Thread: IL-Sad end for Salvadoran immigrant in Chicago

Sad end for Salvadoran immigrant in Chicago
Here illegally, man worked to support family back home, but recent illness prevented him from working, and he was found hanged in his apartment

By Oscar Avila, Tribune reporter

He lived under another man's name.

He will be buried in another man's suit.

One of the few things Jose Armando Ramos ever truly owned was his role as provider for his wife and five children in El Salvador. When the immigrant began losing that, he fell into a dark, desperate place, friends and relatives said.

Ramos, 45, was found hanged in his South Chicago apartment two weeks ago. With no known family in the U.S. and with his Salvadoran relatives living in poverty, Ramos rests in a funeral home as the final funds are raised to send him home.

An illegal immigrant, Ramos could serve as a case study for both sides of the debate over how to fix America's immigration system. But at its heart, his tale is a solitary one, of a man alone trying to do right by his family.

As a hard rain fell Tuesday night, Arturo Gonzalez entered the Del Angel funeral home on South Kedzie Avenue.

A co-worker at the Rupari Food Services meat processing plant in South Holland, Gonzalez was shocked to learn that he was the first visitor, two hours into Ramos' wake.

"He had no family?" Gonzalez asked, as he shook the raindrops off of his cowboy hat.

Departing after a quick moment at Ramos' open casket, Gonzalez said, "Sometimes, the world closes in on you."

Ramos' widow, Maria Elba Hernandez de Ramos, fills in the blanks. Her husband came to Chicago nine years ago to support his family. For a while, his jobs at factories and a carwash allowed his family to save enough money even to send their oldest daughter to study accounting in college.

A few months ago, Ramos began complaining of severe headaches and tingling in his arms. He spent a week in the hospital, according to his landlady. When he died, she found medical bills in the thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, the illness kept him from going into work regularly. The money stopped flowing home, his wife said.

"I told him to come back," his wife said by telephone from El Salvador. "He said that he needed to keep working — for the family.

"He said he was in pain, he said to pray for him. I told him, 'Relax. Relax.' I wanted him to lose that desperation."

The last time they spoke, less than a week before his death on May 30, Ramos was barely understandable because he was crying.

His landlady, Lucia Sanchez, also found him increasingly stressed. He asked her: "What am I going to do with all this debt?"

Patricia Maza-Pittsford, El Salvador's consul general in Chicago, said local authorities have told her that they are considering Ramos' death a suicide. "With the evidence, I have no doubt," she said.

A Cook County medical examiner's office spokeswoman said a final ruling will come after toxicology tests.

Sanchez can't reconcile that fate with the once-cheerful man she considered a son, who helped her shovel snow and offered a shoulder to cry on as she herself coped with a husband battling cancer.

Ramos, who lost his mother as a young boy, called her Mama.

Ramos had no known relatives in the Chicago area. His co-workers didn't know his real name because he was using the ID of someone named Jesus Tovar. The sign at the funeral home put "Jesus Tovar" next to Ramos' name.

Those who favor tighter immigration enforcement say a tragedy like this one shows that employers should not rely on illegal immigrants, who often resort to identity theft. Others argue that legalizing illegal immigrants would give them access to health care and better wages, allowing them to truly benefit from their hard work.

The Salvadoran government has solicited a few donations from citizens here and has agreed to transport Ramos from the airport in San Salvador to his hometown about an hour away. Friends are still trying to raise the final amount before a scheduled flight in the next few days.

"We're the only ones who could take care of him so they didn't throw him in the trash," Sanchez said.

The suit in Ramos' closet was so tattered and stained that a funeral home employee donated a relative's suit. The man who came to this country with nearly nothing leaves nearly nothing behind, not even an explanation as to exactly why his life ended.

"Only God," friend Maria Gonzalez said, "knows his secrets."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...,1201488.story

Just as with any suicide it is not us the survivors fault.

One of the few things Jose Armando Ramos ever truly owned was his role as provider for his wife and five children in El Salvador.

I thought we separated families with our cruel and racist immigration policies?

Tragic indeed...However, using sob stories like this to push political agendas of open borders/amnesty, marxism/communism etc that hurts Americans and their families is just the most disgusting of tactics...

He had no intention of paying those "thousands of dollars in medical bills", they were in someone else's name.

This is a perfect example of how our porous borders affect even illegal immigrants. The newer arrivals are younger, more desperate and will work longer and even cheaper. They used this guy up at 45 years old, and threw him out, newer slave labor is better and even less expensive. China does the same thing. We are no better than Communist China.

I feel sorry for the guy whose ID he stole. He is about to face a whole world of hurt.

I am so sick and tired of the poverty whine. If one is that poor, he has no business having 5 kids! Coming here and stealing someone's ID to provide for more mouths to feed is irresponsible and criminal.

People die. It is a known fact. This man was ill and in pain. Sadly, many people in similar situations think suicide is the only way out.
Even citizens in America die from lack of proper medical care. How many citizens forego treatment due to high cost?
Our honorable veterans get dismal medical care.
The whole truth is never revealed in these stories. I am betting this guy was told he needed treatment that the hospital could not afford to cover. He would have to come up with the money, or no treatment. Happens all the time, citizens are not given special consideration.
There are thousands of Americans who are referred for expensive tests and MRI's that have no insurance. The hospital tells us to bring cash or credit card or do not bother us. Facts are facts.

Originally Posted by GaPatriot

He had no intention of paying those "thousands of dollars in medical bills", they were in someone else's name.

I feel sorry for the guy whose ID he stole. He is about to face a whole world of hurt.

A world of hurt and thousands of dollars in medical bills. It will take Jesus Tovar hour upon hour to correct his credit file.

Ramos' widow, Maria Elba Hernandez de Ramos, fills in the blanks. Her husband came to Chicago nine years ago to support his family. For a while, his jobs at factories and a carwash allowed his family to save enough money even to send their oldest daughter to study accounting in college.

He supported a wife and 5 kids in El Salvador, even putting one kid through college. He lived in a South Chicago apartment of his own. He was able to do all this by working a factory job and at a carwash?

Something doesn't add up here.

Here is the sad ending of an American worker who was replaced by a visa worker and forced to train his replacement. There are links at the source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Flanagan

Kevin Flanagan was a computer programmer who worked for The Bank of America in Concord, California, USA.

Flanagan shot himself to death in the parking lot of Bank of America's Concord Technology Center after he and colleagues were laid off in April 2003. Need citation The lay-offs were due to the company replacing many computer-related citizen-employees with less expensive non-immigrant-alien guest-workers having temporary work visas. This change included informing the laid-off citizen-employees that the remainder of their tenure was to be spent training their non-immigrant replacements. The laid-off employees were also informed that failure to comply with the requirement to train their replacements and also keep quiet about the transition would result in immediate dismissal, loss of severance pay, and other sanctions.

Many opponents of heavy free trade view this incident as a key event marking the transition of blue-collar globalization-related job loss to white-collar losses. The Concord bank office has been the site of multiple protests.

[edit] See also
Free Trade Debate
[edit] External links
Photos of Labor Day 2003 Kevin Flanagan Protest at the Bank of America site in Concord, California
FOX News story
Office Politics in New Republic Magazine
S.F. Gate newspaper article
Taboo - Information Week
Times of India story
The Kevin Flanagan Case, By : Ellen Lee - Contra Costa Times
The Kevin Flanagan Case, By : Kevin F. Flanagan - NorthConway.com