Thread: OH-Backlash in the heartland

Backlash in the heartland

Tougher enforcement turns up heat on illegal immigrants
Sunday, September 7, 2008 1:32 AM
By Jill Riepenhoff and Stephanie Czekalinski

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Doral Chenoweth III | DISPATCH
Maria, an immigrant from El Salvador, lives, drives and works in the shadows of Columbus. Last year, she entered the United States illegally.


Doral Chenoweth III | DISPATCH
Maria, who lives here illegally, works double shifts at a restaurant, earning $3.50 an hour before taxes.
Series: Day 1
Dispatch Special Report: Immigration crackdown
Introduction: Foreign fallout
Backlash in the heartland
The laws: Cracking down
Latinos flee Oklahoma; new law hits others, too
En español
The young woman climbed into a van with a man she had paid $6,500 to take her out of El Salvador and smuggle her into the United States.

Destination? Columbus, where her brothers settled a few years ago to work.

Maria's journey began just after immigration reform imploded in Congress.

She crossed undetected in July 2007 and quickly learned that her new way of life is full of contradictions.

She and others working here illegally can pay into Social Security but can't collect benefits if they are disabled, retire or die.

They can collect workers' compensation benefits if they are injured on the job but can't legally work.

They can play the lottery but can't collect jackpots.

They can open a bank account but can't take out a home mortgage without valid identification.

They can buy a car and register it but can't have a driver's license.

"I knew it would be that way before I came," Maria said. "But one comes with the hope that she can find a way to enter the world of opportunities."

After a year in Columbus, the 25-year-old immigrant has yet to settle comfortably. She knows little English, has no savings and isn't sure whom to trust if she's in trouble.

"There are some things that you don't even ask, because you're afraid," she said.

Maria asked The Dispatch not to use her full name or identify her employer for fear of retribution. Like other Latinos living in Ohio illegally - as many as 145,000 - she worries that any encounter with a stranger could lead to deportation.

Consider what has happened in the past year:

The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has increased the number of agents in Ohio from eight to more than 40.

Across the country, more than 60 local law-enforcement agencies, including the Butler County sheriff's office north of Cincinnati, have received special training from ICE to enforce federal immigration laws. Before 2007, only eight agencies were certified.

Someone anonymously called the television show America's Most Wanted and claimed that a notorious Latino criminal lived in a South Side house. The tip led to a raid and deportations. None of the Latinos were on a most-wanted list. Police suspect a neighbor pulled the stunt.

Federal agents deported Maria's brother this year after he was picked up for driving drunk in central Ohio.

Advocates for stricter enforcement applaud the new climate.

"They've had their way for so long. Now there's some growing opposition," said Steve Salvi, a northeastern Ohio paralegal who runs a Web site on the ills of illegal immigration. "They need to respect our laws."

Advocates for immigrants' rights, however, aren't clapping.

"This encourages racial profiling," said Virginia Martinez, attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It's part of that 'Let's get ''em' attitude. Many of the people here don't have a criminal record. They're here without papers, and that's it."

Immigrants find themselves in the political crosshairs in a new fight over their presence - this time, involving proposed state laws.

One Ohio bill calls for making English the official state language. Another seeks to give local police power to investigate immigration violations.

The most far-reaching bill, sponsored by state Rep. Courtney E. Combs, calls for all people - including U.S. citizens - looking for a job, rental house, college education or routine medical checkup to prove they live here legally.

Among other things, the bill seeks to penalize employers who hire illegal workers, bar poor teenagers without visas from tax-funded benefits such as routine medical care, and jail people who house or transport immigrants living here illegally.

Gov. Ted Strickland, a former U.S. representative, worries about the consequences of a patchwork of state laws aimed at driving away immigrants.

"This is an issue that cries out for a federal solution so there can be consistency," Strickland said. "We can't have 50 different sets of laws."

To date, lawmakers have paid little attention to Combs' bill, but last spring, other immigration bills suddenly were put on the path to law.

"This focus is misdirected," said Ezra C. Escudero, executive director of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, a state office that advises the legislature and governor on issues affecting the Latino community. "Ohio faces too many other challenges. Why do we want to scare so many people away?"

Combs disagrees. "We need to recognize illegal immigration is a problem. The longer it goes, the worse it gets. We're just getting overrun," the Butler County Republican said.

The fates of Combs, Escudero and the immigrant, Maria, now are intertwined in the larger political battle, which could affect daily life for all Ohioans.


State Rep. Courtney E. Combs, right, meets with one of his constituents, Gene Jacoby, in the Butler County Government Services Center in Hamilton.


Ezra C. Escudero, executive director of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, talks with a colleague as legislators debate a proposed law that would make English the official language in Ohio. The debate is likely to continue this fall.


