Posted on 10/28/2004 7:54:02 PM PDT by stopillegalimmigration
CALDWELL, Idaho (AP) - Gunfire and gang violence are alarming people in this farm town where the usual background noise is the reassuring chug of field machinery.
Since July, police have received more than 100 reports of shots fired in Caldwell, a town of 30,000 halfway between Boise and the Oregon line. Two young men have been killed and several more wounded in drive-by shootings. Police believe most of the violence is gang-related.
Authorities are increasing patrols, and for the first time, neighborhood watches are springing up in Caldwell, a community that for decades has typified small-town conservatism and the farmland work ethic. Many are asking themselves how big-city gang problems reached their quiet corner of the West.
"I can't let my kids go outside," said Maria Salenes. "I don't know what to do anymore, I'm so scared."
Gunfire has plagued Salenes' neighborhood in the past, but the trouble came too close on Oct. 11 when the 37-year-old mother of four heard a midday thump on her door. When she opened it, a man she did not know fell into her living room, mortally wounded in a drive-by.
"He was breathing real hard," she recalled. "He tried to tell me something, but it was his throat. He couldn't talk at all. I feel like nothing is safe."
Two men have been charged in the slaying of Sigmund Goode, 21. The shooting was the fourth in a week in the mostly Hispanic neighborhood of working-class homes and tree-lined streets where many people go home for lunch. It also follows the slaying of 22-year-old Carlos Chavez in August. No arrest has been made in that slaying.
For more than a century, Caldwell has been a hub for one of the most agriculturally productive counties in the nation. Hops, onions, potatoes, beans, sugar beets and hybrid sweet-corn are grown here.
Thanks to a booming state economy, Caldwell's population has jumped 16 percent in the past four years after growing 41 percent in the 1990s. The area has a long history of Hispanic farmworkers migrating here every year to work the summer crops. But since the 1990s, more and more of the families have been settling here.
Police said gang activity, involving both young Hispanics and whites, has grown with the population.
"Poverty in some places is part of it, the lack of parental control, both parents working to keep their heads afloat," said Canyon County prosecutor Dave Young.
Police Capt. Chris Allgood said he has spent most of his 41 years in Caldwell and watched as the town slowly changed. "Fifteen or 20 years ago, we used to have a homicide every three or four years, and now we have three or four every year," he said.
More than 150 people turned out for a recent community meeting at the Hispanic Cultural Center.
"I want to make it an area where my children can go outside and play in the yard and not worry about getting shot," said Jennifer Bennett, 33. "We want to take back our neighborhood."
Police said their efforts have been hindered by witnesses and victims who are afraid to cooperate.
"People in the neighborhoods are the key to solving these cases," Young said. "By not stopping it, you're enabling it. The frustration's just not from them. It's both sides. We're frustrated, too."
How shocking ! Will we ever have the will to solve this problem or will it fester until America ceases to exist ?
is there anyplace left where you can escape the insanity?
This is an issue that sooner or later we must seriously address...and amnesty or any other "reward" for illegals is not the answer.
Look at the map...the situation is getting worse and worse in Idaho...bordering Canada.
We've been invaded by millions of undocumented, illegal aliens. That's the truth.
I am all for immigration and people coming here legally to be a part of our nation...to be Americans. It is a part of all of our heritage. But this is not about that and this story is about just one of the severe downsides.
you know, if we all get together on the east side of caldwell and push real hard, we can probably get this town into oregon. idaho is a great state and does not deserve this. socialist oregon, on the other hand...
I didn't see anything in the article about them being illegal aliens. Just Hispanic workers. despite what some of you think, the two are in fact NOT always the same thing.
This is actually dated by a few days as I live in Meridian which is between Boise and Caldwell. Caldwell is pretty heavily hispanic and the gangs have taken over. As a local Realtor, I can tell you that the area is not high on the list of demanded areas.
But 15 or 20 years ago there weren't as many illegal immigrants. Now they're all over the U.S., and no one says anything, although everyone can't help but see it.
Azatlan USA, coming your way.
Well said. My parents are immigrants from South Korea and they came the legal way. I have no problems with immigrants as long as they come legally.
Your right. It's rarely more than 90% of Hispanic workers that are illegals. And the wonderful thing is the children of illegals are legal. Is that great or what?
Well, I live in Idaho, abou 25 miles from Caldwell, and I can tell you, irrespective of what the article says, that a large part of the problem is with illegals...and their children.
This sucks. I was hoping to retire to the mountains of Idaho or Montana one day. I thought it would be skiing, hiking, cool dry air, and grizzled old mountain men full of wisdom and insight.
Now I find out it's gangs of illegal Mexican immigrants?
No, from Anchorage Alaska to Atlanta Georgia, the scale of this invasion of illegal aliens is epic and only escalates and spreads.
Congratulations, you just touched on the very reason why the majority of the people in this country are legally citizens. Because at one point, someone came over here who wasn't born here, and, Tada!, the ensuing generations became legal citizens, fully integrated and immersed in our culture and belief/value system.
The problem, as one so astutely noticed, is not the ILLEGAL aliens. Having gone to school in a minority area (it's where the Math/Science Academy was) in Las Vegas, I can tell you that the problem is not with the first generation migrant workers. It's with the second or third generations who have things a little better than their parents or grandparents, and instead of working like dogs for very little (like my ancestors did), they grow fat on American pop culture and kill each other. That's true of legal immigrants as well. First generation Asians in some Californian cities weren't too troublesome, but they are having a big problem with youth gangs (just like in this Idaho case), who glamorize the "thug life" (or whatever they happen to call it). So, I think the proper call to arms here isn't "End Illegal Immigration", but something a bit more evasive than that. I'll raise my hand when I figure out what it is, because I don't pretend to know.
Isnt it funny how you have to read halfway thru before you get to THIS nugget of information?
That's only down in the valleys in some of the larger towns...for the most part, the mountains are still exactly as you describe them.
No kidding. The MSM goes out of their way to avoid this. Very typical.
What the article is running from, like many that fled to Idaho in recent years, is the tremendous influx of illegal aliens into Idaho.
So many illegals have made their way to Idaho, several Idaho state officials have requested and now demand Mexico pay the costs of jailing and prosecuting illegal aliens in Idaho. We know that will never happen.
As I've always said, you can run but you can't hide from this epic invasion of millions into our country.
I remember when Caldwell was a wide place in the road and crime was unheard of.
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