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When Illegal Immigrants Are Your Friends



By Domenico Maceri
“You’re going to take a woman who has been here 13 years, worked hard, paid taxes, raised a family, and you’re going to send them back to Mexico?” asked Henry Morgan, county prosecutor in Arkadelphia, a city located in Clark County, Arkansas. Morgan was talking about Juanita, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Immigration agents planning a raid in an Arkadelphia poultry plant asked Morgan for help. Agents figured out he was not going to cooperate and acted without informing him. They arrested 119 Mexican workers, acting on information about documents fraud.

Morgan was not the only one sympathetic to undocumented workers. A number of other people in town helped some of those who were arrested to get them to remain in the country. Why would people help illegals? Several of the people arrested in the raid had been in Arkansas for a number of years and had developed relationships with local residents. Morgan had met Oscar, Juanita’s son, and became impressed with the teen-ager and gave him a job.

One of Juanita’s daughters had also established a link with another Arkansas family. When the Mexican youngster first began school knowing no English, her teacher requested that an American girl help her. Eventually, the kids' friendship involved the parents. Dr. Wesley Kluck, the American girl's father, became close friends with Juanita and her kids. The Klucks took some of Juanita's kids on their family vacations. When Juanita's oldest daughter was accepted at a private university, the Klucks helped find money for her tuition. Soon after the raid, the Klucks were shocked to discover that Juanita was in the group of those about to be deported. So they acted on her behalf.

Of the 119 people detained in the raid, only seven were not deported. Juanita was one of them. The Klucks and other prominent people in the town where she lived wrote letters of support. Dr. Kluck even contacted the Governor, a college classmate, to assist her. She will have a hearing and might be able to remain in the U.S. if a judge determines that she has no criminal record and has American-born kids who would suffer “extremely unusual hardships” if she were to be deported.

The friendship expressed toward undocumented workers in Arkadelphia is unusual considering the anger in many parts of the U.S. about our inability to control the border. Some of the anger comes to the surface by means of local and state legislation which attempts to limit whatever rights undocumented workers might have. The Georgia and Colorado state legislatures recently passed strict laws that target undocumented workers and those who might help them. And of course the House of Representatives passed a bill in December of last year which changes illegal entry into the U.S. from a civil offense to a criminal one. In essence, the estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. would become criminals if the U.S. Senate were to approve the House bill. Even Americans who might help them could become guilty of a crime.

The anger toward undocumented workers is often visible in letters to the editors of many American newspapers. Letter writers blame undocumented workers for many of the country social and economic problems. These include lowering wages for American workers. Even some people in Arkadelphia, in fact, believe that the absence of undocumented workers might force the poultry plant to raise wages which would become more palatable to Americans. That has not happened.

The company has reduced production by 20% because of lack of employees. The “welcome mat” of Arkadelphia thus is a significant contrast to the prevalent animosity toward undocumented workers. But even in Arkadelphia not everyone agrees with supporting illegal immigrants. Resident Marta Dixon is one of those who cannot understand why people would help illegals. Probably because they see human beings and she sees only lawbreakers.

Domenico Maceri, Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif.



dmaceri@gmail.com

10-24-2006 22:04


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