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March 31, 2006Immigration article
AFP News Mecca, United States - Arnolfo Caceres has just earned another 75 US cents by filling a crate of lettuce in this desert town where illegal immigrants are the fuel that drives California's crucial agriculture industry. Central American peasants like the 56-year-old Caceres, most of them undocumented laborers, form the backbone of the workforce in the fertile Coachella Valley farming hamlet of Mecca, 185 miles east of Los Angeles. And like many of the thousands of illegal workers here, Caceres feels a strong sense of frustration at becoming the sudden focus of national attention as conservative lawmakers in Washington push to pass a draconian new law that would kick illegal immigrants out of the United States. "If they kick us out, who will pick the fruit and vegetables?" asked fellow laborer Jose Figueroa. "What will they do, get a gringo to work in the fields?" added the young man from Cuernavaca, Mexico, who harvests carrots for eight to 10 hours a day, six days a week. Many of the laborers in the oasis town dismiss the US immigration reform plans as "rhetoric," and are proud that the Hispanic-dominated protests in US cities last weekend were so huge that they made a strong community statement against the proposed criminalization of illegal immigrants. "It's too much that they say that undocumented immigrants are criminals, they are just working people," said Maria Gonzalez, who teaches in Mecca's public high school. People in Mecca have what they need to live and their primary goal is to save enough to send 100 dollars home every two weeks to their families in Mexico, Guatemala or Read the entire article Tags: Guatemala, Immigration, Immigrants, Mexico, News Posted by elcanche at March 31, 2006 02:36 PMComments
When did it become acceptable to use illegal immigrants as an escape goat for every single thing that is going wrong w/ society in US? It seems to me the only reason is because they are the people without a voice - for fear of being deported- it makes me sick to think that these hard workers are being called criminals - ok, yes their action to come to the country illegally is breaking the law - but to try & pass a bill that makes these people to the same category as rapists, murderers & hard-core felons is quite harsh. The truth of the matter is these people are here to work - they are NOT taking away jobs - seriously people, how many of you would like to work minimum wage (at best) & put in long hours? What is wrong with people is they want cheap labor - immigrants should take care of the kids, clean the houses, do the gardening, work @ the restaurant - they should not be seen or heard . . . I see it here in Long Island everyday - it saddens me for there is such little compassion and understanding - these people came here not because they wanted to but because of extenuating circumstances - lets have a little heart & compassion - I see these workers in Freeport, Farmingville, etc . . they are not bad people, uneducated - perhaps some of them - but they cannot be blamed for opportunities they were not given. It is a shame in this day & age that we latinos are being blamed for everything in the US - there is no tolerance or humanity for most of the spoiled people living here have never truly experienced legitimate hardship or lived in extreme poverty and desperation, to them it's a foreign concept which makes it virtually impossible for them to be sympathetic to the immigrants. Posted by: Claudia at March 31, 2006 10:44 PMThe word "scapegoat" does come to mind. There are so many really important, pressing issues to address in Washington at this time; i.e. affordable health care, the budget deficit, imbalance in trade, the war in Iraq, "spying" on American citizens w/o judicial approval, rising energy prices (gas is almost at $3/gal. folks!), etc., etc., etc. So, let's take the nation's attention off these matters and focus on the emotional subject of immigration. Posted by: Carol at April 3, 2006 12:31 PM |
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Legal or illegal: Hispanics are the backbone of California farms
