Immigration Raid Cripples Ga. Town

[warpedskydiver 0]

Immigration Raid Cripples Ga. Town
Friday, September 15, 2006 2:13 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By RUSS BYNUM

STILLMORE, Ga. (AP) — Trailer parks lie abandoned. The poultry plant is scrambling to replace more than half its workforce. Business has dried up at stores where Mexican laborers once lined up to buy food, beer and cigarettes just weeks ago.

This Georgia community of about 1,000 people has become little more than a ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began rounding up illegal immigrants.

The sweep has had the unintended effect of underscoring just how vital the illegal immigrants were to the local economy.

More than 120 illegal immigrants have been loaded onto buses bound for immigration courts in Atlanta, 189 miles away. Hundreds more fled Emanuel County. Residents say many scattered into the woods, camping out for days. They worry some are still hiding without food.

At least one child, born a U.S. citizen, was left behind by his Mexican parents: 2-year-old Victor Perez-Lopez. The toddler's mother, Rosa Lopez, left her son with Julie Rodas when the raids began and fled the state. The boy's father was deported to Mexico.

"When his momma brought this baby here and left him, tears rolled down her face and mine too," Rodas said. "She said, `Julie, will you please take care of my son because I have no money, no way of paying rent?'"

For five years, Rodas has made a living watching the children of workers at the Crider Inc. poultry plant, where the vast majority of employees were Mexican immigrants. She learned Spanish, and considered many immigrants among her closest friends. She threw parties for their children's birthdays and baptisms.

The only child in Rodas' care now, besides her own son, is Victor. Her customers have disappeared.

Federal agents also swarmed into a trailer park operated by David Robinson. Illegal immigrants were handcuffed and taken away. Almost none have returned. Robinson bought an American flag and posted it by the pond out front — upside down, in protest.

"These people might not have American rights, but they've damn sure got human rights," Robinson said. "There ain't no reason to treat them like animals."

The raids came during a fall election season in which immigration is a top issue.

Last month, the federal government reported that Georgia had the fastest-growing illegal immigrant population in the country. The number more than doubled from an estimated 220,000 in 2000 to 470,000 last year. This year, state lawmakers passed some of the nation's toughest measures targeting illegal immigrants, and Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue last week vowed a statewide crackdown on document fraud.

Other than the Crider plant, there isn't much in Stillmore. Four small stores, a coin laundry and a Baptist church share downtown with City Hall, the fire department and a post office. "We're poor but proud," Mayor Marilyn Slater said, as if that is the town motto.

The 2000 Census put Stillmore's population at 730, but Slater said uncounted immigrants probably made it more than 1,000. Not anymore, with so many homes abandoned and the streets practically empty.

"This reminds me of what I read about Nazi Germany, the Gestapo coming in and yanking people up," Slater said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi would not discuss details of the raids. "We can't lose sight of the fact that these people were here illegally," Raimondi said.

At Sucursal Salina No. 2, a store stocked with Mexican fruit sodas and snacks, cashier Alberto Gonzalez said Wednesday that the owner may shutter the place. By midday, Gonzalez has had only six customers. Normally, he would see 100.

The B&S convenience store, owned by Keith and Regan Slater, the mayor's son and grandson, has lost about 80 percent of its business.

"These people come over here to make a better way of life, not to blow us up," complained Keith Slater, who keeps a portrait of Ronald Reagan on the wall. "I'm a die-hard Republican, but I think we missed the boat with this one."

Since the mid-1990s, Stillmore has grown dependent on the paychecks of Mexican workers who originally came for seasonal farm labor, picking the area's famous Vidalia onions. Many then took year-round jobs at the Crider plant, with a workforce of about 900.

Crider President David Purtle said the agents began inspecting the company's employment records in May. They found 700 suspected illegal immigrants, and supervisors handed out letters over the summer ordering them to prove they came to the U.S. legally or be fired. Only about 100 kept their jobs.

The arrests started at the plant Sept. 1. Over the Labor Day weekend, agents with guns and bulletproof vests converged on workers' homes after getting the addresses from Crider's files.

Antonio Lopez, who came here two years ago from Chiapas, Mexico, and worked at the Crider plant, said agents kicked in his front door. Lopez, 32, and his 15-year-old son were handcuffed and taken by bus to Atlanta with 30 others. Because of the boy, Lopez said, both were allowed to return. In his back pocket, he carries an order to return to Atlanta for a court hearing Feb. 2.

But now, "there's no people here and I don't have any work," he said.

The poultry plant has limped along with half its normal workforce. Crider increased its starting wages by $1 an hour to help recruit new workers.

Stacie Bell, 23, started work canning chicken at Crider a week ago. She said the pay, $7.75 an hour, led her to leave her $5.60-an-hour job as a Wal-Mart cashier in nearby Statesboro. Still, Bell said she felt bad about the raids.

