🚀 go-pugleaf

Dawn wrote:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20061003/ts_csm/aghosttown
>
> Crackdown on immigrants empties a town and hardens views
> By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Tue Oct 3,
> 5:00 AM ET
>
> STILLMORE, GA. - As Department of Homeland Security agents in black SUVs
> tooled up and down the dirt avenues of Stillmore, Ga., hundreds of
> undocumented people scattered into the woods like "flushed quail," one
> witness said.
>
>
> Many of those who weren't arrested fled, some to Kentucky. One family hid
> for two nights in a tree. As night sets now, a sprinkling of solitary lights
> glow from once-crowded trailer parks. Since the Labor Day raid, Stillmore,
> where the wishful sign at the city limit reads "A town that is still
> growing," has shrunk by at least a third after more than 120 people were
> arrested and perhaps as many as 300 others disappeared.
>
> "It's a ghost town," says resident Bennett Byrd.
>
> As federal, state, and local officials crack down on illegal immigrants
> across the country, attitudes continue to harden among those who want them
> to stay and those who want them to go. In places like Stillmore, Ga.,
> Arkadelphia, Ark., and Charlotte, N.C., raids and crackdowns have uncorked a
> phenomenon for those left behind: a sense of moral confusion about mass
> roundups and midnight raids.
>
> "There's a tension between working alongside these people, understanding
> their impact on the economy, and then some of the issues of a community
> being able or not able to sustain this kind of immigration," says Allan
> Burns, an anthropologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
> "People are divided."
>
> In Stillmore, the Crider plant does everything from poultry processing to
> packing M&Ms for the military to grilling the ribs for restaurant
> franchises, employees say. In a town of about 1,000 people, more than half
> of them were working there. The plant's success was driven by a hardworking
> labor supply that began arriving about four years ago.
>
> Workers had "very good" fake documentation that fooled managers, a Crider
> plant spokesperson says.
>
> In the town, few complained about the immigration status of the workers as
> Stillmore, once a thriving train depot, again became a destination. "People
> got along. The town was growing," says Don Hadden, a local carpenter.
>
> Then, earlier this year, an investigation began by Immigration and Customs
> Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE
> agents arrested a Stillmore man in the spring, accusing him of supplying
> counterfeit documents to workers. The man's records were then used to
> identify other workers. For 10 weeks, ICE trained company managers to spot
> forgeries and check
>
> Social Security numbers. About 30 people who had not been weeded out by the
> company were arrested at the plant in an orderly fashion over Labor Day
> weekend, according to a plant spokesperson.
>
> ICE agents also raided several homes in town. Witnesses say agents popped up
> through floor boards and broke windows.
>
> "Everything we did [in this investigation] was in accordance with the
> immigration laws of this country," says Marc Raimondi, DHS spokesman.
>
> But some, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, have voiced concerns
> about the searches.
>
> "Hispanics came to Stillmore and opened up stores that had been closed for
> years, and now there's a sadness in how they were treated," says Father Vic
> Subb, who worked for a Catholic ministry in town for six years.
>
> Proponents of immigration law enforcement say the government has a right to
> get tough on illegal immigrants and those who employ them. Led by Gov. Sonny
> Perdue, Georgia lawmakers say they will go after people who have broken
> immigration laws. Georgia has the fastest growing population of illegal
> immigrants, estimated at 470,000.
>
> "I firmly believe that we [as a nation] are taking in more immigrants than
> we have the capacity to feed, educate or employ," says D.A. King, president
> of Dustin Inman Society in Marietta, Ga., which opposes illegal migration of
> workers across the border.
>
> This year, ICE has rounded up 2,100 people in workplace raids nationwide
> compared with 1,145 in 2005.
>
> Meanwhile, more communities are signing agreements to work with ICE to
> undertake deportation proceedings for scofflaws and prisoners. In Charlotte,
> more than 600 people have been deported through hearings initiated by local
> officials.
>
> It's a debate that's galvanized Congress. Sen. Mark Pryor (news, bio, voting
> record) (D) of Arkansas said immigration reform should consider the
> community impact of enforcement, noting a 2005 raid in Arkadelphia that
> detained 119 people and left 30 children behind. But last week, Rep. Russell
> Pearce (R) of Arizona argued for reviving Operation Wetback, the
> controversial 1950s-era deportation program. To deal with illegal
> immigration, Congress has so far approved a border fence project.
>
> The law-and-order tack is heightening tensions, experts say.
>
> "Because of [stepped-up raids], you're going to see more pro-immigrant
> activity, and anti-immigrant folks are going to want even more enforcement,"
> says Bill Hing, an immigration law professor at the University of
> California, Davis.
>
> In Stillmore, the raids forced Americans to confront their own beliefs.
> Residents such as Larry Hadden saw friendly and "clean" people invigorating
> the town's economy. To see them chased "like rabbits" through the underbrush
> troubled him, as did watching as women and children were left behind without
> resources.
>
> Others, including resident Carolyn Byrd, see the ICE roundup as justified.
> Her son, Bennett, was a manager of the Crider plant for years. He said that
> Hispanics worked harder than anyone else. But they also took jobs, including
> his.
>
> Now the plant is paying a dollar more an hour than before the raid, to draw
> new workers from neighboring counties. "With the illegals gone, Americans
> have a chance to make more money," says Mr. Byrd.
>
> Still, there's a feeling among some that, as the undocumented go, so does
> the town of Stillmore. "It was very good here, but now I am too sad I can't
> find a good job," says Samuel Villalobos, an undocumented worker who hid out
> with his family in his trailer during the raid. "The trailer parks are
> empty, people leave very, very worried, no income, no money. It's too hard
> over here. Stillmore is too quiet."
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20061003/ts_csm/aghosttown
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/immigration
>
>
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Round up and deport all illegal aliens including asians, Irish, etc.
Demand harsh punishments for those
who harbor, employ, or furnish dwellings to illegals.

ted