Thread: NC: 287(g) causing illegal immigrants to leave county

287(g) causing illegal immigrants to leave county

August 30, 2008 - 9:17PM
Keren Rivas / Times-News

Though recent estimates suggest that the Hispanic population in the United States continues to rise, new immigration enforcement measures have many in Alamance County looking for a new home.

According to U.S. Census estimates released earlier this month, there were 15,823 Hispanics living in the county in 2007, 612 more than in 2006. Statewide, the Hispanic population went from 593,896 in 2006 to 638,444 in 2007.

However, in Alamance County, and one and half years since the 287(g) program gave local deputies the authority to enforce immigration laws, many Hispanics who don't have the proper documentation to be in the country legally are leaving.

Laura Leach, owner of Leach Realtor, a Burlington company that deals largely with Hispanic clients, said that in the past couple of months she's had one or two coming to her office every week wanting to put their homes for sale.

"They are panicking," she said.

She said that about 80 percent of people who are leaving for fear of being deported end up losing their homes. She said they do not make the necessary arrangements beforehand because they don't want to put their families or friends in jeopardy by making them responsible for the payments. Leach said this has forced banking institutions to change their guidelines to make it harder for illegal aliens to get a mortgage loan.

While home sales across the board have been slow due to the economy downturn, Leach said sales have dramatically dropped in the Hispanic community. In the past, she said, she'd close on seven deals a month. Now, she sells one house every three months.

Typically, Hispanic buyers make up 20 percent of all home sales.

Evaristo Lacerda, owner of Lacerda Realty Inc. in Burlington, has also seen a drastic decline in home sales among Hispanics. A year ago, he said, he used to sell six to eight houses a month. Since then, his sales have gone down to four, two and more recently to one a month. So far this month, he hasn't sold anything.

LACERDA SAID THAT IN THE 10 years he has been working in real estate with the Latino community in Alamance County, he has never seen such a drop. He too attributed this change to the 287(g) program.

"People are in a state of panic," he said, adding that many have decided to leave rather risk being stopped and face deportation. He tells people who come to him wanting to sell their properties to wait a little longer before making rush decisions.

Leach said she knows cases of people leaving because their driver's licenses are about to expire because they can no longer renew them. She said that even business owners have decided to pack up and leave the county.

Benigno is one of those people whose driver's license is about to expire. And though he's putting his Graham home up for sale, he is not ready to leave yet.

Benigno, who has been living in Alamance County for the past 12 years, bought his 2-bedroom house in 2000, when things in the county "were still quiet," he said. He will only be identified by his first name in this article.

Back then, he said if someone was stopped or even arrested for driving without a license, a ticket and a trip to the courthouse was all the person had to deal with. Now, things are not that simple. Benigno said he knows people who have lost it all after having been here for so long because they were deported as a result of driving without a license.

To reduce his chances of being deported, "I try not to leave the house too much," Benigno, 43, said in Spanish.

Benigno said he's selling his house so that in the event that he is deported, his family would not have to worry about how to pay for the house. He plans to save the money from the sale and move to an apartment. He said he has no intentions of going back to Mexico, his native land, at least not for now.

"It's a very drastic change," he said. Plus, at his age, he said, work would not be easy to find back home.

"I don't want to move, I'm used to this area," he said. Since all his children are here and his parents are dead, he doesn't have a place to go back to anymore.

"When you first come, you don't think much about that, about how you cling to, how you develop ties to this place," he said.

WHILE IT IS hard to quantify the impact immigration enforcement is having on the illegal population here and elsewhere, there is no doubt that it's curbing its growth.

A May report by the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that the illegal population in the United States has declined by 11 percent between August 2007 and May 2008, going from 12.5 million to 11.2 million during that time. The study suggested that immigration enforcement is partly responsible for this decline since the legal population continues to increase.

"The estimated decline of the illegal population is at least seven times larger than the number of illegal aliens removed by the government in the last 10 months, so most of the decline is due to illegal immigrants leaving the country on their own," the report concluded.

A 2007 national survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found that with the increase in enforcement measures and the increased national attention on the matter of illegal immigration, more than half of all Hispanic adults surveyed thought that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported.

Some of the survey participants said that immigration enforcement measures are making it difficult for illegal aliens to find a job or buy a house. They also said that now they are less likely to use government services or travel abroad than before.

Since January 2006, when the 287(g) program first started in the country, law enforcement officers participating in the program have identified more than 65,000 immigration violators, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Ivan Ortiz. In North Carolina, law enforcement officers trained through the program have identified 6,600 immigration violators during the same period.

In Alamance County, the sheriff's department's ICE unit has placed a total of 768 illegal aliens in removal proceedings from Feb. 19, 2007, when the 287(g) program was started, until Aug. 28.

From Oct. 1, 2007 to Aug. 4, the ICE field office in Atlanta, which oversees operations in Georgia, South and North Carolina, has deported 13,986 people. During the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 10,971 people were deported. The prior year, less than half, or 5,183 people, were deported through that field office.

ALAMANCE COUNTY Commissioner Tim Sutton, a staunch supporter of the 287(g) program and opponent of illegal immigration, sees the deterrent effect the implementation of the program is having as a bonus.

