Thread: Invaders lie low in Irving, Texas

Migrants lie low in Dallas suburb
Web Posted: 10/20/2007 10:08 PM CDT
Thomas Korosec
Express-News

IRVING — The bottom dropped out of Mike Granger's snack business almost immediately after the Mexican consul general in Dallas warned people to avoid this sprawling suburb.

"I'm picking up stales," Granger said recently as he plucked Bimbo snack cakes aimed at Hispanic customers from the shelves of a convenience store in the older, less affluent southern part of town. "My customers have disappeared."

Since late last month, undocumented immigrants have retreated into the shadows and Hispanic activists have organized protests over an Irving program that checks the immigration status of everyone arrested by city police.

From September 2006 through earlier this month, 1,638 people have been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation, according to city officials.

Opposition began building over the summer, when arrests reached about 300 a month, and boiled over last month after police arrested more than a dozen men who were barbecuing outside their apartment. They were jailed on misdemeanor public intoxication charges and turned over to federal custody when it was shown they were undocumented.

Hispanic leaders said they initially supported the city's 24/7 Criminal Alien Program as an alternative to other, more drastic approaches being advocated by anti-illegal immigration activists in the city.

"When they talked about deporting criminals, we didn't think they meant mothers taking their children to school," said the Rev. Ismael Castro, pastor of the House of God Church. "Nobody realized it was going to hurt a lot of innocent people."

Castro, a Salvadoran native who snuck into the United States with his family at age 12 and received amnesty in 1986, said fear has spread among Hispanics in Irving that they are being targeted for deportation by city police.

Eduardo Rea, spokesman for the Mexican consul general in Dallas, said Mexicans arrested in Irving and their families have complained that police have stopped people on the street and in vehicles to ask them about their immigration status. "We think that is racial profiling," Rea said. "If you're Anglo, you are not going to be asked for your immigration status."

He said Mexican Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea met with Irving officials in late July. "We had a meeting in which we told them about the complaints we were getting," he said. "In two months, nothing has happened, so we have issued a recommendation that people don't go to Irving."

Mayor Herbert Gears said complaints about profiling and allegations that Hispanics are being asked on the street for immigration papers are unfounded.

"There has been no change in our policing, no change in the number of arrests we're making, no change in the demographic makeup of people being arrested," Gears said. "What is changed is that ICE is inserting itself in the process at our request."

Police spokesman David Tull said the 1,638 people turned over to immigration authorities to date have had 3,901 charges filed against them. Four were for murder, 23 for sexual assault, 259 for driving while intoxicated and 1,067 for misdemeanor warrants, most of which involved unpaid traffic tickets. In 291 arrests, only a traffic offense was involved, he said.

If police cannot determine a person's identity when he or she is stopped for a traffic offense, that alone can trigger an arrest, Tull said. Police then ask ICE officials to determine legal status.

In the case of the barbecue arrests, Tull said police that weekend targeted 30 apartment complexes known for frequent police calls and various types of disorder. He said officers made the arrests for public intoxication because drunkenness can lead to more serious crimes such as domestic violence and assaults.

Joe Reyes, a worker at Nico's Discount Tires on Story Road, said word of the barbecue arrests spread quickly. The incident, he said, had as much impact as the consul's warning a week later.

"The cops are stopping everybody around here," Reyes said, motioning to a stretch of inexpensive restaurants, auto repair shops and beauty shops. "People who used to come here now go to Grand Prairie, anyplace else."

His boss, manager Rafael Romero, said Nico's business is down 50 percent.

A dusty corner across the street that once had been a gathering spot for Hispanic men looking for day labor is now deserted.

"If it weren't for Anglos, I'd have no customers at all," said Gloria Juarez, manager of La Mexicana Y El Gringo restaurant, which let one employee go when business dropped by about 40 percent over the past several weeks.

"It was hard paying the bills last week," she added. "Police are going up and down this street all the time, so people stay away."

It was the same story at El Ranchero Meat Market, where owner Carlos Urban said business is off by 30 percent. Urban said he can see the fear in his customers by the way they shop. "They hurry in, and rush through, like they don't want to be seen," he said.

