Thread: Immigrants feel fallout on Coast

August 29, 2007


Immigrants feel fallout on Coast

Gratitude turns into spite after help in rebuilding Coast

By Julie Goodman
BILOXI — After Hurricane Katrina, the immigrant population here helped brave storm-ravaged homes, working among the corpses of dogs, cats and humans and cleaning rotten food from refrigerators.

They rebuilt casinos, poured concrete, repaired roofs, installed wallboard and took on jobs when the battered Mississippi Gulf Coast had no solid work force of its own.



Now, two years after the storm, with much of the recovery work done, some of those immigrants - those who have put down roots with homes, schools and businesses - say they're stared at in public, singled out by law enforcement and targeted by politicians on the campaign trail.

Gratitude, they say, has turned into spite.

"We were like the first to be cleaning all of the destruction up and all of the debris and all of the junk and all of the dirt and all of the mud," Isabel Aredo, a Peruvian immigrant in Biloxi, said through a translator.

"Now that there's hardly any work left, now they're arresting us all."

Immigrant advocates say the animosity has intensified over the past year, and they are bracing for tensions to get even worse. With their hopes nearly dashed for federal reform, they are left to deal with what they see as the inevitable fallout of being an immigrant: getting arrested for driving without a license, getting underpaid by contractors and getting glared at in grocery stores and malls.

And with election season in full swing, candidates have made illegal immigration a focal point of their campaigns.

"We've got to go about trying to identify if we have illegal immigrants receiving health care that's uncompensated. We've got to identify those children that are in our schools," said State Auditor Phil Bryant, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.

"We're no longer a pass-through state. We're a destination state."

Bryant, who is facing Democratic state Rep. Jamie Franks in the Nov. 6 general election, vows to clamp down on illegal immigrants and push a statewide public safety policy to address crimes committed by immigrants. He cautions the public to be aware of accidents, violence and increased drug activity, and warns businesses to be prudent when hiring.

The political rhetoric is fueled by ignorance, immigrant advocates say. But it's threatening to overpower them, as despondent residents who lost their homes to the storm become more prone to take their anger out on immigrants.

"People hear, 'Oh, we won't let undocumented immigrants vote' and don't ever stop to ask, 'Do they?' Or Phil Bryant who says, 'Oh, they're going to bankrupt this state,' and people are going to say, 'Are they really?' " said the Rev. Sally Bevill, who works with coastal immigrants as part of the Hispanic/Latino Ministries of the Mississippi Conference, Seashore District, of the United Methodist Church.

"Politicians especially are taking advantage of people's fear and lack of education on the issue of immigration and who these immigrants are."

The argument that immigrants are taking jobs on the Coast doesn't make sense, she says, pointing to help-wanted ads in the newspaper and the area's low unemployment rate. Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties' July 2007 unemployment rates were 6.3, 6.2 and 6.5, respectively, some of the lowest levels in the state. The state's rate was 7.2 percent.

Some immigrants, like new store owner Rosi Sandate in Biloxi, say they don't encounter hostility. Others, like longtime Mexican immigrant Martin Diaz, whose family owns La Bamba Latin Store, say they suspect business has been slower because some immigrants have moved.

"I can see why people are against the immigration community because they are going to the schools, they are going to the hospitals, they are using the services. So, it is a strain for the city, it's a strain for the state, the country," said Diaz, 27, whose Biloxi store opened about six months before the storm. "But I do think immigrants give more than what they take."

Advocates believe immigrants are vastly undercounted by the U.S. Census Bureau, which recently estimated the coastal immigrant population has increased by 8 percent from 2000 to 2006. "I think some people are going to choose to leave because they're going to be feeling rejected," said Victoria Cintra, an emergency outreach coordinator for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance.

Aredo says she learned the hard way when she was flagged down by the Biloxi police a few weeks ago. Aredo, who has no car, had accepted a ride from a male stranger on a hot day to go to a clinic to fill a monthly prescription. When the police stopped them, they let the driver go, but charged her with prostitution.

Aredo was devastated.

"They treated me so ugly, so degrading, they humiliated me," she said through sobs. "They would see if I had tattoos. They made me take everything off and stripped me and searched me. They told me they were going to call immigration and asked me what country I was from."

Aredo, who says she's about 48 years old, said the police officers just laughed at her when she tried to explain she was going to her clinic.

Rodney McGilvary, an assistant police chief in Biloxi, would not discuss details of any particular case, but said there is no profiling or discrimination among officers in his city. He said there has been an increase immigrant motorists pulled over and arrested for not having a driver's license.

"Is it a major problem? No, it's not. Has it escalated a little bit? ... Yes, it has. Are we seeing more of that? Sure we are, because there's more of them here. There's more people here of all walks of life," he said. "We're not profiling. It's just not because he's dark complected, Spanish speaking, from another country, that doesn't dictate what we do to his vehicle."

Aredo is free to file a complaint, he said.

Bryant says he also recognizes immigrants are easy targets for crime, but their choice to come here illegally has helped make them vulnerable.

Aredo, a housekeeper who said she entered the country legally, said she works hard, pays for her medical treatment and helps to support a family. But she says there is little hospitality left in her home of 3 1/2 years.

"Nobody wants to go out; nobody wants to do anything," she said.

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs. ... /1001/news

why did they hire illegals to do this work? they could have given this work to the residents instead of sending them away to other parts of the country where some of them are still unemployed.

Originally Posted by redpony353

why did they hire illegals to do this work? they could have given this work to the residents instead of sending them away to other parts of the country where some of them are still unemployed.

Exactly. And I wonder how it makes those people feel ,who still have not had their homes or businesses rebuilt, to hear about illegals living in their city with nice new homes and businesses?