Thread: {Sob} 'For us, the raid was like the end of the world'

'For us, the raid was like the end of the world'
By BECKY W. EVANS
Standard-Times staff writer
May 14, 2007 6:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD — It was a sad Mother's Day for Olivia Hilario, whose four sons — including one buried — are far away in Guatemala.

Ms. Hilario, who lives in this city with her teenage daughter, cannot afford to smuggle her sons into the United States, especially after losing her job following the March 6 federal immigration raid at Michael Bianco Inc., where she worked as a seamstress.

She thanks God that she was sick that day and did not go to work. But some of her close friends were not so lucky and are being detained in Texas and face deportation to Guatemala.



"We love each other like sisters," said Ms. Hilario, an illegal immigrant who spoke to a reporter through a Spanish interpreter. "If they get out of Texas, we will live together and pay rent and try to survive here."



If her friends are deported, Ms. Hilario and her daughter will likely return to Guatemala. Since the raid, she has been unable to find a job because local companies are now careful to hire employees with valid social security cards, she said.



Ms. Hilario was one of 60 women honored yesterday during a ceremony for mothers affected by the Bianco raid. Some of the women were detained for days or weeks before they were released to care for their children. Others have husbands who are being held at detention facilities in Texas, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.



Members of Organization Maya K'Iche, which organized the event at Brooklawn Park, presented the women with food baskets packed with rice, sugar, corn meal, beans and other staples.



The band United in Christ serenaded the women with "Mananitas," a traditional song played on birthdays and other special occasions in many Spanish-speaking countries.



"Many of the mothers are not here in New Bedford but we are singing with our hearts for them," band member Pedro Ventura said.



Adriana Lafaille, a program assistant with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said most mothers with children living in the city have been released from detention facilities and await deportation hearings in Boston.

Of the more than 100 Bianco workers still being detained, some are mothers who left their children in their home countries when they came to the United States, Ms. Lafaille said.

She said two pregnant women are among the detainees.

Margarita Perez said she paid $5,000 in bond money to get her daughter-in-law, Susana, released from the Harlingen, Texas, detention facility in April. She spent an additional $600 to fly her back to New Bedford. Now the two women are waiting for the release of Margarita's son, Hector, from the El Paso, Texas facility.

Hector and Susana, who were married last year, both worked at the Michael Bianco plant.

Without their income, Ms. Perez, who works part-time at a New Bedford fish plant, said she can no longer send money back to Guatemala to care for a disabled relative.

If her son is deported, Ms. Perez said she will follow him home to Guatemala.

"I will leave too because everyone in this country is against us," she said.

The Mother's Day celebration, which attracted a large crowd of adults and children, coincided with the opening day of the Mayan soccer league, Liga Maya Soccer USA. Games are scheduled at Brooklawn Park on weekends throughout the summer.

The teams include players from Portugal, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and other countries.

Ms. Hilario sang loudly in Spanish when the Guatemalan national anthem was played before the start of the soccer tournament.

She sobbed later while talking to a reporter about her struggle to find work since the Bianco raid.

"For us, the raid was like the end of the world," she said.

She said she came illegally to the United States to escape violence in Guatemala and find work to support her impoverished family.

"We don't want to take over this country," she said. "We are just looking for a job and the peace we can't find in our own country."

Contact Becky W. Evans at revans@s-t.com
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbc ... 18/OPINION

Aren't there legal avenues for someone who is being persecuted to seek asylum? Why didn't she go that route? I'm sorry, but we cannot take on the whole world here. They all have a story and our country cannot survive if we allow every poor person with a story to come here and receive benefits.

"Without their income, Ms. Perez, who works part-time at a New Bedford fish plant, said she can no longer send money back to Guatemala to care for a disabled relative."

You know what ? I happen to have a disabled child. I just finished writing a letter to my legislators regarding a funding issue for disabled folks in my state. Their funding is always the first to go, but we can fund the free education for illegal alien children, plus healthcare, plus God-knows-what-else. Why are they more important then my kid? Can one of our legislators answer that?

i struggle evryday to feed my children and pay my taxes , who helps me, who feels sorry for me, NOBODY!!

I CARRY MY OWN WEIGHT AND PAY MY OWN TICKET!!

"I will leave too because everyone in this country is against us," she said.

