The news spread rapidly through house cleaners’ group chats: María Florinda Ríos Pérez de Velásquez, a domestic worker just like them, had been fatally shot Nov. 5 after arriving at the wrong address for a job.
Cleaners across the country were jolted by the killing, in which prosecutors allege an Indiana homeowner shot the mother of four through his front door. Ríos Pérez de Velásquez and her husband had arrived at the address by mistake, court records say, after a mapping app repeatedly rerouted them to the same gray-shingled house in a developing neighborhood.
In Maine, the staff of Holly’s Professional Cleaning gathered to discuss new safety plans. The cleaning service decided that first-time clients now would have to send a photo of their home before their appointment.
“It really hit home with me,” said Mike Conners, who co-owns the cleaning service in Bangor. “Many times, we’re in remote areas and the GPS might tell them that they’re at the address, but it’s not the correct address. So when I read that, it’s like that could happen to our crew, and that’s pretty scary to think about.”
To cleaners and their advocates, the Whitestown, Indiana, killing illuminates the dangers that domestic workers — many of whom are immigrants or women — face while carrying out jobs in the privacy of someone’s home. The largely unregulated profession has already experienced drastic changes this year, workers say, such as fewer available jobs due to financial belt-tightening and fear of going out in public amid immigration enforcement activity.
Curt Andersen, the Indiana homeowner charged in the fatal shooting, pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter during a Nov. 21 court hearing. Two days later, Ríos Pérez de Velásquez’s body was received by grieving relatives in Guatemala. Andersen’s trial is tentatively scheduled for the spring.
The killing reignited conversations about personal safety among domestic workers and prompted some cleaning companies to change their policies or make new asks of their clients.
“We’re seeing a lot more discussion on social media about things that for house cleaners, in particular, have been a long-standing concern — that they could be hurt going to work,” said Rosa Lozano, director of immigration campaigns for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “And especially under the current environment that is very much posing a threat to immigrant workers, but also people of color in general, I think there is an elevated sense of fear.”
Haley Richardson, whose company Richardson Cleaning serves Whitestown and nearby areas, said she checked on her cleaners the day of the shooting to make sure they were all accounted for, even though she knew none were scheduled to work the early morning. The shooting rattled the local community, Richardson said.
She later posted a message on social media expressing sympathy for Ríos Pérez de Velásquez’s family, while making an ask of her current and future clients: Please secure any firearms while her cleaners are working.
“I just wanted to make it very clear, we respect whether you do or don’t own firearms,” Richardson said. “But if you have them, especially after what just happened, we would like them to be kept put away safely.”
Carly Castro, a content creator and the founder of cleaning resource company Clean With Carly, urged house cleaners to leave unsafe situations and vowed to replace any supplies they have to leave behind. She also recommended that workers look up the addresses of their jobs on home-sale websites and regularly communicate with loved ones about their location.
Within her circles, Castro said she has seen discussion among some immigrant house cleaners considering leaving the profession after an already difficult year. The shooting, paired with increased immigration raids, felt like a tipping point for some, Castro said.
“They did everything right,” Castro said of Ríos Pérez de Velásquez and her husband. “And that’s why a lot of people in our career field are very stumped.”
While the shooting was an extreme case of the risks house cleaners face, Lozano and other advocates said domestic workers can also be vulnerable to discrimination, verbal abuse, sexual harassment and other incidents carried out in an isolated environment with few or no witnesses. Aware of these dangers, Aaron Seyedian, founder of cleaning company Well-Paid Maids, said it is his policy that cleaners can leave unsafe environments without being docked pay.
“Cleaners will call us and say, ‘There’s illegal drugs out in this house.’ Or there’s been instances where they’ve seen a weapon in a home that’s not secured,” Seyedian said. “And we say, go home. We’ll pay you for your shift. We’ll contact the customer.”
Justice for alleged abuses against immigrant workers can be difficult to achieve, given the power dynamics and complexity of the worker’s legal status, said Yuri, a Chicago-area house cleaner who spoke on the condition that her last name not be published because she is undocumented and fears being targeted by the federal government. In light of the Indiana killing, she said cleaning agencies should consider accompanying staff to new locations or meeting them on-site.
In a survey published by the National Domestic Workers Alliance on Oct. 27 — days before the killing — 26 percent of 2,154 Spanish-speaking domestic employees said they did not feel safe looking for work in September. The organization said it expects that percentage to increase in its next quarterly report because of the shooting and the Trump administration’s expanding immigration enforcement.
Many domestic workers have been advocating for years — so far, unsuccessfully — for a national “bill of rights” that would grant them increased protections, like paid sick days, safe working conditions and a national standards board, said Blithe Riley, communications director of Hand in Hand. The organization aims to educate domestic service employers on best practices.
Advocates have made more progress at the state and local levels. Twelve states, two cities and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to protect domestic workers. Some of the laws include health and safety guidelines.
“This industry has historically been unregulated,” said Lindsay Imai Hong, Hand in Hand’s California director. “It’s a result of this country’s legacy of slavery, the lack of regard for domestic workers and the kind of work that they do.”
Riley said Ríos Pérez de Velásquez’s death “felt even more horrific” as the Trump administration has intensified anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric.
“It is something that is really moving our work in this moment,” Riley said. “We are focused on mobilizing employers to be in solidarity with immigrant workers, to support them to be more present and engage in practices that can help keep the workers they employ safe.”
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