"I honestly believe that when we signed the agreement ... I don't think we realized the magnitude of what was going on, especially in the driving offenses," he said.

But, he said, "If every illegal alien in our county leaves as a result of tough enforcement, I have no problem with that." He added, "If they are leaving because they are scared of being here illegally, so be it. I don't have a single reservation about what we are doing."

He said it's "ludicrous" for people to think that police should not arrest drivers who don't have an identification, proper license or car insurance. "What do you expect us to do? ... Write a ticket and expect them to go to court?"

He continued, "A statistic that we don't know and can't put our hands on is the statistic of what (wrongdoings) we've prevented" with these arrests.

Sutton also said the argument that certain sections of the economy, such as the housing market, would collapse or suffer because of the exodus is not valid. He said the rental market cannot be financed by illegal immigration.

If anything, he said, now that the demand for homes is decreasing, "Maybe citizens in our community can rent them at a more reasonable price."

Sutton said that as long as the federal government allows the program to continue and the county has a sheriff and a board of commissioners that supports it, "We are going to keep doing it."

"I don't want us to get soft on this at all," he said, and added, "We did not put these people in this predicament. They did."

Benigno said that despite the atmosphere in the community, people still keep coming. "That's not going to change," he said.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/county ... eople.html

ILLEGALS NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET LOANS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE LOAN AGENCY HAS NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE. SO THEY CAN JUST WALK AWAY FROM THEIR LOAN AT ANY TIME. I DONT FEEL SORRY FOR THE LENDERS ON THIS.

Originally Posted by redpony353

ILLEGALS NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET LOANS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE LOAN AGENCY HAS NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE. SO THEY CAN JUST WALK AWAY FROM THEIR LOAN AT ANY TIME. I DONT FEEL SORRY FOR THE LENDERS ON THIS.

Yeah, guess who foots the bill for failed banks because of all this. Us, the U.S. taxpayer. Bailouts are funded directly by us. There are a lot of people here from other countries legally and illegally who think nothing of leaving the U.S. for good and leaving their credit card debt as well as other debts here, never to pay it back.

Americans are under invasion; North Carolina why have you permitted and are permitting this to happen to the CITIZENS of NORTH CAROLINA? Capitalism? State of NC has no control who employers hire; hogwash!

North Carolina really needs to crack down on the homebuilders and hold them accountable if their subs hire illegals. A huge number of illegals work construction in NC, pay little to no taxes, and are generally paid very well from what I've heard.

forced banking institutions to change their guidelines to make it harder for illegal aliens to get a mortgage loan.


DUH

Originally Posted by dep0rt

Originally Posted by redpony353

ILLEGALS NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET LOANS IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE LOAN AGENCY HAS NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE. SO THEY CAN JUST WALK AWAY FROM THEIR LOAN AT ANY TIME. I DONT FEEL SORRY FOR THE LENDERS ON THIS.

Yeah, guess who foots the bill for failed banks because of all this. Us, the U.S. taxpayer. Bailouts are funded directly by us. There are a lot of people here from other countries legally and illegally who think nothing of leaving the U.S. for good and leaving their credit card debt as well as other debts here, never to pay it back.

YEP WE ARE THE ONES WHO END UP PAYING THE PRICE. AND ITS TRUE THAT SOME LEGAL IMMIGRANTS LEAVE BEHIND THEIR BILLS. THIS IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO INCENTIVE TO PAY IT AS THEY CANT FOLLOW THEM TO THEIR COUNTRY....AND ALSO THERE IS NO RECORD OF THEIR DEFAULT IN THEIR COUNTRY. THEY JUST CAN LEAVE IT BEHIND LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED.

Benigno said that despite the atmosphere in the community, people still keep coming. "That's not going to change," he said.

Yes Benigno, it WILL change. If people can't come legally, they will NOT be welcomed. They are not wanted and will be deported. Illegal aliens put themselves in the position they are in, now it's time to pay the piper.

Benigno, who has been living in Alamance County for the past 12 years, bought his 2-bedroom house in 2000, when things in the county "were still quiet," he said. He will only be identified by his first name in this article.

Things were "quiet" before because Americans had NO idea just how pervasive illegal immigration was until the millions of illegal aliens marched DEMANDING we give them everything they wanted. Y'all woke up the sleeping giant and the giant is pissed!

Added to Home PAge
http://www.alipac.us/article3497.html

Let this be a lesson to these lily-livered politically correct banks and mortgage companies that have extended mortgages to illegal aliens over the years:

However, in Alamance County, and one and half years since the 287(g) program gave local deputies the authority to enforce immigration laws, many Hispanics who don't have the proper documentation to be in the country legally are leaving.

Laura Leach, owner of Leach Realtor, a Burlington company that deals largely with Hispanic clients, said that in the past couple of months she's had one or two coming to her office every week wanting to put their homes for sale.

"They are panicking," she said.

She said that about 80 percent of people who are leaving for fear of being deported end up losing their homes. She said they do not make the necessary arrangements beforehand because they don't want to put their families or friends in jeopardy by making them responsible for the payments. Leach said this has forced banking institutions to change their guidelines to make it harder for illegal aliens to get a mortgage loan.