Thread: US immigrants worry as families face deportation

US immigrants worry as families face deportation

By Andrea Hopkins
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlein ... EATURE.XML

FAIRFIELD, Ohio, Aug 29 (Reuters) - When 300 U.S. immigration agents surrounded the chicken processing plant where Danny Alvarez-Reyes works, he did the only thing he could think of: he gave his coat to a scared friend determined to hide in the walk-in freezer.

Alvarez-Reyes, 27, works legally at the Koch Food plant near Cincinnati and could only watch as co-workers were rounded up during a raid on Tuesday that netted 160 illegal workers.

But after an exhausting day trying to help his friends' families, Alvarez-Reyes was still worried about the five co-workers he watched hide in the giant freezer.

"I don't know if they ever got out, that's all I want to know," he said, gathering with friends at a neighborhood taco restaurant to rehash the trauma of the day and trade rumors about who will be deported.

A day after one of the largest workplace immigration raids in Ohio, the Hispanic community in Cincinnati's suburbs was scrambling to track down missing family members and arrange care for children whose parents were caught up in the raid.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the raid was the culmination of a two-year investigation of Koch Foods, suspected of knowingly hiring undocumented workers. The company said it was cooperating.

"Koch Foods is committed to complying with all immigration laws, and we look forward to resolving this matter quickly," it said in a statement.

Illegal immigration is hotly debated in the United States, home to some 12 million illegal immigrants. A Zogby International poll in June found 46 percent of Americans believed illegal immigrants were a burden on the country, while 22 percent saw them as a benefit.

Still, only 37 percent viewed deportation as a solution, while about one in four said workers should be allowed to stay if they have jobs and pass background checks.

Last year, ICE agents deported 183,431 people amid stepped-up raids in workplaces and homes nationwide.

NO SYMPATHY

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, one of the country's most outspoken opponents of illegal immigration, has lobbied Washington to crack down on employers who hire illegal workers -- jobs he believes should go to Americans.

"I've been saying for two and a half years 'We're coming, ... don't hire illegals, don't violate the law,'" Jones said after the raid. "I personally have no sympathy for you whatsoever. None. Zero."

While rumors flew among Hispanics that some had been hurt or even frozen to death during the raid, ICE spokesman Greg Palmore said there were no significant injuries and that workers who hid in freezers had quickly been found.

A spokesman at Mercy Hospital in Fairfield said six people had been brought in with minor injuries including frostbite, and that all but one had been treated and released.

Palmore said everything possible had been done to ensure children would not be left unattended if parents had been arrested, and ICE officials said some workers may be released for humanitarian reasons if caregivers could not be found.

Still, many families said they'd been torn apart.

Guadalupe Santos, 40, said his eldest daughter, Rose Alba, 20, was swept up in the raid. He's been caring for her 6-month-old son, Christopher, ever since.

"We are frantic with worry," said Santos, who came to the United States almost seven years ago from Mexico City with his wife and three daughters. "We don't know where she's being held, or if we'll get access to her. We don't know if we should get a lawyer."

Santos, who is a cook at a Chili's restaurant, said fear had gripped the Hispanic community.

"Everyone saw the raid on television, there is widespread fear, and now nobody wants to go out onto the street."

Enrique Ventura, 20, is in a similar bind. He hasn't heard from his wife Angelica, 19, since she left for work at the Koch Food plant on Tuesday morning. The couple has a 4-month-old son.

"I stopped by her work to collect her and she wasn't there. Some people told me she'd been arrested by the immigration police and taken to the detention center," he said.

Ventura was considering returning to Guatemala.

"I am devastated," he said. "If she is back in Guatemala, then I would have to go too, as I have no one to help raise him. The baby needs his mother."

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix)

Alvarez-Reyes was still worried about the five co-workers he watched hide in the giant freezer.

How commendable... Hiding in freezers... And aiding and abetting criminal families that also should be deported too!!! Alvarez-Reyes should be striped of his work visa and deported too....

And...

'Immigrant' <> 'Illegal Alien'
Or, it could be denoted as: 'Immigrant' != 'Illegal Alien'

Still, many families said they'd been torn apart.

Which began as soon as they crossed over the border illegally!

Originally Posted by avenger

Still, many families said they'd been torn apart.

Which began as soon as they crossed over the border illegally!

No they are abandoning there families when they cross the border illegally! Were not tearing apart families, only enforcing the laws!!!