Thread: One child left behind ***SOB STORY WARNING***

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One child left behind
1A | Local News
Christian Livermore (912) 652-0359 christian.livermore | Monday, October 2, 2006 at 12:30 am

EMANUEL COUNTY - Out in the rural countryside, about 90 miles west of Savannah, amid the Vidalia onion fields and the all-you-can-eat buffets, is a kind of country within a country, with shadow citizens.

They work jobs that many Americans might consider beneath them, bloodying their hands in poultry plants, breathing pesticides in the picking fields.

They live in housing many Americans would consider squalid, paying $100 a month apiece to share an apartment with 10 other people, or in rows of mobile homes, some with fraying walls and raw sewage bubbling up through the grass.

They're there, but they're not there.

They live in the community, but on paper they do not exist.

It's a quiet arrangement that's gone on here for about eight years.

That all changed Labor Day weekend, when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept across the county, arresting about 120 undocumented immigrants at the Crider Inc. poultry plant in Stillmore and at their homes.

Before the raids, immigration was largely an abstract debate focused on U.S. policy and economic impact.

The raids, however, brought the problem home, separated husbands from wives, left Crider with only half its workers and has locals scrambling to feed and house friends and deal with the emotional fallout.

Caught in the center of this perfect storm is 1-month-old baby Norma.

The child of two undocumented parents, Norma was not yet born when ICE agents took her father, Isidro, into custody as he left work on the night shift at Crider.

ICE then went door-to-door arresting other undocumented immigrants based on a list of names and addresses from Crider's files.

Isidro's 19-year-old wife, Ernestina, whose last name the Savannah Morning News is withholding because she is in the country illegally, fled with other illegals into the woods.

She hid there for five days.

Then she went into labor.

She made her way to the hospital to deliver the baby. Hospital workers noted she was malnourished and dehydrated and called the Division of Family and Children Services.

They took newborn Norma into custody.

Ernestina has been separated from her newborn for almost a month, and she faces a hearing Tuesday to try to get her back.

"When she approached the hospital, she was dirty, hungry, dehydrated, she didn't look well," said Andrea Hinojosa, executive director of the nonprofit social services agency Southeast Georgia Communities Project. "I understand the position DFCS has, and I understand the position of the judge making the decision to remove these children, but this lady has just lost her baby. She's without any money, without any food."

Judge Tom Rawlings said the raids have "caused some activity in our juvenile court." However, neither Rawlings nor DFCS officials would give a number of cases or discuss details.

Ernestina and Isidro have been in the United States for two years. Because Ernestina does not speak English and because of the differences between her dialect and that of the interpreter, the Morning News could learn few details about how she made her way to Emanuel County.

She also worked at Crider, but just before the raids, lost her job along with about 600 others when supervisors passed out letters informing workers their documentation was "suspicious."

Ernestina still has 1-year-old son, Hilberto, but without a job, she is relying on donations of food from Hinojosa's group, the Catholic church and others.

ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said the U.S. system of immigration is "the most generous" on the planet, allowing millions of visitors to enter on work visas, student visas and other programs. For the system to work, though, it must have integrity. The "enforcement actions" provide that, he said.

"Our job is to restore that integrity by enforcing the laws that govern the immigration system," he said.

The September actions were part of ICE's work site enforcement program.

The agency also has separate programs to target document and benefit fraud and a fugitive operations team that targets people who have evaded a judge's order to leave the country.

The programs are designed to make it too hard for undocumented people to stay in the country.

"If we crack down on those who are blatantly hiring illegal aliens, we will reduce the return on services and reduce the desire to illegally come here," Raimondi said.


Allegations of mistreatment

Father John Brown of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Swainsboro is among those providing food and emergency items to families who went into hiding after the raids.

He said people who escaped the raids told him of abuses by immigration agents, including breaking down doors, not presenting search warrants and threatening to throw tear gas into homes.

"The raids were violently aggressive, intended to terrify people and get them on the run, like you would scare a couple of cows in a herd," he said.

Raimondi said the only reports of misconduct he knows of were second-hand and came to him through media representatives. He denied any mistreatment by ICE officers.

"Everything we did was in full accordance with the law," he said.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston , R-Ga., traveled to Stillmore to investigate allegations of misconduct, but was unable to determine if they were true.

