Workshop spotlights immigrant issues
Lauren Hockenson
Issue date: 3/24/08

"The journey here is very difficult: sleeping on rocks and floors, experiencing extreme temperatures," Carlos, an illegal immigrant who went only by his first name for security reasons, told a group of Arlington Street Church parishioners and Centro Presente activists at an immigration workshop Saturday.

"And, when you get here, you realize the dream is not what you thought," he said.

Members of the Arlington Street Church and Centro Presente, a Cambridge organization that aides immigrants from Latin America, led a workshop designed to highlight problems immigrants face coming to America.

Group discussions and role-playing gave immigrants a forum to discuss their dreams of success in the United States. Some said they are disappointed with the conditions they face here, and said it was not what they had expected.

"We are portrayed as criminals by this country, but our only desire is to find work and help our families," Carlos said.

Centro Presente representative Elena Letona said her group hopes to gain a better understanding of the issues surrounding immigration through a "more experimental way."

Though the North American Free Trade Agreement allows employers to contract workers from almost anywhere in North America, it often catches immigrant workers in a trap, some workshop participants said. After coming to the United States, immigrant workers are forced to work in awful situations, they said.

Because many immigrants do not have legal documentation, those the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency deports receive little or no payment for their work and cannot return to the United States, participants said.

"We are here to put a face on this very human issue, something that is still full of problems," Letona said.

Belarmino Barrios, an immigrant from a small town in Guatemala, explained his recent trouble with immigration officials through Letona's translation.

He said he and 30 other Guatemalan workers were contracted as day laborers to work in New Hampshire in early March. Barrios said because all 30 workers were recovering from a disastrous hurricane in their small town and needed money, they agreed to cross the border into America to work in order to feed their families.
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He said after only one day of work, immigration officers raided their work site and demanded legal immigration papers.

"We had heard that we do have rights, like the right to remain silent, but under stress some gave their names and passports," Barrios said.

Immigration agents arrested eight workers, three of them minors, and set the bail at $5,000 per person. Barrios said he and a few others were able to get all but one out of jail with money raised by their community, but they still face serious debt as the bail of the last arrested worker was raised to $10,000 for an alleged repeat offense of illegal immigration.

Barrios said the group's next step was a hearing with an immigration judge. "Clearly, that means hiring an attorney, and we're still trying to pay the community back," he said.

Other Centro Presente members shared stories of their quests for employment, attempts to find medical care for their children and of reunions with loved ones living legally in the United States and said they still believe there is hope for a better life after immigration.

Centro Presente member Jasmine, from El Salvador, said she came to the United States to reunite with her husband and find treatment for her daughter's muscular disorder. She said she now faces deportation, yet she remains hopeful that staying in the United States is the best option for her family.

"We came here to work and be a part of this country, a part of this community, and to make this community a better place," Jasmine said.

http://tinyurl.com/39rwy7

THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "IMMIGRANTS" AND "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS".