Local advocate for migrant workers retires

When a snow storm prevented Hugh Phillips from leaving Champaign-Urbana 10 years ago, he never imagined the difference he would make in so many people's lives.

At a reception held Thursday at Dos Reales Mexican Restaurant, 1106 W. University Ave., 200 University graduates and friends bid farewell to Phillips, founder of El Centro por los Trabajadores, serving the needs of Latino migrant workers.

Several University graduates and former El Centro volunteers drove from Chicago for the occasion, and one flew from San Jose, Calif., to send Phillips off on his next great adventure. He leaves Monday for San Andres Cholula, two hours south of Mexico City, where more friends await.

"Most of the people who were here today, I may never see again in my life," Phillips said.

Phillips, 72, is retiring from the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job he did without pay, easing migrant workers' adjustment to life in America. More than 5,000 Latino immigrants work year-round in factories, hotels and restaurants throughout Champaign County. Most are undocumented -- without tourist, student, or work visas.

Phillips came to Champaign-Urbana 10 years ago and established El Centro, a nonprofit organization that has affected hundreds of lives of volunteers and immigrants.

During his time in Champaign-Urbana, Phillips became aware of hundreds of local Latino migrant workers' needs. He opened El Centro in a small campus office provided by St. John the Divine Episcopal Church. A few years later, the center was moved off-campus to provide services around the clock.

Guadalupe Abreu, who works at the East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center, said obtaining visas is very difficult. An immigrant must prove that he performs a special type of work no one else can do and must be sponsored by an employer, she said. To renew a 6-month visa, he must return to his home country and reapply.

"Hugh never asked if they were legal or not," said Abigail Salyers, president of the El Centro Board. "He just served people with needs."

Salyers, a University microbiology professor, approached Phillips in 1995, having seen him lead a march from the Illini Union in protest of discrimination against Latinos. Salyers sympathized with their grievances. As a woman, Salyers had benefited from affirmative action and felt an obligation to help others adversely affected by discrimination. She then contacted Phillips to find out what she could do.

Phillips believes that one of El Centro's greatest achievements has been creating student involvement.

"A university is an artificial society," Phillips said. "But a large number went outside their self-interest to volunteer."

Each semester, between 50 and 75 students volunteered two hours a week to tutor migrant workers in English language and literacy. The University's departments of social work and sociology assigned interns to assist with grant writing, interpreting, public speaking, tutoring and office work.

When the center opened in 1995, few hospitals had bilingual staffs with the ability to communicate with Hispanic patients, so El Centro provided translators. Phillips also interceded when there were misunderstandings with police.

Not long ago, Latinos walking down the streets of Champaign-Urbana were routinely stopped by police for questioning, Salyers said. El Centro worked with the police department to stop racial profiling.

Immigrants don't understand American laws, says Abreu, who has often referred people to Phillips for his knowledge of U.S. labor laws. El Centro has helped eliminate discrimination in housing, establish fair wages and working conditions and build community through local, state and national networks. Assistance has also been extended to other ethnic groups.

Through the initiative of University international law professor Francis Boyle, Phillips developed a photo identification card that enables migrant workers to cash payroll checks at local banks. Most banks require a social security number to open an account, but undocumented workers cannot obtain a social security card. Through this method, El Centro has issued 6,000 cards.

Phillips' work with Latinos began decades ago. He grew up in a poor Latino neighborhood within Los Angeles. As a young seminarian, he studied for the priesthood in the colonial city of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Though Phillips never entered the priesthood, he taught for 43 years in Catholic schools in Los Angeles and worked summers in the San Joaquin Valley on migrant worker issues with Cesar Chavez, the legendary labor organizer and founder of the United Farm Workers.

Upon retirement from teaching in 1992, Phillips came to Illinois to visit Mennonite friends who were involved in the Sanctuary Movement, assisting Guatemalan refugees traveling to Canada to escape civil war.

Now, after decades of living in the United States, Phillips says he would miss the friends he made here, but he said, "If you don't take risks, very rarely does anything happen in your life."