Longtime friends, Combs and Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones visited the Arizona-Mexico border last fall.
The lawmaker

On a summer day, two years before Maria came to Columbus, a 9-year-old girl was kidnapped off the streets of Hamilton in southwestern Ohio and raped.

The police suspected a Latino living in the country illegally.

That unsolved crime in Combs' hometown motivated him to put the squeeze on those who break immigration law.

"Do I think it's the state's job to do this? No. It's the federal government's job," he said. "But they aren't doing it."

Combs, 63, a real-estate broker and father of five, lives where the debate over immigration is fierce. Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones has garnered national attention for his get-tough, get-lost approach toward violators. He and Combs have been friends for 20 years.

On last year's anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack by Arabs who entered the country with visas, Combs introduced a bill to crack down on immigrants without proper papers. The bill mirrored one passed in Oklahoma months earlier.

"I'm not for throwing every illegal alien out of Ohio. But what we're doing right now is not good," Combs said. "How many are there? We don't even know."

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that a third to half of Ohio's 284,000 Latinos live here illegally. While not all violators are Latino, the majority are.

Even less is known about who has committed violent crimes or has been living and working here peacefully without a valid visa.

For example, in Virginia, authorities discovered more than 170 illegal immigrants on its sex-offender registry this year.

In Ohio, federal authorities are identifying and deporting immigrants serving time in prisons for felonies and sweeping jails of those who broke lesser laws.

In Franklin County, law-enforcement officers sometimes struggle to confirm identities. Without a valid photo ID, officers don't know if the person is a criminal or just a bad driver.

"I want to know who they are, where they are and if they have a criminal background," Combs said. "It's been seven years since 9/11, and you can still smuggle into the country. I do not want to wake up to another tragedy and hear that they came through the (Mexican) border."

The adviser

Five years ago, as Maria was studying for a career in journalism in El Salvador, journalist Ezra Escudero was launching his new career here in state government as the voice on Latino issues.

The two never have met but now find their lives connected by immigration issues that seem to arise every presidential-election year.

"Stuff like the English-only bill, it's largely presidential politics. It's a wedge issue," said Escudero, a first-generation American who heads the Ohio Latino affairs commission.

But he views the current crop of get-tough proposals - especially Combs' bill - as "just evil."

Escudero, 34, now finds himself in an awkward position. As the commission's leader, he is expected to advise the governor and lawmakers of the pros and cons of bills affecting Latinos, not to advocate for them or rally against them.

But as one of only two high-ranking Latino officials in state government (Public Safety Director Henry Guzman is the other), Escudero struggles to remain neutral.

His parents emigrated legally from Mexico in 1968 and settled in Mansfield. Escudero moved to Columbus, graduated from Ohio State and published a bilingual newspaper for three years.

Polished and poised, Escudero rose quickly to a position of authority in state government. He is the most influential Latino in legislative circles.

He couches his comments about the crackdown bills with phrases such as "in my opinion" or "this is just me talking," but he can't help but inch away from that middle ground on Combs' bill.

"This isn't just about attacking a minority of a minority," he said. "It's about racist overtones."

Take, for example, the provision that would cut access to college for anyone living here illegally.

"Do we really want a bunch of high-school dropouts living in our country?" Escudero said. "What happened to the Judeo-Christian tradition that you don't hold the children accountable for the sins of their fathers? It wasn't the child's fault he was brought here."


The immigrant

From El Salvador, Maria slipped through Guatemala and into Mexico.

Her smuggler zigzagged across Mexico, evading or bribing the authorities who could send her home.

Maria and 200 other Latin Americans in her group walked across the hilly scrub land that separates Mexico and Arizona. She headed for Columbus.

She came with dreams to finish college and launch a career.

By most standards, Maria lived a comfortable life in Central America, in a middle-class neighborhood. She taught children with AIDS. She attended college. She worked as a loan officer.

But the credit crunch that sucker-punched the U.S. economy also hurt El Salvador. Her income from the bank virtually evaporated, as did prospects for future financial stability.

Maria decided that she would give herself six years in Ohio to make it.

"After that time, if my life isn't changed, and there isn't a chance things will change (politically), maybe I'll consider" leaving, she said.

For now, she works to erase the $2,000 debt she owes the smuggler.

She works double shifts at a restaurant earning $3.50 an hour plus tips before taxes are deducted. Customers unwittingly teach her bits of English as they talk among themselves.

She'd like to attend college but knows it's unlikely. Few schools allow someone without a Social Security number or a visa to enroll. Some charge tuition at international-student rates, which can be triple the amount for an Ohio resident.

