Thread: FLA: Hispanic population boom soon could be on the decline

By Ashley Fielding
afielding@gainesvilletimes.com

POSTED Aug. 7, 2008 12:15 a.m.

Estimates released today from the U.S. Census Bureau show significant growth in Hall County’s Hispanic population from 2000 to 2007, but whether that steady growth trend will continue is an unknown factor even to Hispanics.
The July 2007 estimate shows a rate of growth in Hispanic residents that could already be on its way down when the 2008 estimates are released next year.

Those who serve the Hispanic community did not need the statistics to tell them that the number of Hispanics has risen by 71.8 percent in seven years — they have witnessed it.

In the past 10 years, Hispanic student population has grown to become about 34 percent of the Hall County school system, Superintendent Will Schofield said.

In March 1998, the school system had approximately 2,256 Hispanic students. Ten years later, the number of Hispanic students had grown to 8,490 by March 2008, while the number of white students stayed the same and the number of black students grew minimally.

"Almost all of our growth in the past decade has been from the Hispanic population," Schofield said.

Gene Beckstein, founder of Good News at Noon, a program that provides food and shelter to homeless people on Davis Street in Gainesville, said the growth in the Hispanic population is apparent every time he opens his doors.

Beckstein has been teaching English to Spanish-speaking immigrants on Thursdays and Saturdays for almost three years.

"When I first came to Gainesville, I ministered to the white people, and later, I ministered to the black people at Melrose (Apartments on Davis Street)," Beckstein said. "And (now) ... on the fourth Saturday of every month, I bring all the homeless guys to my home, and I feed them and most of them are Hispanic."

A slow economy and a recent beefing up of immigration enforcement in Hall County may halt eight years’ worth of growth in the area’s Hispanic population, however.

Some speculate the four-month-old partnership between the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and the federal government may play a role in the projections next year. Since the 287(g) program started in early April, allowing the sheriff’s office to determine whether detainees are illegal immigrants and turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Hall County authorities have turned over 516 people, Maj. Jeff Strickland said.

Another 116 detainees must face criminal charges in Hall County before the sheriff’s office will transfer them to the federal agency, Strickland said.

Work drying up

Without documentation, many immigrants wait on the side of the road or in parking lots to be chosen as day laborers. Some of them suggest that the growth of the Hispanic population already is slowing with the economy.

As he stood on the side of Atlanta Highway waiting for work Wednesday, Teodolo Santana told The Times through a translator he had been in Gainesville for six years. Santana, who is originally from Michoacan, Mexico, said he has seen the number of job opportunities for immigrants drop in the past two years.

"We came here to work, but we can’t, because there’s no money (here), and we need papers to work," Santana said. "...They say that there’s more money here, and there is a little more, but not that much."

Santana suggested it might be easier for some Hispanics to return to their home countries rather than suffer the poverty resulting from the economic downturn in Gainesville, but some Hispanics are still coming.

Jose Carrillo, who stood alongside Santana also waiting for work, arrived Sunday in Gainesville looking for work. Carrillo, originally from Puebla, Mexico, came here from Elkhart, Ind., which suffered job losses this year as some of its largest employers closed factories.

"Many people are moving where there’s work," Carrillo said through a translator.

Still, the idea that job opportunities for Hispanics have become fewer resonates with those who had been here longer.

One man from Honduras who waited for work in a different parking lot Wednesday morning on Atlanta Highway said jobs have dried up in the year he has lived in Gainesville.

"There’s no work," the man, who called himself Patricio but would not give his last name, said through a translator.

Like Carrillo, Patricio said members of the local Hispanic community will go where the jobs are, but did not name a specific place where Hispanic immigrants could find jobs.

"No one knows (where Hispanics are moving)," he said. "Here, each person has his own life, and that’s how it is, they work. ... What’s happening is they’re going where the work is. Where? I don’t know. Wherever there’s word of work is where they’re going."

The uncertainty has even Schofield in the dark about how many students will show up for the first day of school today — a number school officials have successfully predicted within 100 students for years.

The school system normally grows by about 600 to 1,000 new students every year, Schofield said. But this year, with kindergarten "round-up" numbers less than they were last year, the school system is "geared up" to see smaller growth or none at all, Schofield said.

"We certainly are getting some reports that we have fewer immigrant children signing up for school this year," Schofield said. "But until we actually see some numbers, I wouldn’t want to try to quantify that."

Times photographer Sara Guevara contributed to this story and provided translation.

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/7684/

Wishful thinking on my part!!

This is a Florida-wide and perhaps a nationwide problem. School districts are growing so rapidly that kids go to class in temporary trailers, and school construction funds are running out. Teachers are paying out of their own pockets to provide their classrooms with needed material. Lee County saved on a little infrastructure cost but remodeling an empty K-Mart box store for an elementary school in San Carlos Park.

MAYBE THE GROWTH WAS DUE TO ILLEGALS BEING THE SCHOOLS.

THANK GOD WE IN THE UNITED STATES DO NOT NEED TO BUILT ANYMORE SCHOOLS

AND HIRE TEACHER HOMEGROWN IN AMERICA, PLEASE

"We came here to work, but we can’t, because there’s no money (here), and we need papers to work," Santana said. "...They say that there’s more money here, and there is a little more, but not that much."

Now you're catching on.

GOOD, IT IS ABOUT TIME

WE CAN ALWAYS INVITE IMMIGRANTS IN OR HAVE A LOTTERY PER STATE

Recent reports show increases in Houston. Anglos are now officially a minority. We need a special interest group and lobbyists to protect our minority.

We can call it La Blanco Raza, the white race. Or the NAACP. Needy Anglo American City People. Or maybe LULAC, Last United Legal American Citizens.

Any other ideas?

I keep hoping for a report from Houston or Montgomery County about enrollment of Hispanics going down.......

Originally Posted by Texan123

Recent reports show increases in Houston. Anglos are now officially a minority. We need a special interest group and lobbyists to protect our minority.

We can call it La Blanco Raza, the white race. Or the NAACP. Needy Anglo American City People. Or maybe LULAC, Last United Legal American Citizens.

Any other ideas?

I keep hoping for a report from Houston or Montgomery County about enrollment of Hispanics going down.......

ROFLMBO

This is a Florida-wide and perhaps a nationwide problem. School districts are growing so rapidly that kids go to class in temporary trailers, and school construction funds are running out. Teachers are paying out of their own pockets to provide their classrooms with needed material. Lee County saved on a little infrastructure cost but remodeling an empty K-Mart box store for an elementary school in San Carlos Park.

My kids were in trailers practically their whole education. My kids never had a locker till my oldest was a Senior. I've had a number of teachers say a huge amount of their pay was spent on basic supplies for all the "poor" students. As a parent, my list of school supplies was like 21 folders, 20 packets of papers, etc. Not for what my kid used.....but to "share". Not once a year, but every semister. Cleaning supplies, tissue, toliet paper, hand sanitizer...... there wasn't an assignment or event that didn't cost me. Right down to 40 bucks for a field trip......things we had as part of our education when I was young. I was always getting requests for donations, a classroom "wish list"....then God forbid they found out where you worked, because they creamed you with pressure for donations from your place of business. Constant drives for something......expecting parents to do it, but they were working and 99 9/10th of the jobs would fire you if you did it at work. It was a constant gimmie everywhere you turned.

I forgot the biggie for me.......our school didn't have a daytime janitor. The last 45 min. of school was spent having the kids sanitize their desks, clean the restrooms and vacume because the classrooms were cleaned one a week. Needless to say.....lice was a constant issue in carpeted rooms.