Day laborers wait under the sign of a Mexican restaurant in Woodbridge, Virginia, waiting for employers looking to hire temporary help.
Posted on 09/14/2007 10:28:13 AM PDT by Dubya
WOODBRIDGE, Va. — As her husband steps out the back door of their suburban rental home and into the early light each morning, Veronica makes the sign of the cross. Keep my husband safe, she prays to the Virgin Mary, and away from the police.
Jorge goes to find work as a construction laborer, and Veronica mostly stays inside, tending to the children. Since early summer, she's been afraid to take her three boys to the park, afraid to visit the Latino market up the road.
The couple, who didn't want their surnames used because they're in the country illegally, are among tens of thousands of undocumented aliens who are hunkering down after the board of supervisors of Prince William County, Va., decided in June that it would do everything possible to deny services to illegal immigrants. Some leaders want police officers to check immigration status in every encounter with a suspected illegal resident.
Congress been unable to figure out how to deal with the estimated 12 million undocumented residents in the country, and as illegal immigration spreads to suburban and rural regions, local and state governments are enacting their own get-tough measures. The result has been an increasing number of anti-illegal immigrant ordinances, many of them intended to drive undocumented residents out of town.
"If they let us work, if they let us just live . . . ," said Jorge, 33, talking in a sparsely furnished living room as his oldest child sorted crayons from a green school box. "We're just trying to stay alive and keep going. This resolution is very hard, you know?"
Two places — Prince William County, south of Washington, and New Haven, Conn. — are the opposite ends of policies that other local leaders around the country may find themselves considering.
"We hope Prince William County can conduct a national pilot program in what to do to crack down on illegal immigration," said Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Last week, he testified before Congress that it should enable local governments to do more immigration enforcement.
In New Haven, however, city leaders have welcomed immigrants as integral to the community. This summer, New Haven became the first city in the country to issue special identification cards to its undocumented residents, guaranteeing them access to services such as bank accounts.
When the program started in late June, hundreds of residents began lining up at 5 a.m. every day to get the identification cards, said Jessica Mayorga, the city's spokeswoman. "The response has been phenomenal," she said.
The spread of immigrant communities to rural and suburban areas has contributed to the increase in local ordinances, said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington research center that wants to reduce immigration. In addition, he said, residents and local politicians became aware of the issue as federal officials pushed it to the top of the news.
"The more Congress debated, the more they thought about it," Camarota said.
In addition to the activity in cities and counties, more than 1,400 immigrant-related bills have been introduced in state capitals, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Many of the new laws are contradictory: Illinois prohibits businesses from enrolling in a federal identification-check program until the system meets accuracy criteria, while Arizona requires businesses to use another ID-check program, according to the national conference.
Advocates say the ordinances, far from making communities safer, will drive immigrants underground and make them fearful of joining civic life or reporting crime.
Immigrant activists have responded loudly. Led by Ricardo Juarez Nava, a group called Mexicanos Sin Fronteras — Mexicans Without Borders — organized a weeklong business boycott, a caravan to Washington and a rally on Labor Day weekend that drew at least 2,000 people to protest Prince William County's move.
"Immigration reform failed, and that's an excuse for anti-immigrant proposals to go forward," said Juarez Nava, an immigrant from Mexico who doesn't discuss his legal status. "Our goal is that the resolution get rescinded."
On the other side of the debate is Greg Letiecq, a father of two small girls who formed a local anti-illegal immigration group called Help Save Manassas. He monitors immigration activity on a blog called Black Velvet Bruce Li and helped draft the county's bill with help from a national organization.
The same week that Jorge and Veronica talked of keeping their children from the playground, Letiecq steered his truck through residential neighborhoods, pointing to houses he said were crowded with illegal immigrants. He said activists from Utah to Florida had called him for help.
"At the local level, we can do something right now," he said. "It's on everybody's radar now."
2007 McClatchy Newspapers
Day laborers wait under the sign of a Mexican restaurant in Woodbridge, Virginia, waiting for employers looking to hire temporary help.
This is a ping list promoting Immigration Enforcement and Congressional Reform.
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Likely the final ping before vacation due to time constraints...
“We’re just trying to stay alive and keep going. “
Keep going....right back to Mexico.
Fred Thompson has this exactly right; we want new immigrants, but you’ll have to get in line like everyone else. No cheating, or you’re disqualified.
I'll bet she'd feel much safer in Mexico.
L
This is a good read and should be printed in every newspaper in the country.....but we all know it won’t. Read on:
Subject: Cheap Tomatoes ?
THIS HAS GOT TO BE PASSED ALONG TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE OR WE WILL ALL GO
DOWN THE DRAIN BECAUSE A FEW DON’T CARE.
This English teacher has phrased it the best I’ve seen yet!
Tomatoes and Cheap Labor
CHEAP TOMATOES?
This should make everyone think, be you Democrat, Republican or Independent
From a California school teacher - - -
“As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal
immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of:
I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a
large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school,
meaning that its students average lower social economic and income levels.
Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell
Gardens , Huntington Park , etc., where these students are protesting, are
also Title 1 schools.
Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When
I say free breakfast, I’m not talking a glass of milk and roll — but a
full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a
Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays
of it being dumped in the trash uneaten. (OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)
I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least
moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones. The school
also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some
as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of
having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids. (OUR
TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)
I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing
funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for
anything; my budget was already substantial.. I ended up buying new
computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month
later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who
obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in&nb sp; America
(OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK)
I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute
teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in
the country less then 3 months who raised so much hell with the female
teachers, calling them “Putas” whores and throwing things that the teachers
were in tears.
