http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 40333/1010

Originally published September 24, 2006
Big Bend immigrants face uncertain times
Some wait for citizenship while others face arrest

By Chitra Subramanyam
and Julian Pecquet
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITERS
Rufino Alonso worked five days a week cleaning state buildings in Tallahassee. He paid taxes, supported his fiancee, and sent his parents money, but he was an illegal immigrant.

He was arrested Aug. 26 and quickly deported. Now back in his hometown of Libre, Mexico, the 30-year-old is waiting for his fiancee, Tommie Phelps, to join him.

Phelps met Alonso in November, 10 days before she turned 30.

"By December," the schoolteacher said, "I knew I was in love with him."

Alonso was one of 55 illegal immigrants working for General Building Maintenance Inc., a janitorial services company contracted by the state. Some were arrested and deported; others face criminal charges or administrative hearings in an immigration court.

Over the past month, the Big Bend has seen a crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Barbara Gonzalez, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the arrests were routine. The agency is an investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

"The fact of the matter is that our agents make arrests every day in Florida and the rest of the country," Gonzalez said.

But immigrants, attorneys and activists say the focus on the Big Bend is new. Longtime residents, such as Gadsden County Commissioner Brenda Holt, remember similar crackdowns in the 1980s, when lines of immigrants sat by the highway in Quincy waiting for buses to take them away. And then, for years, nothing.

"It's just crazy to me that the situation with immigrants went on all this time and all of a sudden, there's a big panic," Holt said.

Clyde M. Taylor, defense attorney for illegal immigrant Sergio Hernandez-Hernandez, said the arrests are unusual. It appears, he said, that there is a "new approach by certain agencies focusing on apparently illegal workers in the area."

The arrests have had a chilling effect on illegal immigrants, especially in Gadsden County. They are keeping a low profile and cutting back on driving, shopping and even visiting doctors' offices, said Evelia Menjivar, the regional director of United Farm Workers of America.

Arrests more frequent?
Illegal immigrants have long been wary of occasional deportations. But this time, things seem different.

In the past, "somebody would call in and say, 'There's a group of workers in this place and they are undocumented,' and immigration would come and raid the place," Menjivar said. "Now, just because you look Hispanic, they ask you for documentation. If you don't have any, automatically they assume you are undocumented, and they detain you."

Neil St. John Rambana, an immigration attorney, said profiling is illegal. Officers can, however, stop people if they have a reason such as issuing a speeding ticket, he said. Then the officers can ask for documentation.

Most of the people currently facing trial were found with fake Social Security numbers and immigration papers. Unlike those who were deported, they face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Since Oct. 1, 3,572 illegal immigrants have been deported from the state. There were 5,547 deportations reported in the previous 12 months, Gonzalez said. She said there were no county deportation statistics available.

Holt said she hadn't heard anyone in her district clamor for the deportation of all immigrants. She said the arrests are due to a "broken" immigration system that does not let enough people come legally to work in jobs that no one else wants.

"I don't see a line of people waiting to go pick up tomatoes," Menjivar said. "So I don't understand why people are saying 'immigrants are taking my job.' ”

Some people are worried about illegal immigrants' use of social services, Holt said, but that's a problem she'd rather see solved through immigration reform. That would entail letting immigrants legally fill the jobs that no one else wants, such as field work, while letting children get an education.

"In government, taxpayers pay you to be smarter," she said. "They don't pay us to say, 'We're going to put our head in the hole and we're going to hide from reality.' ”

Illegals common in Gadsden
In the Big Bend, that reality is an influx of illegal immigrants, most of them Hispanics, during harvest season. Their numbers fluctuate, Menjivar said, but she estimated that 60 to 65 percent of farmworkers who live in Gadsden County between April and July are there illegally.

Most of them are Mexicans, she said; by contrast, other Hispanics in construction and other high-paying jobs are usually here legally, she said.

Now businesses are shedding their illegal work force, while some legal immigrant farmworkers are filling in better-paying janitorial jobs vacated by recent deportees. That has led local farm businesses to flood Menjivar's office with calls for documented workers, she said.

"It's crazy right now," she said. I tell them, 'You're not the only ones. The whole world is looking for documented workers.' ”

Despite better opportunities for them as businesses shun illegal immigrants, Menjivar said many legal immigrants are worried about deportations because they are related to people who are here illegally. And the recent arrests may have reduced immigrants' desire to apply for legal status.

"Even when it was offered, some people got scared: 'What if I fill in this paperwork and they don't give it to me - they'll send me back,' ” Menjivar said.

Most people, Rambana said, have read the news of the arrests, but few are able to see the "fear, the heartbreak and the ramifications of families being torn apart."

Now they're waiting to see what happens before deciding whether to leave the area.

"They're still looking for work - so far," Menjivar said. "That might not last forever."


Contact reporter Chitra Subramanyam at (850) 599-2304 or csubramanyam @tallahassee.com