"I don't know that we'll ever have a clear picture of what happened," he said. "You just don't want immigration to boil down to what happened in Stillmore. I blame Stillmore on immigration policy, not on the people who were involved in executing it."

For too long, Kingston said, the United States has waffled on immigration.

"That deportation was very traumatic, has caused a lot of economic suffering and a lot of instability in a small town," he said. "So the question is what do you do to avoid it happening in the first place?"


Looking for solutions

Kingston has voted for several illegal immigration enforcement bills in recent weeks, including the Secure Fence Act, given final approval by the Senate on Friday, which calls for building a 700-mile, $6-billion fence along the Southwest U.S. border.

He also supports HR 3938, which would end automatic citizenship for U.S.-born babies of illegal immigrants. Most countries either have eliminated or do not have birthright citizenship, Kingston said. He sees this as another way to make the United States less attractive to illegal immigrants.

"There is an incentive for people to come over here and have their babies that goes beyond the free and high quality medical treatment. The baby becomes an American citizen, and therefore the illegal parents move up in line," he said. "It makes solving illegal immigration all the more complicated."

Many say the bills pending in Congress are too heavy on enforcement that will not work, and do not take into account America's need to replace its aging work force as the birth rate goes down, baby boomers retire and other workers move up the economic ladder, leaving many unskilled jobs undone. Legislation needs to increase the number of visas handed out each year and offer a clear path to citizenship, they say, both for people waiting to enter the country and those who are already here illegally.

They also say a hard line on immigration ignores the contributions illegal immigrants make to the economy, starting with taxes. Illegal immigrants pay an estimated $16 billion in taxes a year.

Charles H. Kuck, a vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the U.S. immigration system needs fundamental reform, including a change in the five- to seven-year wait for green cards for bachelor's degree holders and the 10- to 15-year wait for green cards for unskilled workers.

He said immigration could also be a solution to the pending Social Security shortfall, boosting the ratio of workers to retirees.

Current policy and the new bills also do not take into account, he said, the fundamental desire of Americans to see their children have more than they had.

"We tell our kids to go to college and get a good job," he said. "If we're all telling our kids that, who is plucking the chickens?"


Picking up the pieces

A phone booth at a half-vacant trailer park declares the hand-scrawled message, "We are not terrorists - 9/3/06."

Trailer parks are peppered with "for rent" signs.

Many Emanuel County residents, who have been left stunned by the swiftness of the raids and the fear left in their wake, say the raids were misguided.

Sabrina Martinez is married to a Hispanic man who has been trying to become documented since 2001. She and her friend Susan, who would not give her last name because she has sheltered illegal immigrants since the raids, said ICE should focus on illegals who are committing crimes, not those who are law-abiding citizens, other than being here illegally.

"Come get the ones who are causing trouble," Martinez said. "Raid the jails, take the people who are selling drugs."

Father Brown believes after the dust from the raids settles, companies like Crider will go back to using Mexican workers because the work is so hard that even the extra $1 the company has added to its hourly wage will not keep American workers for long.

"It's cold in there, between 38 and 40 degrees," Brown said. "You're bundled up, and you have to wear rubber gloves, so their hands are stiff. It's very hard work."

Pastor Ariel Rodriguez of Iglesia Bautista-Ispana Torre Fuerte in Stillmore, who is also providing food to families, said living conditions in Mexico will drive people here - where pay can be $7 an hour. In Mexico it is $7 a day. Rent can be $80 a month. Sometimes families eat only beans for two weeks straight. To send their children to school, parents must pay for books, uniforms and tax of $10 a month.

That's if they can spare them to go to school. Often the children must work to help pay the bills.

"They will continue looking for a better life," Rodriguez said.

A few families who escaped the raids remain in the area. Most have left the area for Kentucky, Alabama, North Carolina and other places.

Many more have returned to Latin America.

Ernestina is staying with cousins in a trailer park near Stillmore. Because it is a juvenile case, DFCS officials will not discuss Ernestina's case, or even acknowledge its existence.

She does not know where Isidro is.

For now she is focusing on regaining custody of her baby and caring for son Hilberto. Then she will try to find work.

That, more than anything, is what she said she would like Americans to understand about why she is here.

"I just came here to work," she said.

