http://www.turnto10.com/news/5479327/detail.html

Employees Fail To Show After Officials Haul Workers Away In Handcuffs

POSTED: 6:21 pm EST December 6, 2005
UPDATED: 7:47 pm EST December 6, 2005

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Fish wholesalers estimate they lost about $100,000 in sales Tuesday because their employees are still afraid after immigration officials took some of those workers away in handcuffs on Monday.

Once the roundup started, workers ran into the building.

"It was kind of like a human tsunami," said Frank Ferreira of AML International. "They didn’t know if they were going to come in and arrest them, too."

According to Ferreira, the workers that fled did not come back to work on Tuesday.

Guatemalans and El Salvadorans make up a large part of the fish handling workers.

When asked what would happen if immigration officials were to perform raids on a daily basis and checked Ferreira said, "There wouldn’t be a fish industry. It would shut right down."

New Bedford Mayor-elect Scott Lang said the city needs assistance from the federal government and not just random enforcement.

"Take 13 people out of a fish house and then not see the federal government for two or three years, that doesn’t make any sense," Lang said.

"If the message now is if you are undocumented, you’re not going to work, then they better notify all of these employees and employers very quickly."

Lang said the influx of Central Americans could not be anticipated 10 years ago and now federal immigration policies could have a huge impact on the community.