Diamondbacks honor ASU doctoral student in social work for efforts to prevent labor trafficking
Recipients of the Los D-Backs Líderes Under 40 Award were honored on Chase Field at a recent Arizona Diamondbacks game. ASU social work doctoral student Ezequiel Dominguez is at center in a gray D-Backs shirt. To Dominguez's immediate left, in dark shirt and black cap, is ASU Assistant Professor Rafael Martínez standing behind his daughter Ella, who is holding her father's award certificate. Three others also received the award: Jackrabbit House owner Elizabeth Canchola, Chicano Por La Causa's Corina Fragozo and El Mirage Mayor Alexis Hermosillo. Photo courtesy of Arizona Diamondbacks
Ezequiel Dominguez’s leadership in a program that warns day laborers of the dangers of labor trafficking earned the Arizona State University School of Social Work doctoral student recognition from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Dominguez’s role in creating Arizona Labor Trafficking Outreach (ALTO, or "stop," in Spanish) earned him one of the Major League Baseball team’s inaugural Los D-backs Líderes Under 40 Awards.
Dominguez, a PhD candidate, is one of five recipients of the award, created this year. It recognizes young leaders who are serving and positively impacting the Hispanic community through their career, volunteer work, influence and more, Diamondbacks spokesperson Meagan Hermosillo said.
An ASU professor also was one of the five recipients. The team honored Rafael Martínez, an assistant professor, Southwest Borderlands, in the ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, for his work in researching the historical role Latino people played in the growth and development of the East Valley.
The awards were presented during a recent Diamondbacks home game.
ALTO is a collaboration of over 10 social service and governmental agencies dedicated to addressing labor trafficking through outreach, awareness campaigns and capacity building.
“In the past year, we’ve reached more than 560 Latino day laborers through monthly street outreach, providing education on labor rights and access to services such as case management and legal advocacy,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said while much emphasis is rightfully given to efforts to end sex trafficking, less attention and fewer resources are devoted to addressing labor trafficking.
Volunteers reach out to day laborers
At the time ALTO began in 2021, he said, “no one was doing real preventative outreach, particularly among people who might be most at risk for exploitative experiences.”
One weekend a month, five to 10 ALTO volunteers visit local home improvement and department stores, among other places, to find day laborers waiting outside seeking work. Dominguez said the East Valley, particularly Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert, are hot spots for such laborers.
Latinos are often targeted for labor trafficking based on several factors, including immigration status and level of assimilation, he said. Many are from Mexico, while others are from other Latin American nations.
“They are lured by traffickers who offer what sounds like a legitimate job. No one willingly goes into a work environment who knows the employer is a trafficker. But the employers are clever,” Dominguez said. “It can come off as a legitimate job offer at first. They accept, then it’s a bait and switch to a different job, a worse job, for less money.”
Traffickers will threaten workers with deportation if they try to get help from law enforcement or social services agencies, Dominguez said.
Volunteers provide laborers with water and snacks, as well as information about resources.
To inform laborers of options, volunteers hand them what Dominguez calls “shoe cards” — cards containing valuable information on resources, case management, legal advocacy, clothing closets and food pantries — that fit inside shoes, socks or pockets.
“This information was in a packet before, but it’s not feasible. Day laborers are hopping in vehicles, so how can we expect them to carry a packet? So shoe cards are more feasible for them.”
Sadly, laborers are also susceptible to robberies and sexual assaults, he said, which is why warnings are important.
The model ALTO is based on has received national recognition, said Dominguez, who recently presented information about it during a regional webinar hosted by the U.S. departments of health and human services, and labor. Many other anti-trafficking organizations across the country, from Florida to California, have expressed interest in adapting ALTO’s approach, he said.
“Building on this momentum, we’re organizing the first-ever Worker Rights and Resource Fair in October to further engage the LatinxGender-neutral alternative for "Latino" community and raise awareness about labor exploitation and trafficking,” Dominguez said.
Outreach toolbox will guide others to do similar work
ALTO is developing an outreach toolbox to guide those in other areas to do the same volunteer work. ALTO is also training volunteers to reach out to farmworkers in agricultural areas such as Arizona’s Yuma County. The program is also developing an advisory board and will seek partnerships with other groups that assist refugees.
Dominguez said the experience taught him to never underestimate others’ willingness to join such a fight.
“People see the direct value in making direct changes to the community. That’s my word of encouragement to those wanting to replicate this model,” he said. “You find your champion in these spaces.”
In 2023, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chose Dominguez to join that year’s cohort of its prestigious Health Policy Research Scholars, ASU News reported.
Professor documents Latino role in East Valley growth
Martínez’s research centers on immigration, migration, the U.S-Mexico borderlands and the American Southwest. His new book, published in October by the University of Arizona Press, is titled “Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States.”
Martínez, who works on ASU’s Polytechnic campus, said he was honored for founding “Querencia Chandler,” an oral history project involving interviews with descendants of Chandler’s founding families. He also started another oral history project documenting how East Valley ethnic veterans form community and a sense of place.
Martínez said he particularly appreciates the honor coming from the team.
“It is an honor to be recognized by the Arizona Diamondbacks, an organization that means a lot to the Latinx community in Arizona and whose roots in baseball run deep in the state,” Martínez said. “This award is an inspiration to continue to bring attention and awareness to the Latinx community in Arizona.”
In addition to Dominguez and Martínez, three other community leaders were chosen to receive the Los D-backs Líderes Under 40 Award:
- Elizabeth Canchola, owner of The Jackrabbit House, a private event venue in Buckeye, Arizona.
- Corina Fragozo, director of rural housing for Chicanos Por La Causa, a Phoenix-based nonprofit community development corporation serving Arizona and four other Southwestern states.
- Alexis Hermosillo, mayor of El Mirage, Arizona.
Find out more about the 2024 award winners here.
The School of Social Work is a part of the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.
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