Damn straight! Those of us who are legal immigrants and American citizens and have to pay taxes, have to obey all the laws, those of us who don't receive free healthcare, welfare and food stamps ARE AGAINST YOU.

You break every law you don't like, you refuse to learn English, you crank out more babies than you can afford to care for and expect us to pick up the tab, you destroy our schools and hospitals, you deface our neighborhoods with your grafitti and filfth, you are a drain on the taxpayers who have their own families to support, you drink and drive killing innocent Americans then run away on foot to avoid the consequences, and on and on and on.

If people came illegally into your home country and did these same exact things and worked to ruin your country you would feel the same exact way, and you know it.

Ms. Hilario, who lives in this city with her teenage daughter, cannot afford to smuggle her sons into the United States, especially after losing her job following the March 6 federal immigration raid at Michael Bianco Inc., where she worked as a seamstress.

Just another glaring example of how our laws mean absolutely NOTHING to these criminal ingrates!

Ms. Hilario was one of 60 women honored yesterday during a ceremony for mothers affected by the Bianco raid.

She is being honored..despite abandoning the majority of her kids in her native country? What color is the sky on the planet of those "honoring" her?

Sigh....this is insanity folks. Absolute insanity.

Ms. Hilario, who lives in this city with her teenage daughter, cannot afford to smuggle her sons into the United States, especially after losing her job following the March 6 federal immigration raid at Michael Bianco Inc., where she worked as a seamstress.

I am supposed to feel bad that she can't afford to SMUGGLE her four sons into our country? Are you KIDDING me?

This whole paragraph is just wrong on so many levels that I didn't even finish reading this article. Any journalist stupid enough to even write a comment like this...............aargh!!!!!!!!!!!

You know what I find much more sad? All of the mothers who will this year spend mother's day with their children gone from them after they were killed by an illegal drunken driver or a gang banger...
now to me, THAT is what is really SAD

This is just another example of the propaganda being used to elicit sympathy from the kind and giving citizens of this country. Haven't we given enough? These people break into our country, steal identification from legal citizens, receive benefits we don't get, and continue to want more. When does this lunacy stop?

I am an extremely compassionate person. However, they chose to enter this country illegally, rather than fight for their rights in their own country. They march in our streets 'demanding' amnesty and other 'rights' they are not entitled to, while carrying the Mexican flag. They spit in our faces, while laughing all the way to the banks in Mexico, Guatemala, etc., etc., etc.

Who cries for the children of legal citizens who go to bed hungry? Who cries for us who die while waiting for organ transplants that an illegal received? Let's not forget the illegal girl who received not one, but two heart transplants, and subsequently died. Two legal citizens could have received those hearts and have been given a chance at a new life. Who cries for those killed by illegal drunk drivers? Who cries for the millions of uninsured Americans who suffer due to lack of proper medical treatment, while illegals receive free medical care?

I'm so sick of hearing all of the sob stories, and hearing how hateful and racist everyone is who is anti-illegal. I'm sick of hearing how the poor children will be separated from their parents if they are deported. Lies, all lies! There is no law prohibiting them from taking their anchor babies back to their countries. Just another sympathy tactic.

As a Christian, I highly resent being told that I am going against the will of God, or better yet, will not enter the kingdom of heaven, because I want our borders secured. This is a despicable exploitation of God, and He will not find faultless those who perpetrate these lies. Charity begins at home!

Give me a break!

"I will leave too because everyone in this country is against us," she said.

"For us, the raid was like the end of the world," she said.

Margarita Perez said she paid $5,000 in bond money to get her daughter-in-law, Susana, released from the Harlingen, Texas, detention facility in April. She spent an additional $600 to fly her back to New Bedford. Now the two women are waiting for the release of Margarita's son, Hector, from the El Paso, Texas facility.

How in the world did she get them released with a $5,000 bond? I thought they were being deported! Something just doesn't smell right about this. Whatever happened to no more "catch & release." Bond are not, illegals should not be released from federal custody until deported.

If her friends are deported, Ms. Hilario and her daughter will likely return to Guatemala. Since the raid, she has been unable to find a job [quote:2hcybvi1]because local companies are now careful to hire employees with valid social security cards, she said.

[/quote:2hcybvi1]

Let`s just say, they had better be!!!