Thread: WILLMAR, MINNESOTA : THE IMMIGRANT CONNECTION

Why Willmar? - Mike Tolbert




In your opinion, what makes the Willmar Lakes Area such a great place to live, work, play, learn and do business?

A diverse, creative, and motivated work force make the Willmar Lakes Area a great place to live, work, play, learn and do business. That's not to mention the endless recreational and entertainment opportunities, world-class medical facilities, and a first-rate educational system.

What does community leadership mean to you?

Underscore community ... a cooperative spirit permeates the Willmar Lakes Area. Working together, neighbors get things done. I know I can count on my peers in the community when they are needed.

Where do you see the Willmar Lakes Area in the next ten years?

The Willmar Lakes Area is the commercial, technical, and recreational center of West Central Minnesota. Over time, its' influence will grow and the populace will thrive.

http://www.willmar.com/mike-tolbert

Multicultural Market of Willmar


Welcome to WillmarMarket.com!

This site is a community blog for those interested in learning more about the Multicultural Market of Willmar. This project has been in the planning stage for several years and is now moving into the final stages of development, with a capital campaign scheduled to launch in late 2007 or early 2008.

So, what is the Multicultural Market?

Imagine a colorful, bustling market filled with the smells of freshly baked breads and hand-prepared foods. Imagine lively music, vibrant meeting spaces, and a variety of culturally-diverse shops offering everything from handmade jewelry, clothing, and art, to fresh meats and produce, coffee, tea, spices, and bakery items.

The Multicultural Market will be a place to take your family, entertain guests, schedule a business meeting, grab a quick bite to eat, pick up groceries, or just gather with friends. It will be the cultural and entertainment hub of downtown Willmar.

http://www.willmarmarket.com/about/

http://firstknown.com/

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I read somewhere in the ICE website that they don't need search warrants. They have the mandate to do so. I will try to find it again.

Multicultural market project is explained during the first of two ......
admin 2006-01-31 06:00

Both meetings, which were organized by Main Street Willmar, the Willmar Design Center, the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission and the EDC’s Willmar Area Multicultural Market Committee, were the first time the public has had an opportunity to hear about the project in detail.

Organizers envision a cross-cultural marketplace or bazaar-like mall where people can eat, shop, mingle and socialize.

For the business owners who decide to locate there, it could be far more — a training ground for launching a new business and a chance to gain entrepreneurial skills and become part of the Willmar business community.

The entire local economy stands to benefit when minority-owned businesses are encouraged and become successful, said Steve Renquist, executive director of the Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission.

“Those cities that are growing are taking advantage of and embracing opportunities,â€

Lourdez Schwab



Photograph by Anthony Brett Schreck


Lourdez Schwab knows what it’s like to be the daughter of protective Mexican immigrants, the only girl out of five children growing up in rural Minnesota. She often felt she couldn’t do what she wanted with her life. Seeking independence at 18, Schwab fled to Texas, got married, and had her first child.

Schwab’s early years motivate her to reach out to young Latinas and their families, who might be going through similar experiences. Housing has been her focus, including managing public housing and rental assistance programs for nonprofits and the city of Willmar. Schwab is a real estate agent who works closely with Latino families and facilitates first-time homebuyer workshops in English and Spanish. Previously Schwab led health and wellness programs for Latinas at the West Central Integration Collaborative.

Now Schwab serves as development coordinator for the Willmar area multicultural market, a public venue for the region’s diverse entrepreneurs. She consults with the entrepreneurs on their businesses—which include art, ethnic jewelry, food, and services—and she is working on opening an actual market building in downtown Willmar.

“When this opportunity came about I thought it would be fun to work with the parents of the young girls I had been working with and the families I sold houses to,â€

On Education

Immigration Raid Leaves Sense of Dread in Hispanic Students


By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Published: May 23, 2007

WILLMAR, Minn.

The day before everything happened, Alex Sorto left Willmar High School as usual at 2:30, and grabbed a ride to his night job as a janitor at the Jennie-O turkey processing plant. He had been working there for four months, saving money for college tuition, and hoping to study art even though his mother wanted him to be a lawyer.

Alex had already heard there were immigration agents in town, raiding the trailer parks and rented homes of the Hispanics who had flocked to this county seat on the Minnesota prairie in search of work at Jennie-O. Alex believed that because he was a citizen, he was safe.