Maria's life in Columbus is typical of those who steal over the border or stay after their government visas expire.

She's rarely at ease. She drives her brother's car with insurance but without a license. She doesn't travel far, though, because she's afraid of the police. She tries not to draw attention to herself.

"I've seen some people who look at you like you might not have papers, but what can you do?" Maria said.

Maria doesn't like flouting U.S. laws.

Twice, she applied for a tourist visa. Twice, the U.S. denied her entry.

"I try to do things the right way," she said. "But if you don't give people a way to do things without breaking the law, what do you expect them to do?"

A Quinnipiac University survey last fall found that 55 percent of Ohioans want the government to give people a chance to live and work legally if they've been in the country illegally for at least two years.

But 38 percent had another message: Go home.

jriepenhoff@dispatch.com

sczekalinski@dispatch.com



http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/lo ... ml?sid=101

Only Hispanics have a problem with English being the official language. I don't hear other immigrant groups being so vociferaeously against.

Por que, WHY?

"This encourages racial profiling," said Virginia Martinez, attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It's part of that 'Let's get ''em' attitude. Many of the people here don't have a criminal record. They're here without papers, and that's it."

No Ms. Martinez that's not all. The guy was stopped for driving drunk. They break other laws. "Racial Profiling" is a red herring. You know and WE KNOW IT.

Federal agents deported Maria's brother this year after he was picked up for driving drunk in central Ohio.

"What happened to the Judeo-Christian tradition that you don't hold the children accountable for the sins of their fathers? It wasn't the child's fault he was brought here."

Well.......just being white has made generations of white people pay for slavery when they nor their ancient family past ever had one. There's this hatred towards whites from the hispanics when no one has done anything to them. Like it or not, your actions effect other people and innocent people pay along the way, whether you ment to drag them in or not. The buck has to stop somewhere or no one would be responsible for anything.....and children are no exemption.

And another point:

On a summer day, two years before Maria came to Columbus, a 9-year-old girl was kidnapped off the streets of Hamilton in southwestern Ohio and raped.

The police suspected a Latino living in the country illegally.

That unsolved crime in Combs' hometown motivated him to put the squeeze on those who break immigration law.

"Do I think it's the state's job to do this? No. It's the federal government's job," he said. "But they aren't doing it."

That's right they aren't. Thus, the states and cities MUST DO SOMETHING to protect their citizen residents. The feds aren't going to come in an arrest anyone for rape, or DUI, or bank robbery, or driving with a license. Think it through folks, if they did, we'd live in a Gestapo country. We need our states and cities to be able to enforce laws, not matter what kind of law.

Originally Posted by crazybird

"What happened to the Judeo-Christian tradition that you don't hold the children accountable for the sins of their fathers? It wasn't the child's fault he was brought here."

Well.......just being white has made generations of white people pay for slavery when they nor their ancient family past ever had one. There's this hatred towards whites from the hispanics when no one has done anything to them. Like it or not, your actions effect other people and innocent people pay along the way, whether you ment to drag them in or not. The buck has to stop somewhere or no one would be responsible for anything.....and children are no exemption.

Excellent point crazybird.

"I try to do things the right way," she said. "But if you don't give people a way to do things without breaking the law, what do you expect them to do?"

Because sometimes the answer is simply NO.

Originally Posted by crazybird

"I try to do things the right way," she said. "But if you don't give people a way to do things without breaking the law, what do you expect them to do?"

Because sometimes the answer is simply NO.

So it's your way or any way? This is the problem we have with illegal immigrants. O morals, no character, just me, myself and I.

She crossed undetected in July 2007 and quickly learned that her new way of life is full of contradictions.

She and others working here illegally can pay into Social Security but can't collect benefits if they are disabled, retire or die.

Maria is an illegal immigrant, and she isnt allowed by law to work here. Unless Maria is REAL STUPID, she knows she is breaking the law. Besides, who's id is she using?

"I knew it would be that way before I came," Maria said. "But one comes with the hope that she can find a way to enter the world of opportunities."

Opportunities exist for LEGAL immigrants, NOT ILLEGAL ALIENS.

"This encourages racial profiling," said Virginia Martinez, attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It's part of that 'Let's get ''em' attitude. Many of the people here don't have a criminal record. They're here without papers, and that's it."

DUH, BEING HERE WITHOUT PAPERS MAKES THEM CRIMINAL.

"I try to do things the right way," she said. "But if you don't give people a way to do things without breaking the law, what do you expect them to do?"

WHAT?! In other words "we dont need no stinkin laws" because we wont follow them.

"I try to do things the right way," she said. "But if you don't give people a way to do things without breaking the law, what do you expect them to do?"

We expect you to follow our laws, they are there for a good reason, idiot.