Thread: RUMORS WORRY IMMIGRANTS

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/monte ... 738761.htm

Posted on Tue, Feb. 20, 2007



RUMORS WORRY IMMIGRANTS
No evidence of federal roundups in area
By CLAUDIA MELƒNDEZ SALINAS
Herald Salinas Bureau

When federal enforcement officials begin rounding up undocumented immigrants anywhere in the United States, local folks begin to fret.

The fretting has begun.

Although murmurs of possible raids have begun to fly through the rumor mill, there is no evidence that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted operations in Monterey County or anywhere in the Central Coast.

Still, on hearing reports that immigration officials are combing the subway and other public spaces in Los Angeles, people up north are beginning to worry.

"People are very scared," said Silvia Huerta, a longtime Salinas activist. "My niece called me to tell me she can't sleep she's so nervous. That hasn't happened here, but we listen to the radio and we hear what's goes on."

On Friday, listeners to Salinas-based Radio Tigre were calling in during the noon show to say they were spotting immigration officials. Radio Tigre DJs said they were going to send somebody to verify reports, and were warning listeners to be on the lookout.

Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman, said there are three fugitive operation teams assigned to Northern California and one in Bakersfield. Their focus, she said, was locating and arresting immigrants with deportation orders who have disappeared.

She wasn't aware of a team conducting operations in the Central Coast.

Reports about sightings of immigration officials, called "la migra," quickly become ubiquitous regardless of their veracity.

"The preoccupation exists because (local residents) are in communication with people in other states," said Jose Ibarra, a community organizer in East Salinas, home to a large concentration of immigrants. "Some people who went to other states came back because they saw the raids. I think the concerns are becoming national, because this didn't used to happen and now it's taking place."

Agency officials have rounded up 14,000 immigrants since last May in an operation they dub "Return to Sender." They're focusing on immigrants who have ignored a judge's deportation order or are accused of committing other crimes, but people who don't fall into either category also are being arrested.

"In Watsonville, they took families and some children were left without parents," Ibarra said. "When people realize what's going on, they begin to worry because they don't know what the future will hold."

They have reason to worry: Nationwide, there are 52 "fugitive operations teams" deployed nationwide, Kice said, and 23 more are expected to become operational by year's end.

The immigration crackdown has resulted in a labor shortage, particularly in the agricultural industry, and that local growers are also worried.

"This has been an ongoing concern," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau. "Employers are worried. As we tighten up border controls and conduct enforcement actions without having a guest worker plan and effective immigration program in place, it's making labor force that much tighter and it's tough on everybody. It's not anything new."

On a national level, even while immigration reform advocates worry that last year's pro-immigrant reform marches prompted the crackdown, they're beginning to call for renewed public actions. Some cities have already seen pro-immigration marches this year, and others are being planned for May 1 or even earlier.

"We are watching the agenda in Congress," Ibarra said. "Seeing what's happening at a national level, the massive deportations and all, I don't think we're going to wait until May."

Pro-illegal marchs by illegals. Seems like ICE needs to attend these marchs and check IDs. If someone doesn't have ID which shows that they are legal, give them 10 days or else off to a deportation center. No appeals, just proof of legal status or deportion.

This is the last thing Illegal Immigrants have to worry about. Let alone Legal Immigrants. Bush has made it painfully clear that he wants a Mass exodus from Mexico into the United States. Hell, we are now giving them Credit without ID.

The immigration crackdown has resulted in a labor shortage, particularly in the agricultural industry, and that local growers are also worried.

"This has been an ongoing concern," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau. "Employers are worried. As we tighten up border controls and conduct enforcement actions without having a guest worker plan and effective immigration program in place, it's making labor force that much tighter and it's tough on everybody. It's not anything new."

Isn't that what immigration enforcement is SUPPOSED TO DO? Go after employers who violate the laws? Don't worry, Bob, there are plenty of "legal" workers still here who will come to help. It's up to you to find them and pay them decent wages.

For decades, California farmers thought they had it made because of the easy unending supply train of illegal immigrants straight from Mexico. Even when those workers left the fields after a few seasons to find other work, more migrants kept coming. It is one of the biggest leaks in the dam that brings these people to the U.S. and the one that should be the most carefully regulated.

Call me crazy but, I would not want to live in fear in a country I entered illegally, could not speak the language, sneeking around like a thief in the night all the while knowing that the majority of its citizens did not want me or my children there, yet demanding rights, services, acceptance and citizenship to be handed to me on a silver platter. Even if I dreaded going back home, I'd go back. I would dread the thought of being separated from my children and living in fear more. For the life of me I can't understand why these people will not go home and overthrow the regimes. Surely there are enough of them in comparison to the numbers in their respective governments.

So a little nervous are they? GOOD!!!!!

They should be, since they DO have something to feel anxious about, that's how it is when you are living outside the laws. IT'S CALLED GUILT (not that any of them would recognize the feelings of guilt)!

BE WORRIED ILLEGAL ALIENS!

danno111 Welcome to Alipac!!!!!

Dixie

GO HOME AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO BE AFRAID!!

WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK!!!WE HAPPEN TO LIKE OUR CULTURE!!AND OUR LANGUAGE!!

GO HOME AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO BE AFRAID!!

WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK!!!WE HAPPEN TO LIKE OUR CULTURE!!AND OUR LANGUAGE!!

They and their advocates have such big mouths here in the U.S., but they are meek as little mice in their home countries where they should be demonstrating and demanding reforms! I guess they do it here because they know they can get away with it.