An employee of the Archdiocese has volunteered to foster Ernestina and her two children. It remains to be seen whether DFCS and the court will find this arrangement acceptable.

Ernestina believes her husband will be able to rejoin her and their American children in the United States, but current law makes that unlikely. Immigrants found to be in the country illegally cannot return for 10 years, Kuck said.

At least not legally.

Life for illegal immigrants in the United States is hard, Rodriguez said, but life in Mexico is harder. That will keep immigrants arriving and will make those already here fight to stay.

Over a lunch of Chinese food Friday, Father Brown recalled his largely Mexican former parish in Oklahoma, and a party one evening shortly before he was transferred to Georgia.

People danced to music piped in from big speakers. The band Los Tigres del Norte was singing.

The band in harmony sings, "Gonna go back to Mexico."

In the song, a child with an American accent responds.

"Mexico? Why would I want to go to Mexico?"


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Immigration by the numbers

About 12 million illegal immigrants are estimated to live in the United States today. Some experts put the number at closer to 20 million. About 470,000 live in Georgia.

Misinformation ranges from whether undocumented immigrants pay taxes (many do) to whether they can collect welfare and food stamps (they can't).

Illegal immigrants often pay taxes through an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN. In 2005, the Internal Revenue Service issued about 1.2 million ITINs.

The average illegal household pays more than $4,200 a year in federal taxes, about $16 billion total, according to an estimate from The Center for Immigration Studies.

The Center also estimates, however, that because of such services as schools and emergency medical care, illegals actually cost about $26.3 billion, for a net loss of $10 billion a year.

Immigration advocates take issue with the numbers, however, saying it does not take into account the contributions illegal immigrants make to the economy, including buying cars, paying rent, paying sales tax and making other payments.

Also, since they are undocumented, they cannot receive tax benefits such as Social Security.

Illegal immigrants add 700,000 new consumers to the economy a year, 84 percent between the ages of 18 and 44, when people spend the most, compared with 60 percent of legal residents, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

Get them out, get them all out.

PERIOD.

Americans didn't create this situation. Americans aren't the reason they're here. They alone have responsibility for whatever outcome occurs here when they cross that border in violation of US Immigration Law. We can't afford to take care of and look after our only people properly. 25% of American children live in poverty and most Americans complain about the cost and bother of that.

So there's nothing here for you, Illegales, now go home and build a life.

"That deportation was very traumatic, has caused a lot of economic suffering and a lot of instability in a small town," he said. "So the question is what do you do to avoid it happening in the first place?"

LEAVE BEFORE THE LAW COMES KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR!!!!!!!!

Dixie

Judy wrote:

Americans didn't create this situation. Americans aren't the reason they're here.

Unfortunately, that is not exactly true, Judy. This current situation developed into what it is today from years of pandering and the turning of a blind eye by the President of the United States, United States Congress and federal law enforcement. Further, there have been documented cases where some in the farming community and manufacturing industry have personally had illegal immigrants delivered to their places of business by smugglers. On top of that, many have knowingly hired illegal that come knocking to work in their businesses and farms. Additionally, seven states give tuition assistance to illegals, a few states issue them driver's licenses, we provide them free medical care, an education for their children K-12, etc. As you know, the list goes on and on. So yes, some Americans did have a hand in creating this crisis.

I admit, your comment does not apply to the vast majority of Americans, but only to those folks that are on a never ending quest to boost company, and personal, profits through the exploitation of cheap labor. Trust me, the illegal immigrants themselves aren't fully to blame for the current mess we're in. Those folks are just the tools being used by corporate America to further boost corporation, company, and business profits.

It's up to us to fix the mess pandering politicians and greedy business owners have caused. The larger our numbers, the better we'll be able to accomplish our task. A good place to start would be to track down every illegal in the country and deport them, but unfortunately we keep being told that is not a possibility. So, that leaves us to take the long way around the issue, which will be time consuming to say the least. We must keep the pressure on!

The average illegal household pays more than $4,200 a year in federal taxes

I would believe this if it was the average EIC money received otherwise it's ridiculous!

MW-that is a good point about the lawbreakers, aiders and abetters, advocators and employers. Hey, since they are all lawbreaking Traitor pond scum, lets fire them and then fine them and use the money to pay for the deportations!!

