Thread: Aid after the immigrant raids

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Aid after the immigrant raids

Web Posted: 04/26/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Guillermo Contreras
Express-News Staff Writer

Citing the humanitarian aid the city offered to victims of Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Phil Hardberger said Tuesday that the city is considering helping the families of undocumented workers swept up in last week's immigration raids at a local company.

Hardberger made the comments to reporters after meeting with some of the wives and children of workers who were arrested and deported and members of activist groups, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the César Chávez Immigrant Defense Organizing Committee. The 15-minute meeting also included workers who escaped the raid.

The April 19 raids on IFCO Systems locally resulted in the arrest and deportation of 27 undocumented workers. The raid was executed as part of a national crackdown on the company, which makes crates and pallets, and resulted in the arrests of 1,187 workers who were in the United States illegally.

Hardberger said the raid left families behind — women and children who may be here legally or are U.S. citizens.

"I take no position on the national (immigration) debate because I do not think that this is city business," Hardberger said. "But what is our business is people who are here ... that are in need. We showed with the evacuees of the hurricane that we are a humanitarian city and that we believe that everyone is worthy of respect and dignity."

Hardberger said he will meet with City Manager Sheryl Sculley "to see if our existing institutions to help the needy are enough to take care of the needs of these people or whether we should have some sort of special effort in the same sort of sense that we helped the evacuees."

"Right now, some of them are very torn up and have very bad circumstances," he said.

Mark Krikorian, head of a think tank that supports tighter immigration controls, criticized the mayor for comparing lawbreakers to U.S. citizens fleeing a natural disaster. Krikorian said the city likely wouldn't do the same for families of U.S. citizens who have been sent to prison for committing state crimes.

"He's saying the city is neutral, (that) immigration policy isn't its business, and then he's assisting illegal immigrant families," said Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. "He clearly is getting involved in immigration policies. To say that a city can be neutral on immigration matters is false because anything that a state or local government does is its immigration policy. What he's clearly doing here is subverting federal immigration enforcement."

Meeting with Hardberger were Adolfo I., 49, and Marcelo T., 26, of El Salvador, and Luis T., 29, of Guanajuato, Mexico, who were among about six workers who hid and escaped during the raid.

Also meeting with the mayor were Imelda L., 33, whose spouse was deported to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Aracely B., 29, who said she is the wife of Luis T.

The immigrants, who declined to provide their last names for fear of capture, said after the meeting that they had a glimmer of hope because the mayor "said he would try to help us."

The individuals said before the meeting that they did not come seeking handouts, but were left in dire circumstances because of the raids.

The raids came as immigration issues have been in the forefront nationally. A rally is expected Monday in cities including San Antonio, where immigrants and others have been asked by activists to forgo work and march in a show of solidarity, and to boycott certain businesses with roots in the U.S.

Jaime Martinez, a treasurer for LULAC's national executive board, said the focus has been on enforcement rather than dealing with immigrants who work and contribute to the economy.

"They are criminalizing and demonizing immigrants," he said. "They're not focusing on all those who make contributions to society. ... It's time they develop legislation that does not split up families and provides a path to citizenship."

This week, the Senate will discuss dueling proposals on immigration reform, the biggest of its kind in a decade.



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gcontreras@express-news.net

Hey Brian, do you ever stop?

I just love these sob stories. They're so human. It's funny though, they never mention the fact they they are here illegally, do they?

TOUGH LUCK.
GO HOME.

These families knew they were breaking the law, and they should have had a back-up plan for when hubbie got caught. If these folks want to help the families they should buy them bus tickets to Mexico. Nothing more.

Citing the humanitarian aid the city offered to victims of Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Phil Hardberger said Tuesday that the city is considering helping the families of undocumented workers swept up in last week's immigration raids at a local company. . . . We showed with the evacuees of the hurricane that we are a humanitarian city and that we believe that everyone is worthy of respect and dignity. . . . Right now, some of them are very torn up and have very bad circumstances"

this REALLY makes me angry!!! the citizens of this country that were VICTIMS of Hurricane Katrina were in their homes and their country ... their had their HOMES and LIFE'S WORK SWEPT AWAY-- many lost their LIVES!

there is a BIG difference in hiding in fear because you're illegally in this country and being fearful in your home where the winds reach up to 125-140 mph and gusts that beat the sides of your home so hard it feels as though the walls are going to collapse and the boards on the windows start beating in the wind.

Taking refuge in an interior hall on the floor of your home because of the FORCE OF NATURE and feeling your house pressurize and your ears pop because a tornadoe is going over ripping the top out of a tree falling on your house is not hiding out for fear of law ENFORCEMENT. I went through Hurricane Ivan alone with my dog, as I had every other hurricane since I built my home.

The only reason I left for Hurricane Katrina was because I had to stay with my elderly aunt. I rode out Katrina in her garage with my dog because she had a dog and I couldn't leave my alone. I was back and forth between my aunt and my dog and would look out the door and see trees uprooted across the street and next door -- I didn't know whether I had a home left or not until I called my neighbor.

Riding out a hurricane while your home is under seize, not knowing whether you will live or die or have a home to live in is not the same thing as being taken into custody because you are here ILLEGALLY

there are people along the Gulf Coast that are still living without electricity -- they have no homes, no jobs, no hope ...

these ILLEGAL ALIENS have homes in THEIR country, but let's send the American workers home that were cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina because the Mexicans are here. The American workers that were the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the ones that went through emotional trauma and didn't know whether they or their families LIVE OR DIE or whether they would have a home. But by all means, let's make things more comfortable for ILLEGALS so they can stay longer,

there is a big difference in a 'REFUGEE' and 'ILLEGAL ALIEN' and the comparison makes me so angy that I could cry.

Quote:
Citing the humanitarian aid the city offered to victims of Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Phil Hardberger said Tuesday that the city is considering helping the families of undocumented workers swept up in last week's immigration raids at a local company.
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Mayor Hardberger:
You, sir, are an idiot and a disgrace. You derserve to have your position ripped right from under your butt. These people need to get on home and have their own government take care of them. Americans shouldnt have to foot the bill for illegal aliens.
What is wrong with these people?!

Sure why not give them welfare and they can send some of that to their relatives in Mexico, what the heck we are paying for everything else

Why don't we just open the borders, the ports,and let everyone in that feels they deserves to be here in America!

Just adopt them all, no questions asked