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  1. #1
    Senior Member controlledImmigration's Avatar
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    Brazilians getting one-way ticket home

    Self deportation ... that's real immigration reform

    Brazilians getting one-way ticket home

    By Liz Mineo, Daily News staff
    GHS
    Sun Sep 30, 2007, 12:16 AM EDT


    Domingos Barros opened a moving company in downtown Framingham shortly before the immigration reform that could have legalized the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants failed.

    It turned out to be a good move.

    After federal lawmakers killed the bill in June, dashing illegal immigrants' last hopes to come out of the shadows, many started to pack up and go back home.

    For Barros' company, which specializes in shipping boxes and containers to Brazil, business is booming. At his Irving Street store, where cardboard boxes filled with clothes, small electronic appliances, toys and other belongings sit on the floor waiting to be dispatched to Brazil, Barros has gone from arranging one weekly move to four or five per week. Calls to his business Hora Certa, "Right Time" in Portuguese, went up from 15 a day to 70 in a matter of weeks.

    "It's like calling a radio talk show," said Barros, who owns the company with two other Brazilians. "We have four lines, but you cannot get through because we're always busy assisting customers."

    And so is the employee of another moving company on Concord Street, which opened two months ago, but it is already booked until the end of the year.

    The proliferation of Brazilian-owned moving companies in Framingham - there are five now - highlights a trend across MetroWest and the Milford area, where Brazilian immigrants are returning home in growing numbers.

    The trend of Brazilians going back has become a hot topic of conversation in the region. This week, a popular Brazilian radio talk show aired through WSRO 650 AM devoted part of its program to asking listeners whether they're going to leave or stay.

    Travel agencies in downtown Framingham continue to report increasing sales of one-way tickets to Brazil. But other Brazilian merchants, grocery and clothing stores, real estate agents and jewelry shops report a decrease in sales because of a fleeing clientele. And ads from people who must sell stores, cars and vans before they move back home, abound in Braziilian newspapers and radio programs.

    Persecuted and unwanted

    Immigrant advocates have also taken note. Fausto da Rocha, director of Allston's Brazilian Immigrant Center, estimates between 5,000 and 7,000 Brazilians will leave Massachusetts by the end of the year. According to Da Rocha, there may be up to 300,000 Brazilians living in the Bay State, but the numbers may be dropping rapidly.

    "We may be seeing the beginnings of a Brazilian exodus in Massachusetts," said da Rocha. "If this continues, there will be serious consequences for the state's economy, not only for the Brazilian community."

    Da Rocha attributes the phenomenon to a combination of factors such as increasing demands from employees to produce working papers, immigration crackdowns, and a widespread anti-illegal immigrant sentiment.

    "Brazilians stopped feeling welcome," said da Rocha. "They feel persecuted and unwanted."

    Such is the feeling of uneasiness among Brazilian illegal immigrants that in Milford, Brazilian merchant Marisol Carper said many of her clients are preparing in case they're caught by immigration officers. If illegal immigrants have outstanding deportation orders, they're more likely to be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

    "They're sending their belongings to Brazil because they don't want to lose everything they bought here if they're caught," said Carper, who reports selling shipping boxes like hotcakes. "They want to be caught with the minimum, with only the clothes they have on."

    In Marlborough, the feeling of apprehension among Brazilians became more acute after officials debated opening an immigration enforcement office in the city. The proposal went nowhere, but large numbers of Brazilians left Marlborough, said Alexandra Silva, who manages a hair salon on Main Street.

    "Close to 50 percent of Brazilians left Marlborough," she said. "Some went to other places, and many are going back to Brazil. I know at least 10 people who are going back home soon. People are tired of feeling afraid."

    That's the sentiment of a 32-year-old Brazilian man who identified himself as Sebastiao.

    After hearing about the debate over an ICE office in Marlborough, where he lived for the past three years, Sebastiao packed up his things and moved to Framingham. Sebastiao, who sneaked through the border in 2004 and was caught by the Border Patrol, was afraid immigration officers would catch up with him.

    "I started having panic attacks," said the man in his native Portuguese on a break from work at a Framingham Brazilian restaurant. "I was so afraid and became depressed. I had too much stress."

    A former butcher from Tarumirim, a small town in Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, Sebastiao didn't show up in court three months after his arrest along the U.S.-Mexican border and he may have been ordered deported "in absentia," a common procedure. He fears there may be a warrant for his arrest, but he's not going to wait to find out. He has bought a one-way ticket to Brazil.

    Meanwhile, he doesn't drive, walks to work and tries to stay out of trouble, but he knows he is at risk of getting caught at every turn. A few weeks ago, the police stopped the car in which he was traveling as a passenger and cited the driver for speeding and lacking a driver's license. The police didn't take his fingerprints, which could have led to his deportation.

    "That was a close call," said Sebastiao, who is taking anti-depressant medication. "After that, I bought the ticket. I cannot take it anymore."

