Thread: Vignettes on the reaction on immigration bill

AP Texas News



June 8, 2007, 5:39PM
Vignettes on the reaction on immigration bill


© 2007 The Associated Press

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Maria de la Cruz Flores said she couldn't imagine going back to Mexico after 19 years here, especially with an 18-year-old daughter and a house that is paid off.

Flores, 52, said she doesn't have any family left in Mexico and knows of little work there.

Her three older children are in Kansas, using fake documentation to work in fast-food restaurants.

The proposal would have allowed illegal immigrants who were in the country as of Jan. 1, 2007, to come forward, pay fees and fines, pass a background check, and receive an indefinitely renewable four-year visa to live and work legally in the U.S.

Flores said she didn't know how she would have been able to pay those fees. But as long as politicians were talking, there was hope, she said.

"It was like we were looking at light at the end of tunnel, and now the tunnel is dark again," she said. "We're disillusioned now. It hasn't helped anything."

___

NEW YORK (AP) — The defeated bill created too many hurdles for immigrants and would have made life even harder, Rajani Adhikary said.

The bill "was way too burdensome for immigrants," said Adhikary, 28, a citizen of Nepal who was born in Toronto and is in the United States on a green card. "Undocumented workers would have had to go even farther underground because the waiting period was longer."

But the lack of legislation "is alarming. Once again, immigrants have to be put in this limbo. In the end, we need some kind of solution," said Adhikary, an organizer for the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, a workers advocacy group organized after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The group is composed of surviving workers from the Windows on the World restaurant atop the World Trade Center, along with about 1,800 other New York restaurant workers — at least 25 percent of whom are undocumented, according to a study the group conducted.

___

TUSCON, Ariz. (AP) — Carlos Felix has lived in the United States for just three days, having entered from his hometown of Agua Prieta, across the border from Douglas.

Felix, 26, said he walked across and wants to go to Las Vegas, where he has uncles working in restaurants who have assured him of work there.

Felix was standing outside the Southside Presbyterian Church, where a number of young men mingled, hoping that people driving by would offer them work for the day.

He said he has heard about the dim prospects that legislation before Congress will be approved.

"There's not going to be any permission to work, there's not going to be any amnesty, there's not going to be anything," he said in Spanish. "It's going to be more difficult for the undocumented people."

Felix said that he and his wife are separated, and that she has custody of their 6- and 9-year-old children in Agua Prieta. He said he's scared, noting that Border Patrol agents "came right by here" Friday morning, looking for undocumented people.

___

WAUCHULA, Fla. (AP) — Ben Albritton, a fifth-generation citrus grower, said the biggest problem with the immigration bill is the "uncertainty and anxiety" that follows it.

He said he has wavered about making capital investments in his business as the debate persists. Albritton said laborers of Mexican origin are an important part of the business. They work for contractors who harvest the citrus crops grown at groves.

"We pay as much for harvesting as we do to take care of our properties," said Albritton, who sits on the Florida Citrus Commission, a board of directors for the Florida Department of Citrus.

"None of that does us any good if we can't harvest our crop properly," he said.

There is speculation in the citrus industry that a sizable portion of harvesting labor is made up of illegal immigrants, but he cannot say for certain, Albritton said. As for the stalled bill, he said, he wants "my representatives in Washington to make well-educated, well-thought-out decisions."

"The impact of this is going to be far more reaching than just my business," said Albritton.

___

Associated Press writers Lynn Brezosky in Brownsville, Texas; Verena Dobnik in New York; Arthur H. Rotstein in Tucson, Ariz.; and Adrian Sainz in Miami contributed to this report.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4874778.html

Her three older children are in Kansas, using fake documentation to work in fast-food restaurants.

I hope you're proud of yourself senora. You just raised three criminals, not outstanding citizens.

Why can't any of these people stop and think -why can't I do this in my own country ? it is where my allegiance lies, maybe I should go back to my Homeland and fight to make it great for my children and myself? This country -The USA- didn't get to be so great by having past generations of legal immigrants come here looking for the easy way out and not sacrificing themselves and then passing this "logic" on to their children! I am sorry if I sound a bit angry over this , it is just something I feel strongly about.

Is there any restaurants left that isn't staffed by illegals? I no longer eat at fast food or any restaurant where I suspect illegals. They could stop a lot of this by just cracking down on eateries! Start with McDonalds!