Free medical, free education, free food, day care etc., etc, etc. Is
it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to&nb sp;
demand rights privileges and entitlements?
To those who want to point out how much these illegal immigrants
contribute to our society because they LIKE their gardener and house keeper
and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world
of illegal immigration and see the TRUE costs.
Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs,
more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, overcrowding, new
diseases etc., etc, etc. For me, I’ll pay more ;for tomatoes.
We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster
because we won’t have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in their right
mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return?
There are many hardworking Hispanic/American citizens that contribute
to our country and many that I consider my true friends. We should
encourage and accept those Hispanics who have done it the right and legal
way.
It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world
culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting
pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate,
and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about
“politically correctness” that we don’t have the will to do anything about it.
If this makes your blood boil, as it did mine, forward this to
everyone you know.
CHEAP LABOR?
Isn’t that what the whole immigration issue is about?
Business doesn’t want to pay a decent wage.
Consumers don’t want expensive produce.
Government will tell you Americans don’ t want the jobs.
But the bottom line is cheap labor. The phrase “cheap labor” is a
myth, a farce, and a lie. there is no such thing as “cheap labor.” (just as
“THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH” for Americans)
Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He
takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he
pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax
Return, he gets an “earned income credit” of up to $3,200 free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent.
He qualifies for food stamps.
He qualifies for free (no deductible, ;no co-pay) health care.
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books
He qualifies for relief from high energy bills.
If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI.
Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare. All of this is at (our) taxpayer’s expense.
He doesn’t worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to have $5. 00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his.
The American taxpayers also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash clean-up.
Cheap labor? YEAH RIGHT! Wake up people. THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS
WE SHOULD BE ADDRESSING TO THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR EITHER PARTY.
AND WHEN THEY LIE TO US AND DON’T DO AS THEY SAY, WE SHOULD REPLACE THEM
AT ONCE!
Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.
Memo to Jorge and Veronica: Tough noogies, and BTW, Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary would not approve of you breaking the law by being here illegally! Get out and go to the back of the line behind all the immigrants that want to enter the US legally and lawfully and become American (i.e., learn English, want to be American and not force Aztlan culture on us, etc.). Wait your turn like everybody else, obey the law and you won’t have to be all fearful and afraid! Get a clue!
Hit the nail on the head! Those illegal invaders have more perks, privileges and “rights” than native-born and legal immigrants. These illegal pests come here, demand this, demand that, and just about every politician rolls over and wets themselves pandering to them. Legal citizens are just supposed to shut up, suck it up, not say a word, and keep paying ever increasing taxes to support these leeches.
They’re not immigrants: they’re criminals.
If only they had a country of their own where they could live without the fear of deportation.
Cheap labor construction firm hires Jorge for peanuts, while Rick the American carpenter gets shoved out of his job. GO HOME, JORGE, and take your family with you so we don't get stuck supporting them.
.... undocumented aliens ... Translation: criminals
12 or 12 Million, they should be treated like the criminals they are -- either deported immediately, or sent to jail and then deported. And while that is being done, ALL GOVERNMENT BENEFITS except emergency medical treatment should be immediately shut off.
Of course, that's one of the most expensive benefits. Immigration status of people seeking free healthcare should be determined immediately after the patient is stabilized, and the deportation process should begin immediately should said person not be here legally.
ping
Bump.
He has NOT got it “exactly right”. Fred Thompson has also said loading up moving vans and rounding people up, “that’s not going to happen”. He says we have to “figure out some way to make some differentiation between the kind of people that we have here” and “you’re going to have to, in some way, work out a deal where they can have some aspirations of citizenship”
Fred wasn’t referring to legal aliens.
I’m going to be away for the weekend so I think it’s important that Dane be pinged to this post! It’s apparent innocent and hardworking “Jose” and Maria (as he likes to call them) aren’t quite as innocent and hardworking as he thought. Oh, and since he hates our American school system and teachers, it’s an added plus.
</evil> </wicked>
bump
“Why? You dont think we have enough already?”
Nope. Illegal aliens are the only thing keeping states like California from going into de-population, which would be disastrous for the economy as a whole.
Immigrants are a good thing as long as they’re here legally, and in manageable numbers. I’m not one of these guys screaming “ ‘Merica for real ‘Mericans!”...I recognize that healthy immigration is a good thing. American citizens, by and large, do not breed enough to keep the population stable anymore. This is one of the reasons why I think we should throw immigration open to eastern europe...full of educated, hard working people (with skills) that would appreciate being here, and would likely fill the voids in some of our declining cities. I know people in Detroit wish they had the Polish back.
Also, they were the biggest gang threat of any socioeconomic class in Northern California. Salinas California is the dividing line for the two, Statewide, rival gangs (both Hispanic; the only two gangs in this small town), the Nortenos (northerners) and Sorenos (southerners). In the week that I was there, our small town had more than a dozen shootings - ALL IN ONE WEEK IN A SMALL TOWN! All of the shootings were from those two gangs made up of illegal immigrantes and their anchor kids.
“”We’re just trying to stay alive and keep going. This resolution is very hard, you know?””
You are breaking the law and you are a criminal trespasser,
you know??
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