men gallop toward the SUV, only to be halted as the driver, his window down, thrusts his arm out like a school crossing guard—arm extended, palm out, fingers to the sky, stopping them. After Moon Valley customers head inside, he waves them on. The way they crowd his windows—a fifth man has joined them—you'd think the driver was handing out Megabucks jackpots.
Judging by the men's dingy clothes and how quickly they piled in the jeep, he was offering something more practical: jobs.
For more than 18 months, this portion of Green Valley has become Bonanza Road lite, a less-crowded version of the Valley's capital of day labor where, for years, men from Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, San Salvador—from all over the Hispanic-Latin American diaspora, actually—have come in search of work, mostly hands-on, sweat-and-guts jobs like construction or landscaping. As evidenced by this scene, illegal immigrant labor is alive and well.
It's also a staple of Nevada's economy. In 2004, the Pew Hispanic Center reported that 10 percent of Nevada's 1.1 million-person workforce was here illegally, second only to Arizona. Unless caught by law enforcement or forced in some way to fess up, unauthorized immigrants and the companies that hire them can operate on a don't-ask-don't-tell basis. That's exactly what Arizona resident Shawn Miller alleges Moon Valley Nursery is doing; two of the Phoenix-based company's 11 branches are in Las Vegas.
"I have been protesting against Moon Valley Nursery for using illegal Mexican slave labor," Miller wrote in an e-mail. He failed to respond to a subsequent e-mail requesting proof of the allegations.
A local Moon Valley manager referred questions to President Les Blake in Arizona. Blake claims Miller is a disgruntled former employee whose complaints began shortly after his dismissal three years ago. He says Miller has contacted 30 organizations, trying to muddy Moon Valley's reputation. The allegations are baseless, he says. There are no citations against Moon Valley, no legal actions pending.
"We don't hire anyone without proper paperwork. We do background checks," Blake says. "We're against day laborers and have done everything we could to prevent people from congregating in front of our properties. We have actually had the police [in Las Vegas] come out to try and keep the day laborers from in front of our properties, but it hasn't helped."
In his e-mail, Miller cites as a source ripoffreport.com, a purported consumer-reporting outfit run by the hyper-controversial Ed Magedson. The website claims that rip-offreport.com does business with various government agencies, local and state police departments, the FBI, Federal Trade Commission and Attorney General offices from around the nation. The website features thousands of brief notes—mostly gripes, though there are rebuttals—about bad experiences with this company or that.
But Magedson, who calls himself a "consumer advocate" on his website, edmagedson.com, is no Ralph Nader. He's been on the receiving end of dozens of lawsuits claiming defamation, fraud and extortion (for allegedly demanding companies pay to not post negative reports). Reached by phone in Arizona and reminded of his notoriety, Magedson laughs.
"It's all f--king bullshit," he says in a voluble tone. "I've been sued 47 times and I haven't lost yet."
Magedson says he started ripoffreport.com in 1997 as a consumer advocacy outfit. Since then, users have posted tons of "reports" about unfair or illegal practices at dozens of companies. Though sometimes hurtful, he says the consumer-driven commentary is covered by the Communications Decency Act, protecting him from legal retribution.
"Just because a company is reported on the site doesn't mean the company is bad," he says. "If a customer mentions what he or she saw on the site, that business is probably going to make sure they give you the best deal in hopes that you will file a rebuttal."
Going out twice weekly in Mesa, Arizona, and seeing how illegal immigrants are treated, he says, encouraged him to provide food and drink during these sojourns and to prod the workers to document the companies hiring them.
"I wanted to stop the abuse," he says. "I am a defender of the day laborers. I help them for free when the gringos don't pay them."
Builders are among the worst offenders, he says, because they're not only stiffing day laborers on pay but ripping off home buyers by using unskilled labor. Moon Valley isn't far behind on his list of scofflaws.
"If you don't believe what they're doing, why don't you order a couple of bushes and see who comes to install them. Question the workers and see for yourself," Magedson says.
He's slightly perturbed now. You can hear it in his voice. He launches a mile-a-minute defense of himself and his website: Dateline has used him; he's worked with the Mesa Police Department, attorneys general offices, governments—you name it. Want names and numbers of these folks? Not a problem. He's as legit as they come, he says. Go ahead, don't believe him. Thousands do. Why else would they post on his website? He says there's a concerted efforts to discredit him. People keep bringing up his arrest 30 years ago for marijuana and passing bad checks because that's all they got on him.
"There are no warrants out for my arrest, and there aren't hundreds of people suing me," he says. "You can never find anyone who says I ripped off anything."
(In fact, you can find plenty of negative references, including posted lawsuits against ripoffreport.com on the Internet; there are also positive mentions in newspaper articles. Which makes it hard to discern who's telling the truth on these websites, the activist or the accused. Even the Better Business Bureau has been called a scam agency that needs to be shuttered).
Ten minutes have passed since the driver in the white Jeep scooped up the day laborers in front of Moon Valley. Three more men have replaced the recently departed. It seems to be getting hotter by the minute. The men start waving at the cars pulling into Moon Valley, careful to stay on the sidewalk abutting the property.
It's clear that they are day laborers. What's completely unclear is whether they're illegal immigrants or somehow on Moon Valley's payroll. I'm parked across the street, watching. Soon as I step out of the car, prepared to cross the street and talk to them, a pickup truck pulls up. They hop in the back. Off to work, I guess.