Thread: Debate rages about amnesty, border controls

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Debate rages about amnesty, border controls
Lawbreakers -- or key workers?

By VÃÂ*ctor Manuel Ramos | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 17, 2005

PIERSON -- A dozen men and women toil under the shadows of tree canopies, bending down hour after hour into the thick bushes of waist-high ferns off a dirt road. They are not hiding, yet they may as well be invisible.

They have no legal status, no residency rights, no U.S. citizenship. All they have is the sweat off their backs and the willingness to risk their lives in search of something better.

"Crucé el desierto para venir . . . "

"I crossed the desert to come . . . . We all come for the same reason: to work the land," said Zenón, a 29-year-old from the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán. "I have my father, my mother and my wife to support."

Workers such as Zenón are at the center of a congressional tug of war, reflecting a national debate about their presence and the underground economy they support. Those who see immigrants as a threat to national security, particularly in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, want U.S. borders sealed, but border patrols and deportations have failed to stem the flow.

On this particular day, several workers admit they have traveled hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to get jobs. (Their last names are withheld because they could face deportation.)

They are among about 850,000 undocumented migrants who make Florida their home, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group in Washington, D.C. The state ranks third in the nation, behind California and Texas, in the number of illegal residents.

The rate of unauthorized migrants now surpasses those who enter legally with visas, according to a Pew study. Those estimates, derived from U.S. census data, population surveys and official visa tallies, show that 700,000 immigrants entered illegally from 2000 to 2004, while 610,000 came with visas. Border Patrol agents do not have enough beds to hold the tens of thousands they catch.

An Orlando coalition of religious leaders, community advocates and builders says those workers are vital to the economy.

"If today you rounded up all the people without documents and sent them home, you would have a collapse of our agriculture business, and probably our restaurant business, not to mention our construction business," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, who leads the Roman Catholic diocese of Orlando. "You would see an economic impact that would make the 9-11 aftermath pale in comparison."

Porous borders

Most who make it to Central Florida are Mexicans or Central Americans who slip undetected through border states. There is also a significant community of Haitian refugees with expired visas and rejected asylum requests.

"A lot of hardworking people had permits, and they expired, and they can't go back to get them renewed, so they are all looking for work, like me, without papers," said Lucman, 32, a carpenter who ventured by boat from Haiti to West Palm Beach in 1999 and now lives in Orlando.

Nationally, there are more than 10 million unauthorized migrants, according to Pew studies. Many cross back and forth despite increased security. Their ability to live here undetected prompted Congress to seek tough national standards for state IDs, such as drivers licenses. Florida was among the first states to tighten license requirements after 9-11.

Despite high-profile busts, such as the 66 men arrested on an anonymous tip during an April raid at the downtown construction site of the new federal courthouse in Orlando, deportations remain infrequent.

There were 3,222 deportations in Florida as of May of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The previous year, 3,523 people were sent back to their countries.

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement office pursues serious criminal offenses, such as money laundering and narcotics smuggling. Officials say they cannot fully devote resources for immigration violations from otherwise law-abiding migrants. Citing security concerns, the agency would not say how many agents enforce immigration laws in Florida.

"Our priority is to identify, arrest and remove individuals who represent a threat to our community, whether that is a [sexual] predator, a gang member or someone else who has committed egregious acts of violence," said Barbara Gonzalez, a Miami spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sporadic crackdowns and a political climate of opposition may scare undocumented immigrants, but the lure of a better life keeps them coming.

"Si nos devuelven nos cruzamos por ahÃÂ* de nuevo. . . ."

"If they send us back we'll cross again," said Pascual Rafael, a 26-year-old Orange picker in Polk County. He feeds three children with money he sends back to them in the Mexican state of Veracruz. He was so confident he could return that he left recently to visit family. "It's the second time I'm here."

Not all go back and forth. Many have families here, and American children. Teresa Hernández, the firstborn American daughter of migrants in Auburndale, feels so passionately about her parents' right to live here that she is toying with the idea of becoming an immigration attorney. She thinks the law has to yield to a larger reality.

"They did break the law, but they weren't trying to be criminals," said Hernández, 21, a sophomore at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. "The borders [that] people make are man-made. God didn't put the borders there."

Divided interests

Since his re-election President Bush has vowed to spend political capital to fix the system, but Congress has yet to debate immigration law, and he has yet to deliver a proposal. Republicans are pulled between opposing ideologies -- business interests that seek cheap labor and voters who worry about U.S. security and demand tougher border enforcement.

Democrats, too, face a delicate political walk. The Democratic Party's biggest backers, labor unions, fear downward pressure on wages as more undocumented workers take trade jobs in construction.

At the center of the political backdrop are Hispanic voters, a growing national force that tilts Democratic but is predominantly Republican in Florida.

One bipartisan measure before Congress, backed by several South Florida members, would establish a temporary-visa program for low-skill immigrants and would allow those here illegally to pay fines and eventually seek permanent residence. Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who ran against Bush in 2000, and Democrat Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts say their bill offers a practical solution to a worsening problem.

A tougher measure -- expected to be introduced later this month by Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican -- will call for stepped-up border patrols, expedited deportations and prosecution of employers who hire unauthorized immigrants.

Florida's two U.S. senators remain on the fence.

Bill Nelson, a Democrat up for re-election next year, has supported temporary visas for agricultural workers and equal access for undocumented college students paying higher tuition.

"You can't have a deport-them-all philosophy because that is not fair, and it's not good for our economy, but I do not support blanket amnesty," Nelson said. "I do not want to do anything that encourages people to come here illegally and, since there will always be people trying to come illegally, we have to have improved control of our borders."

Mel Martinez, himself a Cuban immigrant, also remains noncommittal. He is reviewing all legislative proposals but said that McCain's legalization bill "contains the right approach of addressing the important role immigrants play in this country while recognizing the need for strong borders and the strain illegal immigrants can place on social services."

Those who favor legalization, such as Judith Golub of the Washington-based American Immigration Lawyers Association, say enforcement alone does not work and sustains "a cottage industry for smugglers and document forgers."

Those who want immigration control say massive legalization gives lawbreakers a free pass and encourages more people to come and burden social services.

"It's an enormous slap in the face to the legal immigrants who played by the rules and obeyed the laws," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, a D.C. think tank that favors stricter enforcement.

Back in the fields

As a dozen workers pick ferns sold year-round for floral arrangements, Mexican music blaring from a parked pickup nearby takes the workers' minds off their tedious jobs. Florida's $86 million-plus fern industry employs 5,000 to 10,000 workers, many of them immigrants whose legal status isn't always clear.

Fern workers MarÃÂ*a and VÃÂ*ctor needed the jobs so badly that they left three children, ranging from 1 to 3 years old, with relatives in Mexico and ventured across the border in 1991. They later returned to smuggle their children to this country. They have had two U.S.-born children since.

After 14 years cutting ferns, they saved enough for the down payment on the $5,000 trailer that is their home.


They get up at 5 in the morning and work five to six days a week. During busy seasons -- just before the flower crazes of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day -- they can make up to $600 a week. At other times their weekly income can fall to less than $200.

VÃÂ*ctor, 41, calculates the couple have six more years to pay off the trailer. Pointing to five bunches of ferns they collected in an hour one recent Monday VÃÂ*ctor turned to MarÃÂ*a to sum up their worth: "We have three dollars there."

Sweaty, with half her body wrapped in a plastic bag to avoid bug bites, the 38-year-old mother echoed the thoughts of other undocumented immigrants.

"Se siente uno mal, la mera verdad, oir que no nos quieren aquÃÂ*. . . . "

"To tell the truth, it's upsetting to hear that people don't want us here," MarÃÂ*a said. "This is work that no one wants to do except us."

VÃÂ*ctor Manuel Ramos can be reachedat vramos@orlandosentinel.comor 407-420-6186.

"If today you rounded up all the people without documents and sent them home, you would have a collapse of our agriculture business, and probably our restaurant business, not to mention our construction business," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, who leads the Roman Catholic diocese of Orlando. "You would see an economic impact that would make the 9-11 aftermath pale in comparison."

This is one of the most idiotic, unsubstantiated comments I have ever seen. Bishop Wenski has made a few moronic comments such as this.
Maybe the good Bishop will pull his head out and smell the coffee.

Those who want immigration control say massive legalization gives lawbreakers a free pass and encourages more people to come and burden social services.

Bingo.

"To tell the truth, it's upsetting to hear that people don't want us here," MarÃÂ*a said. "This is work that no one wants to do except us."

What bullbologna.

I sent the following to the "good" Bishop:
(through cbrinati@orlandodiocese.org)

I read a comment in the Orlando Sentinel on July 17 attributed to Bishop Wenski that I found to be quite offensive and lacking basis in fact.
The comment is:
"If today you rounded up all the people without documents and sent them home, you would have a collapse of our agriculture business, and probably our restaurant business, not to mention our construction business," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, who leads the Roman Catholic diocese of Orlando. "You would see an economic impact that would make the 9-11 aftermath pale in comparison."

I don't know what planet the good Bishop is on but he is not on Earth. The United States has a tremendous problem with illegal immigration and the associated costs both social and financial. Neither the Bishop nor the Catholic Church is doing much to help solve the problem. In point of fact, the Catholic Church is actually making the problem worse by aiding illegal aliens, which is a violation of Federal law. Making uninformed and inaccurate statements such as the one above are certainly no help.

Yes, I do wonder how much economic impact study he has done on illegal immigrants.

"If today you rounded up all the people without documents and sent them home, you would have a collapse of our agriculture business, and probably our restaurant business, not to mention our construction business,"

I too found this quote laughable. The notion that these industries would collapse is idiotic at best. A small hiccup pehaps, as greed driven employers dry their tears and re-hire American workers at the fair wages they were paying before this massive illegal invasion. Just a few short years ago construction, painting, and roofing jobs paid a decent livable wage.

Are we supposed to sit on our laurels, as the good bishop suggests, while their cheap labor threatens to poach an ever increasing number of blue collar trades? NOT ON MY WATCH!!!