Thread: San Diego: Immigrant rights advocates outline concerns durin

You're all going to love this article. By the comments being left after it the locals do too. Immigrants? As in legal or illegal? Maybe ICE needs to visit Leslie Farms!
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Immigrant rights advocates outline concerns during wildfires

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- Immigrant rights advocates raised numerous questions Thursday about how fairly Latinos, farmworkers and immigrants were treated by authorities and employers during the recent wildfires.

Civil rights groups, including the American Friends Service Committee, San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium and American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties alleged in two reports that:

- Illegal immigrants may have been afraid to leave their homes because U.S. Border Patrol agents were used to help evacuate some neighborhoods.

- Farmworkers were exposed to dangerous levels of smoke by employers who did not stop work during much of last week.

- Emergency shelters were poorly equipped to help people who did not speak English.

The reports also included several recommendations, such as to stop asking for ID from those seeking emergency shelter, food and water during a disaster; to deploy interpreters at evacuation sites; and to form a task force to develop policies to be followed during an emergency.

Although the wildfires have brought out the best in many people, advocates said at a news conference Thursday that some evacuees, particularly Latino immigrants, have faced discrimination.

"There is a real disconnect between who we say we are as a community, who we want to be and what we've actually done," said Andrea Guerrero, chairwoman of the consortium.

One of the reports was released by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker human rights organization. The other was released by the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, a coalition of 25 labor, religious and civil rights groups, in collaboration with a faith-based group called Justice Overcoming Boundaries of San Diego County and the ACLU.

Guerrero said her group was still receiving complaints Thursday from people who said they were denied access to food and water at the Local Assistance Center in Fallbrook.

Several officials said they were unaware of those complaints.

Nick Macchione, deputy director of the county's health and human services agency, said he was at the Fallbrook and Ramona assistance centers this week. He said the centers were initially overwhelmed by the number of people seeking help, but the county quickly mobilized its staff to provide the assistance.

"Anyone coming to the Local Assistance Center was able to get on line and get meals and water," he said. "I didn't hear any of those complaints."

County: Bilingual help was available

Mike Workman, a spokesman for the county, said there was an "abundance" of bilingual personnel at the emergency centers to help Spanish speakers.

One of the top concerns raised by immigrants' advocates was the use of Border Patrol agents to alert people about evacuation orders during the wildfires and to set roadblocks around areas that were evacuated.

Pedro Rios, of American Friends in San Diego, said the use of immigration agents put people in danger because some were afraid to leave their homes or seek help for fear of being deported.

Border Patrol officials have said their efforts during the wildfires were focused on helping people.

At least one family at the Rincon Indian Reservation told the North County Times that they had initially resisted evacuation orders because they had seen Border Patrol vehicles in the area.

Border Patrol spokesman Matthew Johnson said he was unaware of that problem.

"Any criminal should be afraid of law enforcement," Johnson said. "I would assume most people would be thankful that we were out there."

Immigrant rights advocates said they were also disturbed by the number of farmworkers they saw toiling in fields in the Rancho Penasquitos area last week when the air was thick with smoke from the fire.

"There were many circumstances in which farmworkers felt that they had an obligation to keep working under the very dangerous conditions, especially in the northern part of the county," Rios said. "We documented circumstances in which farmworkers were not provided information about evacuation zones, not provided information ... about the dangers of breathing the terrible quality of air that was in the area."

One of the employers named in the report was Leslie Farms, which grows tomatoes in the area.

Leslie Farms manager Peter Mackauf said the company stopped work Oct. 22, when the Witch Creek fire that started east of Ramona was spreading west. The company gave extended breaks and provided masks to its employees when they returned to work the next day, Mackauf said.

"I heard no complaints at all from the farmworkers," he said.


www.nctimes.com

Do these people do nothing more than complain and whine about how they're "mistreated" by Americans?

Why the HELL don't they go back to their own country and whine and complain to their own government? I'm so sick and tired of these people bemoaning their imagined mistreatment of their imagined rights in their imagined country.

Just go home and fight for your rights there and leave us alone!!!

They like to moan and groan here because there is scarcely any other country on earth that would tolerate such complaining for very long.

The American people have had it with these kinds who come here for all the benefits and then bring lawsuits because some "right" has been abridged. It's easy to see from the opinion polls and surveys what Americans really think, despite what these "immigrant rights" groups claim. Groups like the AFSC duck into the shadows in times of national trouble, relying on the American military to protect them, and then come out trying to tear down the society that has provided for their safety. What kind of gratitude is that?

Their moaning, groaning, griping and complaining is pretty d--- old! Why don't they go home if it's so rough here? Who needs them?

It is times like this that should make them think that maybe they should learn English if they are going to continue to disregard our laws. There are always going to be times that they won't have a translater. What do they expect from us. We have for years bent over backwards to make it easy for them to get by and in an instance when there is an emergency, they expect us to furnish translaters while we are trying to handle an emergency situation. I think they have some responibility in their not understanding this situation. All you wantt to do is complain about a situation and continue being a burden, go home where they understand your language.

I posted on other blather re the treatment of illegals at the evac. shelters at:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-87958-125.html

Originally Posted by agrneydgrl

It is times like this that should make them think that maybe they should learn English if they are going to continue to disregard our laws. There are always going to be times that they won't have a translater. What do they expect from us. We have for years bent over backwards to make it easy for them to get by and in an instance when there is an emergency, they expect us to furnish translaters while we are trying to handle an emergency situation. I think they have some responibility in their not understanding this situation. All you wantt to do is complain about a situation and continue being a burden, go home where they understand your language.

Border Patrol agents speak spanish so they did have translaters out there.

Illegal immigrants may have been afraid to leave their homes because U.S. Border Patrol agents were used to help evacuate some neighborhoods.

America is not their home! I am sick and tired ot them claiming that they are being persecuted in THEIR own communities. They don't have any rights to have a community in America. Are these people stupid, or are they just cunning liars?