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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. . . ."

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