Like neighboring Farmers Branch, Irving has been simmering over the past year with anti-illegal immigration sentiment and calls to take action. Farmers Branch, with overwhelming voter approval, passed an ordinance banning most undocumented immigrants from renting apartments but has been blocked from enforcing it by a federal judge in Dallas.

This year, Irving residents circulated a petition calling for the city to adopt the federal 287(g) program, which authorizes police to conduct immigration arrests and process deportation paperwork.

"They were calling us a sanctuary city," said Gears, the mayor. "People wanted to do all sorts of unconstitutional things. We even had people talking about shooting them as they came over the border."

Rather than enlist in 287(g), Gears said, the city has found it easier and cheaper to let ICE check the immigration status of prisoners in a telephone call, flag those without proper documentation and let federal agents pick up those detained.

At a meeting in June in which the Irving City Council affirmed Gears' approach, residents blamed undocumented immigrants for everything from high school taxes to the decline of older neighborhoods, white flight and a proliferation of dollar stores.

"Irving has changed a lot," said Bill Watson, a postal clerk who has lived in the city for 20 years. "I believe in live and let live, but illegal immigration is costing me money. I've been in two fender benders with them in the last couple of years, and both times, they had no insurance so I had to eat the expense."

Gears said he has heard from hundreds of residents who share Watson's sentiments. He said that only 15 of about 800 e-mails he has received on the matter have been critical.

"We aren't changing our program, and what would people have me change? You want me not to cooperate with the federal government? All we are doing is enforcing existing laws."
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 8f8a5.html

"When they talked about deporting criminals, we didn't think they meant mothers taking their children to school," said the Rev. Ismael Castro, pastor of the House of God Church. "Nobody realized it was going to hurt a lot of innocent people."

Excuse me? If there here illegally, THERE NOT INNOCENT PEOPLE!!!!!

Opposition began building over the summer, when arrests reached about 300 a month, and boiled over last month after police arrested more than a dozen men who were barbecuing outside their apartment. They were jailed on misdemeanor public intoxication charges and turned over to federal custody when it was shown they were undocumented.

The arrogance of these people! I mean, you have a dozen publically drunken men who are in this country illegally, and they expect our law enforcement to just ignore them?

How many laws do the illegals expect to break before we're allowed to step in and say, "Enough!". They expect us to look the other way at their illegal entry into our country, their ID theft of our citizens, their drunk driving, their child molesting, their drug smuggling, their gang banging, etc. etc.... and now they're whining that we can't arrest them for public drunkeness?

I have no pity for companies that cater to illegal aliens. They should not be in existence because they do not have legitimate customers. The grocer is an enabler and is facilitating illegal immigration.

Dixie

"I'm picking up stales," Granger said recently as he plucked Bimbo snack cakes aimed at Hispanic customers from the shelves of a convenience store in the older, less affluent southern part of town. "My customers have disappeared."

You newer folks won't remember this from last year. Grupo Bimbo makes baked goods, but spilled the "beans" on their website. The site claimed Bimbo was a "proud supplier of baked goods to the North American Union." After that news appeared on Alipac and blogs the website came down with all references to the NAU removed. The NAU was a "conspiracy" again.

How many laws do the illegals expect to break before we're allowed to step in and say, "Enough!".

They'll be "otherwise legal" until they must be paid something other than a slave wage. A law with felony punishment to require the pay of illegally present foreign nationals to be four times the minimum wage would make them less popular?

"Gears said he has heard from hundreds of residents who share Watson's sentiments. He said that only 15 of about 800 e-mails he has received on the matter have been critical. "

Lets send the mayor some Alipac e-mail support letters and double that number......

mayor@cityofirving.org.
mayor@cityofirving.org.

40 years ago I lived on the east coast, far away from the illegal invasion problem. It was bad then and people on the west coast were hysterical.

[quote]We even had people talking about shooting them as they came over the border."

I had those thoughts 40 years ago, so they're not new thoughts.
I think the Governments way of fixing the problem way back then was to give the invaders AMNESTY. And now they want to do it again. They must not have amnesty again.
People are getting hysterical again.
Mayor Gears is doing a terrific job.

Looks pretty simple to me...ENFORCEMENT WORKS!

Sent him an e-mail thanking him....we all need to do that....he is GREAT with a capital G