In the Face of Uncertainty : Day laborers: Immigration officials say the number of unemployed farm workers has increased dramatically.

The morning rush hour had come and gone at downtown Ojai’s informal day-laborer pickup site and eight men remained on the street corner, jobless.

Miguel Sanchez, 60, was getting testy. For the ninth day in a row, he said, no one had offered him work. And every day, he said, more and more Mexican immigrants were showing up at his street corner looking for work.

“They come from Oxnard and Ventura because they can’t find work in the harvest. The avocado is gone and the orange is scarce, so the fruit pickers come here,” Sanchez said. “The patrones look at me and say, ‘He’s too old, he’s worthless,’ and they hire somebody else.”

Sanchez is not alone in Ventura County. Immigration officials say that since last month’s freeze the number of unemployed farm workers has increased dramatically.

Consequently, the day-laborers’ market--traditionally a safety net for immigrants who cannot find work in the fields because of age, legal status or excessive labor supply--is becoming increasingly competitive.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigrants wandering around, just looking for work,” said Agent Mike Malloy, head of the Ventura office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “We’re busier than ever.”

Sanchez and others at the pickup site said the day-laborers’ market has been flooded with workers since last year, when Mexicans crossed the border in record numbers to escape the consequences of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s tough economic austerity program.

The freeze, they say, is only making matters worse. Tuesday, about 15 day laborers had gathered at Ojai Avenue and Fox Street, about twice as many as a year ago, the workers said.

They said the work force will grow considerably in coming weeks as thousands of Mexicans celebrating the year-end fiestas at home will return soon for the start of the harvest season.

“I used to work at least four days a week and send home $100 or $200 a month,” Victor Vasquez, 41, said. “The way things are going, I’m going to have to call home and ask for money to buy a return ticket.”

Most of the men who work in the Ojai day-laborers’ market live in an apartment complex south of the city that they call Tijuanita , or Little Tijuana. They share two-bedroom apartments with five to seven roommates, and help each other with food and the $600 to $800 monthly rent.

The asking rate at the pickup site is $5 an hour, but the workers are in no position to bargain. At times they work for $4 an hour, or even $3, said Miguel Medrano, 53.

“The ranch owners don’t like to pay minimum wage, and sometimes they work us like donkeys,” he said. Occasionally, he said, the employers cheat them and pay nothing at all.

Police officers don’t harass the workers, and their presence in front of stores is tolerated by the business owners, the workers say. Immigration officials visit the workers three or four times a year. When that happens, the undocumented ones run.

“They may arrest one or two, but they leave the rest of us alone,” Daniel Martinez, 34, said. “The migra is not the problem,” said Martinez, using the Spanish slang for the immigration officers.

The real problem, the workers contend, is that the market is being overrun by too many day laborers.

“The employers are always the same, but the workers keep coming,” said Jesus Lopez, 23, as he watched the cars pass him by.

The morning ended on a happy note for Sanchez, Medrano and Vasquez when construction contractor John Cravens pulled over.

“I need three,” he said.

The workers jumped into the car without bothering to ask how much they would be paid, and Cravens drove away. “I come here all the time,” Cravens said. “You can find workers at all hours of the day.”

The remaining workers faced the less attractive prospect of spending the afternoon with nothing to do.

“We’ll just sit around in the park and talk a lot,” Martinez said. “Like we always do.”