So he put in his eight hours sweeping and swabbing, and went home to finish up the portfolio that was his final project for communications class. The portfolio consisted mostly of an autobiography. In it Alex recalled his early years in Los Angeles, the child of two Honduran immigrants, and the divorce that sent him and his mother, Rosa Sorto, to a green-shingled duplex on Ann Street in Willmar.

As a senior, just a few weeks from graduation, Alex had already passed the required state tests, which were being administered at Willmar High the next morning.

So he knew he could sleep late, a rare treat on a weekday, before starting his regular classes.

The next thing he knew, at the unfair hour of 6:30 a.m. on April 13, he heard a banging noise. Groggy, he at first assumed the racket came from the family upstairs.

By the time he tugged on a pair of jeans and walked toward the living room, he could hear nearby voices shouting. He saw his mother on the couch, being peppered with questions by four immigration agents — questions about her papers, questions about his, questions about two single men who rented rooms from them. In his entire life, all 18 years, Alex had never seen her so close to crying.

In the end, the agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement accepted the proof that Alex and his mother, who has permanent resident status, were legal. The two renters, Roberto and Augustine, were led away in handcuffs, Roberto wearing only his boxer shorts.

Then Ms. Sorto discovered how the agents had apparently entered her apartment; the window of the locked side door, intact the previous night, was now broken.

Even after all the tumult, Ms. Sorto insisted that Alex go to school. Even though it was 8:30, and he had no classes for another hour, she drove him there. He watched her hands quake as she tried to steer. In art class, his favorite, he could not get his pencil to move. All he could think about was what would become of him if his mother were taken away.

Such was the triumph of Operation Cross Check, the federal raid against illegal immigrants that went on for four days last month in this community of about 18,500 people. To the Department of Homeland Security, the operation was a success, catching a convicted sex offender and several welfare cheats among its 49 arrests. In a news release announcing the toll, an immigration enforcement director for Minnesota said, “Our job is to help protect the public from those who commit crimes.â€

Fatal bus crash spurs immigration debate

by Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio

February 26, 2008

The bus crash that killed four students last week near Cottonwood has sharpened the debate over illegal immigration in some Minnesota communities. Authorities say the woman who allegedly ran a stop sign and hit the bus, Olga Marina Franco from Guatemala, was living illegally in the country.

Some see the crash as reason to crack down on undocumented workers. Others say the woman's immigration status had little do to with the crash, and the tragedy is being used to fuel anti-immigration sentiment.

Willmar, Minn. — In the central Minnesota town of Willmar, a community that has struggled with the issue of immigration in recent years, the fatal bus crash has been the focus of much conversation.

It's late afternoon at the American Legion bar in Willmar. About a dozen people, mostly retirees, are gathered in small groups over drinks.


Most of the conversation focuses on last Tuesday's fatal bus crash that killed four children, 50 miles down the road near Cottonwood.

Marlene, who looks grandmotherly with reading glasses perched atop a head of gray hair, expressed the frustration of many people.

"There's a lot of people angry over this," said Marlene.

For her, news that the woman involved in the crash is not a legal U.S. resident makes the situation even worse.

"It just made me sick when I think of the grief that those families went through, because this woman was in the country and shouldn't have been," said Marlene.

News coverage of the accident has garnered plenty of similar comments on the Willmar newspaper's Web site.

The West Central Tribune's editor, Kelly Boldan, has watched discussion of the story, and the immigration status of the woman involved, degrade into on-screen shouting matches over issues of race and illegal immigration.

"There is a portion of the readers that take it immediately to lay blame on the entire class of immigrants. Some can separate the actions from this individual from the group, others cannot," said Boldan.

To be fair, Boldan said, other readers have balanced the conversation, saying the woman's immigration status shouldn't be part of the discussion of the bus crash.

But in Willmar, immigration tends to be the focus of a lot of conversation.

In less than 20 years, the town has gone from a mostly white community to one with a sizable Latino population. The 2000 census put the number of Latinos at 15 percent of Willmar's 18,000 people.

The increase has been driven by a demand for labor at the local Jenni-O turkey processing plant. The change is obvious in the city's bustling downtown. From the vantage point of one street corner, you can see a Hispanic-owned grocery store, a restaurant and two Mexican bakeries.