    USweet Home

    The news of Brazilians going home has reached Brazil. In Governador Valadares, the city in Brazil from where most local Brazilians hail, sociologist Sueli Siqueira, who has researched migration from Valadares to Framingham and Massachusetts, has noted large numbers of people going back. Still, she said, it's too early to talk about an exodus or the end of emigration from Valadares, known in Brazil as the main exporter of Brazilians abroad.

    "I interviewed many who came back because they were deported," she said in an e-mail message. "Many of them plan to emigrate to Europe."

    Siqueira said many of those who returned on their own did it because of difficulties in finding work and loss of income. Others blame the worsening exchange rate between the dollar and Brazil's currency, immigration crackdowns and increasing demands for documents when applying for jobs.

    It's a perfect climate for voluntary departure, said Jessica Vaughan, senior policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors restrictions on immigration.

    "If people cannot get a job, obtain driver's licenses, open a bank account, get a mortgage, if they find it impossible or uncomfortable to live here, people would start to return home and come here in lesser numbers," said Vaughan from her Franklin home. "They're not migratory birds, they're human beings."

    Vaughan said her center favors a policy of "attrition through enforcement," by which a serious enforcement of immigration laws creates a climate in which illegal immigrants find it harder to live here and opt for the return home. Voluntary compliance, she said, is much more cost-effective, faster and a more humane way to reduce the size of the immigrant population than massive deportations.

    "It's impossible or unreasonable to expect ICE to go out and find 12 million illegal immigrants and forcibly remove them," she said.

    If immigration laws are enforced, the size of the illegal immigrant population could be reduced in half within five years, said Vaughan. It's already happening, she said. The population of illegal immigrants who entered the United States decreased considerably in one year, from 500,000 in 2006 to 400,000 so far this year, she said.

    Self-deportation of illegal immigrants is a gradual process that may take years, said Vaughan, but it's the best way to shrink the size of the illegal immigrant population.

    "Nobody wants to be subject to being detained, arrested and deported," she said. "It's better to do it on your own schedule."

    In downtown Framingham, Sebastiao agrees.

    "I don't want to wait for them to get me," he said on a recent afternoon. "I'd rather go on my own feet."

    Sebastiao will fly to Brazil Nov. 5, much earlier than he had planned. When he came here, he was hoping to stay here for seven to 10 years to save enough money to secure a life in Brazil. He didn't want to say how much money he has saved, but he said it was enough to start a new life. During the past three years, he worked close to 80 hours a week, without taking a day off. After his return home, he plans to take a 30-day vacation and get rid of his anti-depressant medication.

    "Life will be good now," he said. "I cannot wait."

    Staff writer Liz Mineo can be reached at lmineo@cnc.com or 508-626-3825.


    http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x775335149

  2. #2
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    Taking meds in order to not feel bad about breaking the law.... give me a break. I am glad he is going back and he should take lots more with him.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member CitizenJustice's Avatar
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    ""If this continues, there will be serious consequences for the state's economy, not only for the Brazilian community."

    The state existed BEFORE the ILLEGALS snuck in, and it will exist after they depart. Where did the idea come from that the U.S. cannot exist without ILLEGALS? This is hogwash!

    Go to those states where ILLEGALS are not pushing their way in, and farms are being run, construction is continuing, restaurants are staffed, companies have employees, lawns are mowed, and toilets are scrubbed.

  4. #4

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    Re: Brazilians getting one-way ticket home

    Immigrant advocates have also taken note. Fausto da Rocha, director of Allston's Brazilian Immigrant Center, estimates between 5,000 and 7,000 Brazilians will leave Massachusetts by the end of the year. According to Da Rocha, there may be up to 300,000 Brazilians living in the Bay State, but the numbers may be dropping rapidly.

    "We may be seeing the beginnings of a Brazilian exodus in Massachusetts," said da Rocha. "If this continues, there will be serious consequences for the state's economy, not only for the Brazilian community."

    Maybe they're going to Camelot and being hired by the Kennedys.
    Teddy will do his best to give amnesty to illegals.
    <div>"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."- James Madison, The Federalist Papers No.49</div>

  5. #5
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    I wish the ones in South Florida join them.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by swatchick
    Taking meds in order to not feel bad about breaking the law.... give me a break. I am glad he is going back and he should take lots more with him.
    We are probably paying for his medication, too. When he leaves, this will save the US taxpayers a few pennies.

  7. #7
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    "We may be seeing the beginnings of a Brazilian exodus in Massachusetts," said da Rocha. "If this continues, there will be serious consequences for the state's economy, not only for the Brazilian community."
    Is daRocha for real? What serious consequences? America doesn't need illegal aliens to keep our country running. daRocha is sooooo full of crap!
    RIP Butterbean! We miss you and hope you are well in heaven.-- Your ALIPAC friends

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  8. #8
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    We don't need illegals stealing jobs from both American citizens and residents. Many of the jobs teens and black adults once had at fast food restaurants are now taken over by both adult and teen illegals. American men have great difficulty getting construction jobs due to both illegals and the non illegals who are Hispanics and don't want nto hire non Hispanics. Eastern European women lost jobs cleaning hotel rooms due to illegals and I personally seen it happen to my friend and her friend. This has got to stop.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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