Posted on 01/25/2007 1:16:20 PM PST by BunnySlippers
Cook Rosa Maria Salazar's eyes dart anxiously to the door as customers file into the Salvadoran cafe in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles.
"We're terrified. The police could come for us at any time and deport us," she said in Spanish earlier this week as diners fingered maize tortillas stuffed with beans and pork scratchings and chatted softly.
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"We hadn't seen anything like this here before, and it came as a shock," said Antonio Bernabe, a community worker who runs a day labor program at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
"The police didn't just take people with deportation orders, they took anybody ... guys who were just hanging out in the street and even from a Jack in the Box restaurant ... and now people are afraid to go out," he added.
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Some immigrants who followed the speech closely on Spanish-language television in Los Angeles remained hopeful of concessions in the aftermath of the sweep.
"I came here to work and help support my family, so obviously the raids were alarming," Salvadoran construction worker Remberto Flores told Reuters in Spanish as he waited for a bus in a neighborhood of taco stands and wire transfer shops.
"But we saw President Bush talk about reforms in the Senate, so maybe there will be some breaks for us as well," he added.
Others in the city believed that the only clear message from the raids and the speech was that the situation for immigrants in California had changed.
"We used to feel secure here," Nicaraguan electrician Manuel Salomon told Reuters as he sipped coffee in a Mexican bakery in the city. "But it looks like that honeymoon is over."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Nonsense! The police cannot deport anyone who is here in the US legally. What is she all lathered up about? /rhetorical
so I guess we can determine that ole Manuel didn't get here legally either....doing another job Americans won't do...as an electrician
Crimials are afraid of cops. That's news?
It must be terrible having to constantly look over your shoulder. They just oughta get PO'ed with America, throw their hat on the floor, swear a couple of times, go home, and vow not to take that kind of abuse anymore.
< crossing fingers >
In truth, I don't blame them -- much. I blame the libs who have made circumventing our immigration laws acceptable and even profitable. I blame the politicians who can't seem to work out a reasonable way for people to come here legally (INS is a mess).
I DON'T blame the people actually enforcing the laws -- FINALLY!
This is a sympathy piece intended to make the bleeding hearts and soccer moms worry that someone is being mean to the poor down-and-outers.
Go home if it bothers you. Try getting a legal work Visa.
Break the law...get caught...go to jail/get deported. Yep seems pretty simple to me.
Hey Rosa Maria - if you're so terrified, just make a run for the border. PLEASE!
Why don't they hang out in one of the emergency rooms that are left? I'm sure they wouldn't be bothered there.
This just in: Law-breakers fear being caught by authorities. Story at 11.
Why would you hope the raids are over?
They think all the free healthcare and welfare just grows on trees in America!
Please contact them using this form: today.reuters.com/HelpAndInfo/ContactUs.aspx
Or, call them at 1-800-REUTERS (1-800-738-8377) or 646 223 4000 (NYC)
No, I hope the HONEYMOON PERIOD for illegals is over. At least that's how I interpereted what was said.
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
This is DISINFORMATION--as the Russkies would say.
It distracts you, while they sneak in some AMNESTY by another name.
Now, go back to sleep.
BOO F****NG HOO!!!!!
Feel lucky We The People haven't yet gotten PO'd enough to deport you ourselves (yet), Rosa Maria.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
"taco stands and wire transfer shops"
Two signs your "neighborhood" has turned into the "barrio".
Yes Jose,the honeymoon is over...now hike back home!
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