Thread: IA: The buzz in town: Watch out for the 'migre'

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The buzz in town: Watch out for the 'migre'
By Tim Gallagher, Journal staff writer
May 18, 2008

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- Like lots of dads, Gilbert Torres occasionally loses track of his boys as they play outside their small rental home on Sioux City's west side.

Ask him where the family's immigration papers are located and he pulls out the pile immediately.

"This is the stack for me," says Torres, 41, leafing through several folders. "Here is my paper."

The certificate, which looks like a diploma, verifies Torres gained U.S. citizenship March 3, 2006. The process took him two decades and at least $3,000. It's worth it.

I see Torres days after federal immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and arrested 390 workers, most of them Hispanic. It is believed many laborers there obtained false birth certificates and social security cards to gain employment.

While they attempted to feed their families and achieve the "American Dream," they broke the law, potentially hurt law-abiding citizens and should be prosecuted.

"I came from California, where you buy a fake green card and a fake social security card," says Torres, a truck driver. "It's like a grocery store. You come to this place in San Jose, tell them you're a Mexican and they set you up with whatever you need."

Iowa, according to Torres, is stricter. Employers here check social security cards and birth certificates. Illegal workers in Iowa often trek to Minnesota to find the documents they need. They assume another's identity to slaughter livestock for a bit more than minimum wage.

It was reported that some workers in Postville toiled for less -- much less -- than minimum wage. Some dream.

"The only way you work in Iowa is to have another person's identity," he says. "If they do that and then drink and drive or break the law, it goes on that person's name. They burn out another person's name."

Torres is against amnesty. He believes a path to citizenship should take 12 years. His wife Maria, who serves homemade tamales on this picture-perfect Friday night, secured her green card three years ago and recently earned permanent-resident status, another step toward citizenship.

Maria has a pile of papers, too. She locates it in seconds amid the worksheets their sons tote home from school. Their oldest son, Arnold, was born in Mexico 13 years ago. Like Mom, he has a green card.

The other three boys; Sebastian, 8, Schyler, 6, and always-on-the-move Nicholas were born in the U.S., thus earning immediate citizenship.

Always on the move describes Gilbert Torres, who left Mexico for California when he was 17 in 1984. He sought paradise.

"That's what people in Mexico think America is," he says. "They all think there are great jobs and all this money. You can tell when a person has just come from Mexico because for the first few months they are smiling and saying 'Hi' to everyone they see."

They soon learn paradise can be damn tough.

"I didn't know anyone when I came. I was 17 and couldn't find a job," Torres says. "I finally started working as a dishwasher in a Denny's restaurant for $4.25 an hour. I worked from 7 at night until 7 in the morning."

His girlfriend, mother and siblings were back in Mexico. He visited when he could, but didn't stay as job opportunities didn't exist.

So he traveled back and forth, moving up the job ladder in California as his English improved. He became a cook, a waiter, then a bartender, then a husband, then a father. He brought his family to Sioux City seven years ago, following one of Maria's cousins who said the city offered cheaper housing and a more relaxed pace of life. They also believed it was a safer city for their boys.

Torres worked as a waiter at Tony Romas until it closed. He signed on at Tyson's for a month, leaving as the work was too demanding for his taste.

He became a citizen and learned the trucking trade. He worked Friday until 5 p.m. and came home to one of Maria's tamales, served with a cold drink on the porch. He sat on a chair covered by a towel and tried to keep track of little Nicholas.

Maria, who's English is limited, is anxious for a summer trip to Mexico. Now that she's a permanent resident of the U.S., she can travel without fear to see her father in Jalisco.

"She has not seen her father in 10 years," her husband says.

After a visit, they will return to their new country, the United States. If economic conditions were better in Mexico, they would have stayed. They are here for opportunities. And, says Gilbert Torres, they have paid their dues.

"You should take the steps and prove yourself in this country," says the trucker in the Iowa Hawkeyes T-shirt.

Otherwise, he adds, you are asking for trouble. You are asking to be caught. And you are victimizing someone else.

Will a raid happen in Sioux City?

Gilbert Torres arranges his citizenship documents and nods at the question.

People are talking about it, he says. "Be careful for the migre," he says is a common warning among Hispanics right now.

The migre?

"Watch out for immigration officials," he says. "That's what it means. The migre could be coming."

www.siouxcityjournal.com

The only way you work in Iowa is to have another person's identity," he says. "If they do that and then drink and drive or break the law, it goes on that person's name. They burn out another person's name."


says it all right there