OUR VIEW: Today's immigrants echo earlier waves

June 29, 2008 6:00 AM

For more than a year, the worsening national disaster born from the failure of the country to deal effectively with illegal immigration has been played out in Greater New Bedford.

Ever since hundreds of law enforcement officers swooped down to arrest 361 illegal immigrants employed at the former Michael Bianco Inc., a factory producing gear for U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the community has been sharply divided over the issue of people sneaking across U.S. borders to take jobs here and send money back to Central America, where friends and family live in poverty and political vulnerability.

There were pro-immigrant and anti-immigrant protests, outrage by state, local and federal authorities over the handling of the raid and endless debate in the media, especially conservative talk radio.

The Standard-Times, whose news coverage and editorial positions were praised by some and slammed by others, published scores of stories and hundreds of photographs, countless letters and a wide range of opinions.

We knew we needed to understand better the cultural, economic and political forces that were helping to bring thousands of Central Americans, many of them Mayans from Guatemala, to this old fishing port that has received wave upon wave of immigrants since the days when it was the foremost whaling port in the world.

We assigned some of our best reporters — Becky Evans, who covers the fishing industry; Jack Spillane, who covers politics and writes a column; and former staff writer Aaron Nicodemus — to cover the immigration story both here and in Guatemala. Award-winning photographer Peter Pereira and reporter Evans traveled to Guatemala to witness firsthand the forces at work in that country that were driving immigration here.

Mr. Spillane and Mr. Nicodemus worked the story in New Bedford, covering how people got jobs in the fish houses and factories of New Bedford, how they had to live to avoid detection, and how the community as a whole received them.

The results of this nearly two-year investigation appear in The Standard-Times beginning today and continuing through Wednesday, with much more on our Web site SouthCoastToday.com, for those who want to dig a little deeper — or simply to see more of photographer Pereira's superb work.

We hope you will take the time to read as much of it as you can because the story it tells is really the story of the remaking of our city.

You will learn that little has changed in the past hundred years. Other immigrant groups, including the Portuguese, had to fight for a toehold here. Often, they too were poorly received, although the nation's immigration laws were more lax in those days. You will learn that while many Central Americans who came here illegally want to return, many want to remain in the United States and become citizens if they can.

They aspire to the same things we all do: food for our children, a roof over our heads, a better future for their families, and a measure of safety and freedom they were unable to find at home.

You will learn about the changing prospects within the local economy that have put millions of illegal immigrants in competition with U.S. citizens and legal immigrants for more and more jobs — and the resentment that has resulted. And you will learn about why this issue is so difficult to solve politically.

Our objective here is to provide light on the subject, rather than heat. There has been enough of that, often applied by people on both sides of the immigration question who are unable or unwilling to understand one another's viewpoint.

We invite you to join us for this special report, "The New Immigrants," on those who have found their way to our shore and to our city.
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