Judy wrote:

MW-that is a good point about the lawbreakers, aiders and abetters, advocators and employers. Hey, since they are all lawbreaking Traitor pond scum, lets fire them and then fine them and use the money to pay for the deportations!!

Wouldn't that be great.

http://nPublished on SavannahNow.com (http://new.savannahnow.com)
Baby Norma back with illegal immigrant mother after Tuesday hearing
By Christian Livermore
Created 2006-10-03 23:22
Christian Livermore [1] | Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at 12:30 am
[2]
Ernestina holds her year-old son, Hilberto. The Morning News is not using her last name because she is in the country illegally and fears deportation. (Photo: Carl Elmore [3])

Editor's note: When we first heard about the baby's plight, reporter Christian Livermore went to see the situation firsthand. She found a mother whose newborn had been taken into the custody of the state because the mother was deemed to be in no condition to care for her child. We did not use her last name because of compelling safety reasons and because the interview with the mother was with the understanding that she would not be fully identified. Moreover, identifying the mother could have identified the child, whose name remains protected.


METTER - Newborn baby Norma is back with her mother after a deprivation hearing Tuesday in juvenile court.

Judge Tom Rawlings ruled baby Norma was deprived because of the mother's circumstances and the deportation of the baby's father, Isidro, but that the mother - Ernestina - could take her baby home and keep her as long as she continues to get the child medical treatment for a heart condition and follows through on getting services for 1-year-old son Hilberto.

Ernestina gave birth to the baby girl at Evans Memorial Hospital several days after her husband was arrested at the Crider Inc. poultry plant in Emanuel County during Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids over the Labor Day weekend.

The baby's heart condition was discovered during a routine medical exam. Savannah Children's Heart Center has since found a hole in the baby's heart. She will require special medications and care.

The Division of Family and Children Services took the newborn into custody over concerns about bonding issues and Ernestina's home conditions.

Rawlings said DFCS was justified because state officials did not have an address for Ernestina, and they were concerned about the family's home environment.

"It appears to me she was relying on her husband, and he was deported," Rawlings said. "We have a good number of cases involving undocumented immigrants from time to time. The raids make things more troublesome, scaring them to death and making them not want to cooperate with DFCS."

During the hearing, DFCS attorney Sherri McDonald objected to questions about Chiapas, which is Ernestina's home state in Mexico.

"She's been here for two-and-a-half years," she said. "Where she came from has no relevance."

"It will if she goes back," Rawlings said.

Ernestina testified she still did not know why DFCS took her baby, adding, "I want to take home my baby. I want to take care of her."

Evans Memorial Hospital nurse Linda Ring testified that at the hospital, Ernestina's blood work showed she had been hungry and dehydrated for a few days, but the analysis did not show chronic malnutrition. Contrary to previous reports, Ernestina was clean and showered, Ring said.

Hospital officials called DFCS, Ring said, to get Ernestina into a diversion program to ensure she had food and clothes for the baby and that she got to her doctor appointments.

Several DFCS officials testified Ernestina exhibited "bonding issues" with the baby.

Judy Braoy of Evans County DFCS said she spent only about five minutes with Ernestina because of the language barrier. She said Ernestina had the baby in bed next to her but was not holding it.

"Bonding is important because abandonment could become an issue," she said. "Also, the husband's deportation factored in because we didn't know if she would be able to take care of the baby."

Candler County DFCS child protective services worker Shana Lewis said she observed Ernestina and the baby at the hospital for about four hours. "She never looked at her baby, never touched her baby, never changed her or fed her," Lewis said.

Ring's seemed to contradict their contentions, saying Ernestina had very good parenting skills.

" good, very loving," Ring said. "She did not have to be reminded to do anything. She fed the baby, took care of it."

Rawlings said any bonding issues likely were caused by what Ernestina had endured during and after the raids. The judge was shown photos of Ernestina's house before the baby was taken. DFCS has since approved Ernestina's new house, and Ernestina's bonding issues seem to be resolved, Lewis said.

"If there's a plan, I'm all for it," Lewis said. "I just want to be safe. I think she needs help right now. She's young."

After the hearing, Ernestina said she has heard from husband Isidro. He is back in Chiapas.

"I think the best thing for the baby is to be near a good doctor," she said.

The court will review Ernestina's case in 90 days.


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