Thread: No sympathy for illegal immigrants among some in SouthCoast

No sympathy for illegal immigrants among some in SouthCoast
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PETER PEREIRA/The Standard-Times
By JOSEPH R. LaPlante
Standard-Times staff writer
March 14, 2007 6:01 AM

A wave of anger is swelling among SouthCoast residents and legal immigrants over the support for undocumented workers arrested by federal agents at a South End factory.

Citizens in the SouthCoast and beyond are flooding local talk radio programs and The Standard-Times to complain about the portrayal of the 361 mostly Central American workers as noble, despite their illegal entry into the city's work force.


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"People are angry," Mr. Rousseau said. "Ninety-five percent of the callers are angry. They want to know why no one is asking them, citizens and legal immigrants, about how someone legally can work 50 hours a week and still have trouble buying groceries for their family."

The anger bubbling to the surface of talk radio and the newspaper gushes out of a deep, unsettled pool of frustration and resentment fueled by the influx of new immigrants to this city of immigrants. The local vitriol varies little from that which is heard throughout the country about America's troubled and uneven administration of its immigration laws.

America's failed immigration policy runs a close second to Iraq on the spectrum of issues convulsing the nation. The question for Congress in the upcoming debate has two parts: How to handle the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States today and how to strengthen the nation's borders when a solution is found to the first problem.

President Bush addressed the issue of a broken immigration system during a visit to Guatemala yesterday during his Latin American trip.

"The hard issue ... (is) what to do with the people who've been in our country for more than a limited period of time. ... It's one that's got a lot of politics in the country," the president said. "The idea of giving someone automatic citizenship is just not acceptable. It's not acceptable to a lot of people in our country. ... How do you design a system that doesn't raise those fears?"


A SouthCoastToday.com poll yesterday showed an overwhelming number of 157 responses (55.4 percent) favored "Deport them immediately" when answering the question "What should be done with the people detained in the immigration raid last week?"

Other responses to the poll: "Allow them to settle their affairs" (27.4 percent); "Offer them amnesty" (14 percent); "Charge them criminally" (3.2 percent).


Callers to Mr. Rousseau's show and writers to The Standard-Times are fed up with the flood of news stories and photographs about the plight of the illegal immigrants arrested at Michael Bianco Inc.; accounts of the undocumented workers' perilous journeys from their poor and violence-torn countries to find better wages in America are finding little sympathy among this group of the area's residents; the front-page photos of children crying because mommy got hauled off in cuffs find no heart strings to tug among them.

Taking jobs from legal immigrants and American citizens is the major crime inflicted by undocumented workers, callers and e-mail writers are saying.

Mr. Rousseau said his callers were divided evenly between men and women, mostly in their 30s and early 40s.

"They want to know why no one is talking about what the 100 families whose main wage-earner at Revere Copper and Brass will do in six months when the business closes," Mr. Rousseau said about his callers. "A lot of people in this city would have gone after those jobs if they had known about them.


"The Portuguese people call and want to know why they had to wait to come here, and then work day in and day out to survive, struggle to get their green card, and do everything on their own with nothing handed to them, and yet these illegal immigrants are getting help.


"What about us? How come no one is talking about us? That's what they ask."

No one is listening because they don't have an organized group to put their message out, said Standard-Times Editor Bob Unger.

"The advocates for the illegal immigrants, the social services network, politicians and churches and other organizations hold press events and are highly visible," Mr. Unger said. "Whereas, the opportunity for the individual, and going household by household, you have people without some ability to hold a forum."

A leading accelerant for those angered by the numbers of illegal immigrants entering the country — estimated as high as 500,000 a year — is the controversial conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform. Its Web site lays out the case being argued locally:

"The costs of illegal immigration to the taxpayer are numerous, but the largest costs are education of their children, emergency medical care and incarceration for those arrested for crimes. Despite being ineligible, some illegal aliens also get welfare the same way they get jobs: with identity documents falsely identifying them as U.S. citizens. In addition, if they have U.S.-born children, they may collect welfare assistance in the name of those children. The annual net cost of illegal immigrants (after subtracting their tax payments) to the American taxpayer is likely to be more than $45 billion."

The importance of holding a job is paramount for many in this city, which leads the state in unemployment, so when their two U.S. senators and their congressman came to New Bedford over the weekend to Our Lady of Guadelupe Parish at St. James Church, siding with the illegal workers, a lot of people felt betrayed.


"The callers are upset that these guys took an oath of office to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and yet they are on the front page sitting in a church with criminals singing 'Kumbaya, my Lord!' and holding hands," Mr. Rousseau said. "The callers say they should have been arrested as illegal immigrants."


The Standard-Times has received numerous e-mails and comments to SouthCoastResponse.com from residents and readers across the country who applaud the federal raid and complain about a double legal standard afforded illegal immigrants.

"What is the sense of having immigration laws if this country is not going to enforce them?" asked Irene Thomas. "If I broke the law I would have to pay the price. ... They have taken over the work force in this country from the legal Americans and so on and on."

Some writers fear America is being lost because of sieve-like borders.

"The detention of these illegal aliens may only be the tip of the iceberg, but a start must be made somewhere for our country to regain control of its sovereignty," wrote Karl E. Wahl.

Lost in the coverage of the raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents is balanced reporting, said one e-mail writer named Michelle.

"It would be nice to have one article in the defense of our government," Michelle wrote. "My brother was one of the agents that investigated this case and he worked many long hours. Has there been any thank-you's going out to these agents? I don't think so. Our people are too busy worrying and caring for people that don't belong in our country."

While the tearful scenes and dramatic stories of sneaking into the United States are compelling, former New Bedford resident David W. Dextradeur of Fairborn, Ohio, wrote:

"The fact of the matter is that these folks are here in violation of the law and, therefore, their presence in the United States is contrary to the law of the land! So I am of the opinion that regardless of the circumstances and no matter how distasteful it is to deport them to their home countries, that it is right and proper and they've got to go home!"

Contact Joseph R. LaPlante at jlaplante@s-t.com


http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbc ... /703140339

supposely illegals came to help N.O. but still N.O. has not rebuilt and only has more crime, has overcrowded hospitals due to birth of anchor babies, and houses are not being rebuilt. What did illegals come for? Welfare from the US. No wonder the people are angry.

Thers no question that the majority of people want these people deported but the US gov dosnt care what the people say any more.

"The Portuguese people call and want to know why they had to wait to come here, and then work day in and day out to survive, struggle to get their green card, and do everything on their own with nothing handed to them, and yet these illegal immigrants are getting help.


"What about us? How come no one is talking about us? That's what they ask."

No one is listening because they don't have an organized group to put their message out, said Standard-Times Editor Bob Unger.

This is a story from a Mass newspaper telling the truth about how people
really feel about illegal immigrantion.
We need to inform the New Bedford Times readers thru letters to the paper and local radio call in shows.The New Bedford Standard Times
newgroup of papers has a large and widespread readership.

to add a little curve ball into the mix:

Portugal is inundated with ILLEGALS from Africa.
Being a socialist country, they give the ILLEGALS everything!!

Now the Portugese people are in a pickle. They're being drained as a nation with their REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH.

Immigration isn't being handled and the ILLEGALS keep pouring in from the southern tip of Portugal by little boats........zip zip, right onto the Portugese beaches.

Crime is up, overcrowding, a real mess has been created by ILLEGAL ALIENS.