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Article Last Updated: 05/01/2006 03:18:39 AM PDT

Neighborhood struggles with illegal immigration
Fremont residents divided over whether influx is good or bad
By Jonathan Jones, STAFF WRITER


FREMONT — Next to a vacant lot at the corner of Central Avenue and Dusterberry Way in Centerville is Mi Terre Market. The store sells fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, and products from Latin America, or as the sign in the window says: "Fruta y verdura fresco, carniceria, completa productors de Mexico y Latinos."
Sometimes Arab, Asian, African and white Americans come into the shop. But mostly the clientele is Latino men and women who do not speak English and who live in overcrowded one- or two-bedroom apartments across the street, store clerk Rosa Ruiz said.

"Everyone who comes into this store is an immigrant," Ruiz said. "The guy who brings our produce, I assume, is Mexican. The guy who brings our meat is Asian. The guy who brings the soda is Latino. I have yet to see any products brought by a Caucasian. Everything is brought by immigrants."

None of this bothers Ruiz, who is 18. Her mother, a native of Jaslisco, Mexico, snuck into the United States when she was 14.

She worked as a cook and a janitor and eventually became a citizen. Her father also crossed the desert as a teenager, she said, but he doesn't talk about it.

"My family used to live in a one-bedroom apartment in Sunnyvale," said Ruiz, who since has moved to a bigger apartment in Newark. "It was my parents, five children and a babysitter all living there. ... My mother wanted to go back to Mexico, but my sister became sick and needed a blood transfusion, so we stayed here."

Throughout the Bay Area, the face of immigration, especially illegal immigration, can be seen in people washing and waxing cars, cleaning hotel rooms, building big-box retail stores, and clearing tables and cooking in the back kitchens of major chain restaurants.

But on the eve of today's student boycott and work stoppage organized by immigrant rights activists, in the heart of one of the Latino neighborhoods in Fremont that have become havens for illegal immigrants, the community remains divided over whether an influx of immigrants has helped or hurt this country.

Dave Kay, a 39-year-old auto mechanic, grew up in Fremont. Now he feels like a stranger in his own neighborhood. When he applied for a job at a local fast-food restaurant, he was turned down "because I wasn't a certain ethnicity."

But what bothers Kay is not only that immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens, but that the large number of illegal immigrants has created little incentive for them to assimilate.

"The schoolteachers are speaking in Spanish," Kay said. "Now, wait a minute — this is America, where we speak English."

In a house across from the odd shopping cart and a strip of apartment complexes, Christine Falcon watches from her porch as, two or three times a day, immigrants from the Middle East, Latin America or Asia come to pick lemons from a tree on her front lawn.

Falcon, a Fremont native who has lived on Central Avenue for six years, describes her current neighborhood as "Grand Central" for immigrants.

Through the years, she learned a little bit about her Latino neighbors. Falcon and her husband, who is Hispanic, used to tutor children across the street. A couple of years ago, she hired a couple of illegal immigrants to clean her house .

Sometimes the police come by to warn about a possible flare-up of violence between the gangs of Norteos and Sureos, she said. But Falcon said she feels safe here. "They're not looking to fight me," she said. "They're looking to fight each other."

Some property owners complain that the city has failed to crack down on apartments overcrowded with illegal immigrants, which they contend have led to an increase in gang crime.

Police Chief Craig Steckler said the Police Department is not aware of any problems regarding overcrowding.

While he said the city has had problems with crime "in and around Central Avenue and along Thornton Avenue," he does not believe there is a direct connection between illegal immigration and gang activities.

"Gang membership runs the gamut," Steckler said. "People who say (there is a connection) are stereotyping."

One landlord, who asked that his name not be used because he did not want to cause any trouble with city officials or gang members, said some of the landlords turn a blind eye to overcrowding because they can charge more for rent.

Gloria Lando, a specialist for the nonprofit agency Fremont Fair Housing and Landlord-Tenant Services, confirmed his contention.

Her agency has received calls regarding at least one of the apartment complexes along Central, she said. But legally, there's little the agency can do , unless the landlord discriminates according to race, religion, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, she said.

In other words, it's all right to be slumlord as long as you're an equal-opportunity slumlord, she said.

Down the road at Centerville Presbyterian, Janice Silberhorn shelves books at the church library. As a member of the church for more than 40 years, she has seen the neighborhood gradually change with the arrival of new immigrants.

"They just want an opportunity to make money, and Vicente Fox isn't going to help them," Silberhorn said. "As long as people need cheap labor, they're going to come."

Besides, Silberhorn added: "I'm not as much concerned about immigration as I am about CEOs earning gross amounts of money."

Jonathan Jones covers ethnic, religious and cultural issues. He can be reached at (510) 353-7005, or jjones@angnewspapers.com.