Adrian Ventura makes a point as Guatemalan workers detained on their way to Gillette Stadium last month speak out against exploitation on Thursday at St. Charles Church in Providence. See video at projo.com.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

PROVIDENCE, R.I. –– Community advocates lashed out Thursday at immigration policies and lax labor-law enforcement that they say led to exploitation of undocumented Guatemalan workers, allegedly hired through a Boston temporary agency, at Gillette Stadium.

They also accused the New England Patriots of turning a blind eye to the fact that illegal workers were shoveling snow and picking up trash at the stadium in Foxboro.

A Patriots’ spokesman reiterated Thursday that the organization was unaware that 60 workers detained by immigration authorities on the way from Providence to Gillette last month were undocumented, and that the contract with Legal Pro Temps of Dorchester, Mass., was severed as soon as it came to light. (Workers have told The Journal that they were hired by a friend-of-a-friend network and paid cash under the table).

Five of the 60 workers spoke at the news conference that was hosted by Immigrants in Action, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and other groups at St. Charles Church. Dozens more surrounded them at a speaker platform. Community and religious leaders also spoke out against conditions that create a flourishing underground economy.

Tomasa Larios Velasques, a 15-year-old Guatemalan girl, said she earned $36 in cash for picking up trash for six hours at the stadium; work she has done at least eight times. Velasques also said she had to pay $5 for a van ride to Foxboro. The minimum wage in Massachusetts is $8 an hour: payment for transportation by a temp agency is capped at $3).

Bernardo Chamorro, of Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers) in Central Falls, called that “wage robbery.”

“These temp agencies are getting rich by existing in gray zones of these laws,” said Chamorro. He called for stricter enforcement that would “prevent those people who use our workers to develop an underground economy and get rich. What we need is for all of us to fight against labor violations.”

Martin Jimenez Lopez, another worker, said he was among the dozens of workers who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, then driven to the stadium by ICE agents, to shovel the snow.

“That’s insane,” he said through an interpreter. “The way we can’t work (because of immigration status), but then they take us to work.”

Patrick Quinn, state council director with the Service Employees International Union Local 1199, took the Patriots to task.

“This is not an organization down to its last dollar — one of the richest most high-profile sports franchises in the country. What are they doing, trying to beat workers out of a couple of dollars? I don’t believe for a minute that they didn’t know what was going on,” said Quinn.

The Rev. Raymond Tetreault, former pastor at St. Teresa Church in Olneyville, said the Gillette situation spoke to the need for immigration reform, and an end to “a double society.”

“They want to use their labor, so the fans are able to watch the games in comfort,” said Father Tetreault. “And [immigration agents] will then gladly take them to their work, but once ICE takes them, we turn our backs and say they’re illegal.”

kziner@projo.com