Javascript Menu by Deluxe-Menu.com Aftermath Effects of Immigration Raid Felt in Community | WDEF News 12 | News, Weather and Sports for Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley
Sky Cam Incline Weather Cam Traffic Tracker Bonus Video Local Forecast Local Webcast

Aftermath Effects of Immigration Raid Felt in Community

Bethany Mowry's picture
| |


Effects of Raid

The aftermath from Wednesday's immigration raid on Pilgrim's Pride creates a ripple effect in the Hispanic community.
Family members of the detained wonder what's next, while the entire community is tense with fear.

The images from yesterday's raid at the Pilgrim's Pride plant stay with Raul Rojas as he works today. His mind on the unintended victims of the roundup.

He says the saddest part is the thought of the children of the workers rounded up yesterday. The way they came home from school, looking for their parents, is heartbreaking.

Rojas says he does not specifically know anyone involved in the arrests. But as a member of the Latino community, he is familiar with the strain and worry.

He says for the families of workers rounded up, there is constant fear. The community as a whole senses the fear and he is sure more difficult moments are coming.

Employees at Hispanic outreach agency La Paz de Dios are bracing themselves for those difficult moments.

Director Mike Feely explains, "We tried to just think of, okay, who are all the people we need to notify just, the bottom line for us was are the families and kids going to be okay."

Feely says they will concentrate on the families left without an income, children left without parents and a community left without trust.

Feely sympathizes, "I can't blame them. I'd be afraid to go to the store, a church service, what's safe?"

His organization will network with other social service agencies to make sure the families left behind are not the ones punished for the round up.

Feely
"The folks at ICE and immigration folks, they've got a job to do and they do that, but something, and I know they tried to prepare but still you can never calculate the impact it's going to have on a community."
ICE agents took 100 employees into custody yesterday on administrative immigration arrests.
36 of them later received humanitarian releases.


Who Cares, Anyway?

I could really care less how "sad" this all is. The United States was never meant to be a satellite of Mexico.

Reunite "the children" with their fly blown parents and get rid of them.

To take it even further, I'd like to ask these "diversity" poodles in Hollywood, Washington and New York how many more Third World aliens we should import into the land of our fathers. There are roughly 105 million Mexicans, many with little or no education, living in fly blown poverty, and carrying diseases we had once exterminated in America. Would it be okay with them for all 105 million to join the 20 million-plus already here? There are about 14 million Guatemalans in the same sorry condition as their Mexican counterparts. Could we please allow them all into America with open arms, too? There are 15 million people in the back waters known as Honduras and El Salvador. Would it be "immoral" to not issue an open invitation and the keys to Anytown, USA?

And that's just Central America. How about the rest of the world? In order to be consistent how many of India's 1 billion people -- Communist China's 1.3 billion -- and how many from Africa and the Middle East are we actually supposed to welcome here legally and illegally? When would the nut job multiracialist disciples and their string pullers be satisfied? I think you know the answer. They'll never be satisfied 'til we're wiped out and America comes to resemble the very places these people come from.


Simply wrong

Separating the very basis of any civil society: the family will create a generation of American citizens who will want the destruction of their own nation. The fear instilled on a child watching their loving caring hardworking parent being sent away are the very seeds to selfdestruction. Dream Act, comprehensive reform, if not addresed now, it will be this group of citizens who will someday judge the people who stripped their families' lives apart. We are all human beings.


