Thread: American Blacks cheer in Mississippi as illegal aliens round

American Blacks cheer in Mississippi as illegal aliens rounded up
Posted by acorcoran on September 1, 2008

Refugee Resettlement Watch is mostly about reforming legal immigration, but the largest US illegal alien roundup in Mississippi recently caught our attention because the minors arrested were turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement here.

But as Judy wrote a few days ago, these immigrants are taking jobs Americans will do and the last place I would expect to read that is in the Los Angeles Times.

In an article “Immigrant raid divides Mississippi town,â€

Black workers cheer factory immigration raid
Miguel Bustillo,Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times

Monday, September 1, 2008

(09-01) 04:00 PDT Laurel, Miss. -- Fabiola Pena considered running away from her factory job when she realized she was being targeted in a federal immigration raid. She was deterred when she noticed the helicopters hovering overhead.

But helicopters were not what shocked Pena the most on her last, fateful day at Howard Industries, the largest employer in this small Southern city. It was the black co-workers who clapped and cheered as Pena and hundreds of other Latino immigrant laborers were arrested and hauled away.

"They said we took their jobs, but I was working from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.," said Pena, 21, a day after the raid last week that resulted in the arrest of 595 illegal immigration suspects. "I didn't see them working like us."

The raid at Howard Industries, an electronic transformer manufacturer, was the largest of its kind in many years, and it exposed some of the rawest emotions that fuel the illegal immigration debate.

It was also carried out during an odd period of political limbo: Polls suggest that for voters, immigration has been eclipsed by the sputtering economy, and neither of the two major presidential candidates has made much of the topic during the election season.

As the Bush administration winds down its tenure in Washington, it has made efforts to step up immigration enforcement, especially after Congress failed last year to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Since then, thousands of people have been arrested in raids at dozens of facilities, generating considerable controversy: Immigrant advocates have howled over the harsh treatment of suspects and the breakup of families, while anti-immigrant groups say the raids allow for the long-overdue enforcement of existing laws.

But the raids might not have much of a future after the swearing in of Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, both of whom have staked out moderate-to-liberal stances on immigration.

If the next president ends or curtails raids like the one at the Howard plant, it will not sit well with many residents of Laurel. It was welcomed by a number of native-born residents in this manufacturing hub of about 25,000 people that has been transformed in recent years by the influx of Latino workers.

"They need to go and do this in every little town," Tonya Jackson said.

Jackson, a 30-year-old African American, said that over the years she had applied numerous times for a job at the company, a locally owned transformer manufacturer that employs about 4,000 people. Jackson never received a callback. The raid, she said, was a welcome purge of illegal Latino laborers who had taken jobs they didn't deserve.

"We've been here all our lives," she said. "And it seems like they have just arrived and are getting the nice cars and the good homes."

The crackdown upended the new reality in Laurel. The old lumber town, about two hours northeast of New Orleans, boasts a few stately mansions and other remnants of a quaint Southern past. More recently, the city has been transformed by restaurants and grocery stores catering to Latino immigrants who came to work at the transformer factory and nearby chicken plants. The city's population in 2000 was about 18,000, according to census figures, but the Latino newcomers have helped raise that number by thousands.

Their arrival created some tension in town, with blacks and whites suspecting that illegal immigrants were taking the few available jobs and depressing wages.

Last week's raid, part of a two-year investigation of Howard Industries, was triggered by a complaint from a union member, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency conducting the probe.

Of the 595 people arrested, about 106 were released and outfitted with monitoring devices until their trial date. Among them was Pena, who was freed so that she could care for her 2-year-old daughter. A number of 17-year-old workers were put into the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The rest were taken to a prison in Jena, La., about four hours away.

Eight workers face criminal identity theft charges, but most were charged with noncriminal immigration violations and face possible deportation. Gonzalez said no managers were arrested in the raid. She noted, however, that the case remains open.

The raid, along with rumors of further enforcement actions, has sent a wave of fear through the Latino community. Some workers have skipped their shifts at the poultry plants. Mexican restaurants refused to open their doors, with one citing an unexplained plumbing problem in a sign to customers.

"There ain't a Mexican place open in this town," said Mark Childress, 49, as he went to a taqueria next to the supermarket, only to find it closed.

Childress, a Laurel native, said he was not upset by the Latino immigration wave, but others said they were glad to see it being rolled back. James Warren, 33, worked at the Howard plant for a few months in 2000. But he quit in frustration over the low wages and the fact that no one on his shift spoke English.

"It was long overdue," Warren said of the raid. "Everybody knew what was going on in there. There weren't a lot of white or black people left in there anymore; it was all Mexicans."
http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/articl ... 12M0AV.DTL

"They need to go and do this in every little town," Tonya Jackson said.

Jackson, a 30-year-old African American, said that over the years she had applied numerous times for a job at the company, a locally owned transformer manufacturer that employs about 4,000 people. Jackson never received a callback. The raid, she said, was a welcome purge of illegal Latino laborers who had taken jobs they didn't deserve.

"We've been here all our lives," she said. "And it seems like they have just arrived and are getting the nice cars and the good homes."

The crackdown upended the new reality in Laurel. The old lumber town, about two hours northeast of New Orleans, boasts a few stately mansions and other remnants of a quaint Southern past. More recently, the city has been transformed by restaurants and grocery stores catering to Latino immigrants who came to work at the transformer factory and nearby chicken plants. The city's population in 2000 was about 18,000, according to census figures, but the Latino newcomers have helped raise that number by thousands.

Their arrival created some tension in town, with blacks and whites suspecting that illegal immigrants were taking the few available jobs and depressing wages.


That says it all!

....noticeably absent from this discourse is Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, NOBAMA, and the NAACP...how come black leadership isn't all over this? Aren't they alll about helping people like Ms. Jackson fight against discrimination in the workplace ...such as was clearly going on at Howard Industries?

www.chooseblackamerica.org

Originally Posted by legalatina

....noticeably absent from this discourse is Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, NOBAMA, and the NAACP...how come black leadership isn't all over this? Aren't they alll about helping people like Ms. Jackson fight against discrimination in the workplace ...such as was clearly going on at Howard Industries?

www.chooseblackamerica.org

What black leadership? Al and Jesse have been irrelevant for more than 2 decades. They have enriched themselves through million dollar feeding tubes courtesy of the government trough. Not only do they remain employed by the government to keep the racially divisive tactics alive, the MSM is duplicitious in trotting them out as well.

Originally Posted by WhatMattersMost

Originally Posted by legalatina

....noticeably absent from this discourse is Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, NOBAMA, and the NAACP...how come black leadership isn't all over this? Aren't they alll about helping people like Ms. Jackson fight against discrimination in the workplace ...such as was clearly going on at Howard Industries?

www.chooseblackamerica.org

What black leadership? Al and Jesse have been irrelevant for more than 2 decades. They have enriched themselves through million dollar feeding tubes courtesy of the government trough. Not only do they remain employed by the government to keep the racially divisive tactics alive, the MSM is duplicitious in trotting them out as well.

Well said WMM!

But helicopters were not what shocked Pena the most on her last, fateful day at Howard Industries, the largest employer in this small Southern city. It was the black co-workers who clapped and cheered as Pena and hundreds of other Latino immigrant laborers were arrested and hauled away.
"They said we took their jobs, but I was working from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.," said Pena, 21, a day after the raid last week that resulted in the arrest of 595 illegal immigration suspects. "I didn't see them working like us." Uhh, you didn't see them working like you because you TOOK THE JOBS!! Americans jobs should be for AMERICANS, not illegal aliens!