Thread: Feds deport Corinth Family

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August 01, 2006AGRICULTURE

Feds deport Corinth Family

By Journal Opinion staff

BRADFORD, Vermont (STPNS) -- CORINTH—On the Cookeville Road, just a quarter mile up from the little post office, is Charlie and Elaine White’s 95-cow dairy farm which White took over from his father Dustin and runs with his 23-year-old son Elijah.

The huge barn is across from Dustin and Jane White’s home, where flowers bloom profusely along both sides of the road, and the grounds all around the barn are immaculate. Elaine White keeps a large garden at their home further up the road as well as maintaining the one at the mobile home not far from the barn. She sells assorted lettuces, summer squashes and cucumbers at a vegetable stand in front of the barn.

The fairly new, two-bedroom mobile home overlooks the fields that slope down to the Cookeville Brook with a view to the hills on the other side. In November 2004, the Whites put it there for their Mexican farmhand, Jose Zacarias, his wife Rosa, their son Ricardo, a five-year-old U.S. citizen, and their two-year-old daughter Emily. Elaine helped Rosa start the garden in the spring of 2005, and the two women were teaching each other their languages.

Until they were caught up in a nationwide sweep of illegal immigrants, the Zacarias family lived and worked at the White farm for a year and a half. Ricardo attended the Sugar Maple pre-school in Waits River and was enrolled at Waits River Valley School to start kindergarten this fall, while little Emily was excited about following in her brother’s footsteps and going to Sugar Maple in the fall.

Detention and deportation

Last November, the Whites took Jose and Rosa to Bridport, VT, where the Mexican Mobile Consulate, in conjunction with the Vermont Department of Agriculture, was stationed for a day. Jose and Rosa were fingerprinted and issued Mexican passports, as well as matriculas which identify them and their place of employment. According to the Whites, Gov. Douglas sanctions the employment of immigrants, recognizing that farmers are having a difficult time finding employees. By Vermont state standards, Jose and Rosa Zacarias were properly documented.

All was well until Jose took steps to register a used car he had bought so that the family would be independent and able to get around without having to rely on others. Because of that, he and Rosa were found as illegal immigrants when their names came up in a government check of motor vehicle records.

Elaine White, in an interview with the Journal Opinion, said, “they were caught through racial profiling.” Federal agents told Charlie White that the motor vehicle department sends registrations with foreign sounding names to immigration for background checks.

Jose and Rosa were taken during a nation-wide crackdown—Operation Return to Sender—which roughly coincided with last spring’s nationwide immigration rallies. Approximately 2,100 “illegal aliens” were rounded up in this sweep, exactly two of them in Vermont.

Three weeks prior to Jose and Rosa’s arrest, Homeland Security agents parked on the Cookeville road and watched the farm with binoculars. In the end, Jose and Rosa were arrested on June 9. Jose was taken to a detention center in New Hampshire and Rosa to a jail in Boston. Jose was later taken to a Boston jail as well. The children were left behind with friends.

This separation lasted more than a month. When the couple’s deportation was planned, they were told that their children would not be allowed to fly back to Mexico with them because they were going on a flight for criminals which did not allow children.

While in jail, Rosa had to sign over guardianship of her children to Jose’s uncle in Missouri. Deportation officials told them it was the family’s responsibility of get the children back to Mexico.

When the Whites found out about this, Elaine contacted Sen. Patrick Leahy, and through Leahy’s intervention the plan was changed. A few weeks ago, a family friend drove the children to Logan Airport where at last they were reunited with their parents before boarding a commercial flight on AeroMexico that would take them all to Mexico City.

From his hometown near Acapulco, Jose has reported that so far he has found no employment. In Corinth, he worked between 40 and 50 hours a week and earned considerably more than the $4 a day he may make in Mexico if he finds work.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Elijah White now labor from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. each day.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Elijah White now labor from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. each day.

Someone please pass me a tissue!

Sob, sob sob sob .

I used to have a fairly large accounting practice and the thing I learned in the first 2 years was this:

Finding good employees is a chore. Or in other words, "you have to kiss a lot pigs before you get to the prince/princess".

I'm very sorry the Whites can't find American citizens who will help them on their dairy farm. Maybe they should apply for employees at the nearest homless shelter and/or veterans place? To me that would be a good place to start.

Since when has following our laws is considered to be racial profiling? I have just about had enough about this racial crap!

Alot of employers of illegal aliens do believe they are doing a good thing when they hire illegal aliens and put them up in housing etc. But they are breaking the law and they are benefiting from it. Now they will have to pay american wages or do the work themselves.

while little Emily was excited about following in her brother’s footsteps and going to Sugar Maple in the fall.

Yes, I'm sure at the age of 2, little Emily has lots of plans.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Elijah White now labor from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. each day.

I grew up in a small, Indiana farm town, and those sound like typical farmers hours, especially during planting and harvesting season. Maybe the White's should get out of the farming business.

Originally Posted by MW

Meanwhile, Charlie and Elijah White now labor from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. each day.

Someone please pass me a tissue!

Most of America labors from 5 to 9. Some, even longer!!!

they were going on a flight for criminals

bye.