First, I want to address the

First, I want to address the comment left by “Mike.” I have a co-worker who was a member of management at Pilgrim’s Pride before coming to our company. He said that the majority of the violators were using stolen security numbers which are hard for the employer to verify other than it is a real, registered number. The ICE agents have even said that the IDs and fake social security cards are hard to spot and you have to be trained to be able to detect a fraud. As long as Pilgrim’s Pride can show that they were given documentation then there is no legal recourse that should or could be brought against the company. In fact, the management new about the raid before it happened, so they are in support of the laws. The only way these people are being caught is when the identity theft victim finds out his information has been stolen and the government can get involved to find the criminal responsible. The fact of the matter is, the only people who will do these jobs are illegals because they will take the jobs American’s refuse to do. The work they were doing is filthy, wet, smelly, and cold. How many of you would want to work in those conditions 40 hours a week for next to nothing, with no benefits? The company doesn’t want to pay a lot for this work because it is basic, unskilled labor that anyone could do. The problem is it is hard work, but not hard enough for the company to want to pay more for it. I really don’t think they were hiring illegals in order to pay them less, especially since the majority of the Pilgrim’s Pride plants are unionized and the union negotiates the wages. This is just another example of companies being defrauded and losing a lot of productivity because of lost labor. The news only reported on the employees who were brought into custody. There were a lot of people who didn’t come back after lunch because they were illegal, they just didn’t get their name called. And again, that was just first shift. I have to believe that there were people who could have been caught on other shifts who didn’t show up because they heard what had happened. I don’t often say this, but I think this time the company wasn’t at fault and was really hurt by something over which they had very little actual control.


CULPABLE

Hey you guys, all of you are rigth, but... If giving my child the oporutnity for a better future is a crime... then I'm a CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!


All I have to say is

You say what about the children? Well these people shouldn't have come here to have children in hopes that they would get anchored here in America just because they had kids here. They broke the law, send them home. If you or I broke the law as blatantly as the illegals in the community/country. We would be doing hard time or get sent home, I am sick of this type stuff. Cry me a river somewhere else, I am tired of feeling like a outsider or outlaw in my own country/community because I want to up hold the law. The fact is that illegals enter this country illegally and then they have the same right and privileges that you or I do. In some cases, they have more rights than we do. It isn't right and something needs to be done about it, IMMEDIATELY!!!!


THE CRIMINAL

I AM AMERICAN BUT...
IF GIVING MY CHILD THE OPORTUNITY OF A BETTER FUTURE IS A CRIME, THEN... I'M A CRIMINAL!!!

SOY CULPABLE!!!


Let the Employer Pay

If the government would prosecute the employers they would not have these problems. Let the people who hire these workers do the time behind bars. It is not the peoples fault they want a job. The man that does the hiring knows he is breaking the law. He speaks English well and knows how to read it as well. Put his rear end in jail for 6 months and see how fast that crap stops. I think we might find that if we follow the money then we will find why he is not going to jail. Tyson's in Alabama has been raided before. And the carpet mills in Dalton. Yet it still seems to be a problem. If the government wanted to stop it they knew how years ago. The bottom line is who has dropped the ball? And why? The ICE agents are trying to do their job but who is it that is not giving them the backing they need? And why? Can the congress and senate pass a law to attack the person or persons that hire these people?


IMMIGRATION AFTERMATH

IM GLAD THAT YOU AIRED A REPORT LIKE THIS, I BELIEVE ALOT OF PEOPLE DON'T REALIZE OR DON'T WANT TO REALIZE WHAT A BIG IMPACT THIS IS CAUSING TO THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND.IN ALOT OF CASES THESE CHILDREN ARE US CITIZENS.THE QUESTION IS : IS OUR GOVERNMENT READY TO HANDLE THIS PROBLEM? PROVIDING PROTECTION AND WELL BEING FOR THESE CHILDREN. AFTERALL THEY ARE CHILDREN!


I would agree with Juan that

I would agree with Juan that "the saddest part is the thought of the children of the workers rounded up yesterday". Why do these parents endanger their childrens lives by breaking the laws of the United States knowing that they will one day be caught and returned home. I believe that child welfare should be notified and the children removed from such and irresponsible situation. There would be much less fear if the illegal aliens would return to their home countries and ease the burden of ICE and the U.S. Citizens.


Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Images can be added to this post.
More information about formatting options

AP News Video

Recent comments