"Some can separate the actions from this individual from the group, others cannot."
- Kelly Boldan, West Central Tribune editorMany in Willmar say that proves the city is more than welcoming to new immigrants. So much so that leaders in the Latino community wonder why some would use the fatal bus crash to raise the topic of illegal immigration.

Edel Fernandez, director of Multicultural Affairs at Willmar's Ridgewater College, hasn't heard from anyone in the Latino community or the Anglo community worried about a backlash against immigrants because of the crash.

"Because of the political world we live in, this has become more of an issue, and actually people pay more attention to this," said Fernandez. "It is unfortunate that we have lost some lives, and that should be the main issue. Whether the person that did it is from here, from Mars or from wherever."

Neither has Maria Diaz. Diaz works with Latino residents in Willmar as part of the Races project, an effort to develop community leaders within the Hispanic population.

Maria Diaz"The accident itself is the topic. How sad for the driver, and for the parents of the kids and for the whole community," said Diaz.

So far, Diaz hasn't heard suggestions the crash might be used to spur a crackdown on undocumented workers in the Willmar area. "Let's hope nobody will take this as an advantage to use it against anybody. But I think if it's going to happen, we'll hear, and you'll come and we'll talk," Diaz said.

But indications are that the Cottonwood crash will be used to raise the issue of illegal immigration during this legislative session.

State Sen. Joe Gimse, R-Willmar, who is assistant House minority leader, sees that as more than appropriate.

"Yes, it has increased the awareness, and rightfully so. We need to get a better handle on all this, and we need to start taking action now," said Gimse.

Gimse supports legislation favored by Gov. Tim Pawlenty that would make using false documents to get a job in Minnesota a felony.

As the debate over illegal immigration seems certain to heat up at the Capitol, it will continue in places such as Willmar, where immigrants are immersed in the community.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/displa ... _reaction/

Coleman: Immigration reform a fed issue first

By Dana Yost

FEBRUARY 29, 2008


U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman was in the front row in Cottonwood on Feb. 21 for a public memorial service for the victims of the Lakeview School bus crash.

His office has also received several phone calls and e-mails from people angry that an alleged illegal alien drove the van that struck the bus on Feb. 19.

In an interview with the Independent on Thursday arranged before the bus crash , Coleman said it remains important to separate the grief over the loss of four students and the immigration issue — although he said the nation's immigration system is a "broken" one.

Coleman, who spoke briefly at last week's service, told the crowd that he and his wife had lost two young children of their own to congenital health issues.

"I sat in the first row and looked at the parents (of the victims), and my heart just emptied," Coleman said. "Their grief was so clear. The mom of that little girl, Emilee, was so overcome.

"That should be our first reaction, and the political aspect should be put aside. ... First and foremost, let us pray. Let us grieve and let us pray, and then let us fix the system we have."

He said the place to fix the immigration system is within the federal government, and a good place to start is to get federal agencies to communicate better with one another.

There have been stories written that the van driver, Olga Marina Franco, was perhaps twice involved in previous traffic stops in which drivers did not have valid Minnesota licenses. She originally told authorities her name was Alianiss Nunez Morales, and a woman with that name was cited for a 1996 Chippewa County violation.

A woman with the Franco name was a passenger in a car stopped in Kandiyohi County in January where the driver did not have a valid license, authorities have said. Local and federal authorities say they are not certain if the same woman was involved in the 2006 and January incidents.

But local officials said Wednesday that it points to how hard it is for local law enforcement to detain possible illegal immigrants when they are arrested for misdemeanor crimes — they typically don't book or run background checks in misdemeanor cases.

Given that, Coleman said, the burden is on the federal government.

He compared the illegal immigration issue to problems federal agencies had with terrorists before the Sept. 11 attacks — agencies are not sharing data on possible suspects with one another. He called it a "silo" mentality, in which agencies work strictly within their own "silos," and said that approach has to change.

Right now, it isn't easy to tell if an employee is using fake ID or if the same ID is being used in two different places in the country at the same time, he said.

"We don't talk to each other," he said of federal agencies. "The IRS doesn't talk to Homeland Security, or to Social Security.

"We need to improve our own system," he said of the federal government. "We still need to hold employers accountable (for hiring illegals), but we need to hold up our act, too.

"There are some things we could fix to certainly make the system better. It's a broken system right now."

http://www.marshallindependent.com/News ... leID=19664