"If they knew eventually that they were going to have to do that, they should have never let them come over here," she said.

Quote

These people were here ILLEGALLY and yet some want to complain they were "rounded up"

in other countries you would be shot or jalied and possibly tortured.

To say this is reminiscent of Nazi germany is a rediculous statement, were they gassed?...were they forced in labor camps to work with volatile chemicals without any protective clothing?

were they burned in large ovens?

NO they were treated according to the LAW.

• Quote

[Michele 1]

Quote

"These people might not have American rights, but they've damn sure got human rights," Robinson said. "There ain't no reason to treat them like animals."

Human rights, as far as I know, does not connote citizenship in the US as an automatically conferred right upon birth.

I feel badly for those who don't have the income source they used to have, but the woman who quit wal-mart and went to work at the poultry farm demonstrates that there are Americans who are willing to take those positions vacated by rounding up criminals and deporting them.

I do feel badly about the baby...to be deprived of his mother and father is a traumatic experience.

Interesting to see how this plays out.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[kallend 2,150]

Quote

Quote

"These people might not have American rights, but they've damn sure got human rights," Robinson said. "There ain't no reason to treat them like animals."

Human rights, as far as I know, does not connote citizenship in the US as an automatically conferred right upon birth.

I feel badly for those who don't have the income source they used to have, but the woman who quit wal-mart and went to work at the poultry farm demonstrates that there are Americans who are willing to take those positions vacated by rounding up criminals and deporting them.

I do feel badly about the baby...to be deprived of his mother and father is a traumatic experience.

Interesting to see how this plays out.

Ciels-
Michele

As someone who filled out all the paperwork, got the references, had the X-Rays (required back when), got fingerprinted, stood in line all day with two very young children because INS wouldn't make appointments, had the interview etc. I have no sympathy for the illegals.

HOWEVER, there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with a problem. THE US, its corporations that want cheap labor, and consumers who want cheap goods, have had just as much to do with creating this problem as have the illegals. The WRONG way of dealing with the problem is to treat the illegals like animals.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[glaucus73 0]

Quote

To say this is reminiscent of Nazi germany is a rediculous statement, were they gassed?...were they forced in labor camps to work with volatile chemicals without any protective clothing?

Quite the opposite my friend. They were taken from the labor camps and sent back to Mexico and the only reason the town is bitchin' is because the owners have to pay more money for labor and the people in the stores that were charging the migrants higher prices now have no clients. They should be happy the INS took them from these working conditions.

[dorbie 0]

Quote

As someone who filled out all the paperwork, got the references, had the X-Rays (required back when), got fingerprinted, stood in line all day with two very young children because INS wouldn't make appointments, had the interview etc. I have no sympathy for the illegals.

All that is still pretty much required. A lot of it years after you've arrived in the country. X-Ray is for TB and most people from the UK will pop positive for the infection due to vaccination.

[Royd 0]

Personally, I think it's about time to recind child labor laws.

I started work at 12 yr. of age, working 11 hr. days in the summer, and it didn't kill me.

By the time most teenagers reach sixteen yr. of age they think the world owes them something.

[dorbie 0]

Quote

HOWEVER, there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with a problem. THE US, its corporations that want cheap labor, and consumers who want cheap goods, have had just as much to do with creating this problem as have the illegals. The WRONG way of dealing with the problem is to treat the illegals like animals.

The right way was to stay on top of the problem instead of abandoning all responsibility for years. The feds have let everyone down. Illegal immigration has run out of control and been in crisis for years. This is harsh on the immigrants but the real mistake was made years ago, not now. I can see why illegals feel abused, but they jumped the fence and took a chance against the desires of most Americans, contrary to a lot of representations. If the shoe were on the other foot you'd be booted out of Mexico in a heartbeat (just look at their southern border).

I have some but not much sympathy for illegals, for the criminals who hire them or for the government who don't enforce existing laws. Actually I have a little bit of sympathy for some of the companies who get blamed a lot recently, because even the ones who don't want to hire the cheapest illegal labor must survive & compete in an environment the politicians and enforcement agencies have created. Whole trades where domestic labor would fill a role have evaporated, if you're in doubt just ask the U.S. laborers in post-Katrina NewOrleans who were fired in favor of cheaper immigrants, actually those contractors I'd nail to the wall, they were taking Fed dollars and fired their domestic labor to increase margins, I'd jail them for that.

The whole thing is a self reinforcing mess, and unless you're prepared to bite the bullet it will only get a lot worse IMHO. As for the U.S. people, it ain't their fault IMHO, most feel utterly disenfranchised on this issue. The media & politicians pander as if there's something to be guilty about, and the recent history which none of us had any control over is used to beat us into submission w.r.t. dealing with the problem effectively.

Trying to tippy-toe around the problem won't work because effective Federal enforcement isn't there and probably never will be.