Thread: Latinos stay home with rumors of ICE sweep

http://www.jacksonholenews.com/article.php?art_id=885

Latinos stay home with rumors of ICE sweep


By Martin Reed
Date: September 8, 2006

A rumor about a crackdown by authorities on undocumented foreign workers Wednesday spread fear and concern throughout the valley’s Latino community.

Jackson law enforcement had no information about a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agents, but the rumor apparently kept many Latinos at home behind closed doors anyway.

“Our business went down yesterday,” El Gordito Mexican Restaurant’s Beatriz Chavez said Thursday. “We had a lot of people not coming to the restaurant and calling to see if immigration is coming.”

By Wednesday afternoon many people had heard about a widespread effort to detain undocumented foreign workers in Jackson. A representative of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Idaho Falls, Idaho, would neither confirm nor deny a crackdown Wednesday.

Jackson Police Chief Dan Zivkovich and Teton County Sheriff Bob Zimmer had received phone calls from people asking about details, but neither knew of any crackdown happening.

“Certainly immigration has the authority to come in here and conduct a roundup without requesting our permission,” Zivkovich said Wednesday. “I have no information that such a crackdown is occurring.”

The chief said he would expect law enforcement to be aware of such a sting by immigration officials, considering its rumored magnitude.

“For a widespread roundup of illegal aliens in the community to occur and only the Latino community to hear about it would be incredible for me,” he said. “I could see where immigration would come in here and conduct a covert operation, but I would expect at some point from them ... some communication to be, ‘Here’s what happened.’”

Businesses associated with Jackson’s Latino population noticed a drop in customers Wednesday. Office manager Andrea Nielson for El Puente Medical Translation Service said the business had “a lot of cancellations [Wednesday].”

“They didn’t want to leave their house” because of what they had heard about the immigration sweep, Nielson said Thursday. “It was just for one day, so today’s been totally normal.”

Chavez at El Gordito and others said they had not heard of anyone detained.

Zivkovich complained about the damaging effect to the community with such rumors.

“To me, that’s the sad part of this,” he said. “Even if immigration came in, they’re not going to be going to doctors or restaurants to pick up people,” he said.

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They "stay home"....well, that's progress....now all we have to do is take that up a notch so they "go home".

If they can stay home ,they can go back home to what ever country that may be