Thread: Texas: Fear keeps immigrants from work

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your ... rID=160594

Fear keeps immigrants from work
4/25/2006 10:57 PM
By: Allie Rasmus

Jorge Garcia left his construction job early Monday and didn't go back the next morning.

Instead he spent the day at home. Just about everyone he knows, did the same, the undocumented immigrant said.

"Many people didn't go to work ... We're afraid to go to H-E-B to buy food," Garcia said.

The mood in his community is one of fear and uncertainty, he said. It's been that way since last week when people first started to talk about possible immigration raids in Central Texas.

Garcia said his supervisor at the construction site told him immigration agents were in town and that he should leave work early.

"I know many people who stayed home for fear," Garcia said.

Nonprofit groups such as PODER and the Texas Civil Rights Projects received dozens of calls from immigrants living in Austin all describing a similar story.

"It has sent a wave of terror through the community," Susana Almanza of PODER said. "That the raids were going on at the flea markets and grocery stores. They've all been eyewitness accounts as to these particular raids happening."

Some of those witnesses say one raid happened Sunday at a flea market.

"All of a sudden people just started running. It was like a stampede," Mahmood Wadiwalla, owner of El Gran Mercado said.

Wadiwalla never saw any immigration agents or vehicles on his property, he said.

"I got in my car and drove around and I didn't see anything. Problem is everybody's just so nervous about the situation that as soon as they hear something, they just get frantic," he said.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement division in Austin and San Antonio did not return calls to confirm whether the raids happened. We were unable to interview anyone who saw immigration agents at any of the alleged raids.

"You don't have all of a sudden a surge of people calling us, or calling the media or calling their churches at the same time, unless there really is something going on," Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project said.

Garcia hasn't had any encounters with immigration agents in Austin, he said. It's possible the fear in the community may not be based in fact, he said.

"Sometimes it just a false alarm," he said. But he's fearful enough to not take risks. "I'd prefer to miss a day of work than get sent back to Mexico."

There are many other, he says, that feel the same way too.

Ah, it's so sad, when people who break our laws are so afaid of going back home. What a useless pile of crap.

Garcia said his supervisor at the construction site told him immigration agents were in town and that he should leave work early.

Obviously, his supervisor knew he was an illegal alien. Why is it that reporters can find these people all day long, but the government can't?

Too bad I missed that! Hahahaha!

The best place to hide form INS Raid, is South of the Border. Quick, quick run that way. LOL

Dixie

Quote:
Instead he spent the day at home. Just about everyone he knows, did the same, the undocumented immigrant said.

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Its ILLEGAL, NOT UNDOCUMENTED. And all of you should be afraid because we are gonna find you. You can either go home on your own, or get deported.

And at what point do I start to feel sorry for these poor scared illegal workers,and their illegal hiring employers

They are afraid to go to work, but not so afraid to leave the country because they still think they have a chance to get amnesty.