Activist: ICE agents detain 10 workers near Woodburn [Oregon]

AP/KGW ^ | February 28, 2017 | Andrew Selsky

[GonzoII]

SALEM, Ore. — Federal immigration officers stopped two vans carrying 19 workers headed to a forest in Oregon to pick an ornamental shrub and took 10 of them away, an activist said Tuesday.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers made the traffic stops in Woodburn and on a highway just outside town early Friday, said Pedro Sosa of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group. He said most of the workers are Guatemalan and at least one is Mexican.

Sosa said Tuesday that four or five of the workers remained in detention and may be in Tacoma, Washington. The nine who were not taken away all had pending immigration court dates, Sosa said.

Rose Richeson, an ICE spokeswoman in Seattle, said in an email late Monday that she is gathering information on the matter.

Given freer rein by President Donald Trump, ICE teams in Oregon seem to be focusing on Woodburn, a predominantly Latino town located off Interstate 5 between Portland and Salem.

[piasa]

Sounds like a joke...

How many dreamers does it take to pick a shrub?

[NorthMountain]

ICE teams in Oregon seem to be focusing on Woodburn, a predominantly Latino town

No kidding!

Ask Willie Sutton why he robbed banks ...

[jiggyboy]

I hope it was the “activist” who brought this story to KGW, expecting to gin up outrage. (Aw ain’t that cute.) The more stories like this, the better.

[DAC21]

“Sounds like a joke...

How many dreamers does it take to pick a shrub?”

Where is the outrage by Tree Huggers?. The though of clearing the Forest for some mumbo jumbo home concocted medicinal brew should have them on the warpath. I guess they will hold off on their selected outrage for when legal citizens are caught in the act.

[tired&retired]

ornamental shrub = cannabis

[proudpapa]

Stay outta the bushes.

[21twelve]

I believe that it is “salal” (sp?). Florists use it as greenery around flower arrangements. A few years ago some guy (Hispanic?) was arrested for killing a guy that was picking on the same hillside as him.

Next time I drive by Home Depot I'll have to see what the numbers of day workers are. I'm guessing they have diminished.

[snippy_about_it]

Funny!

[VanDeKoik]

Ten more out the door!

[tired&retired]

We have a local corner where all the available day workers hang out.

I will admit, these folks are hard workers and many of them are very skilled craftsmen. I hired a legal Mexican to do yard work and I have never had any employee of any race work as long, hard and efficient as this guy. He virtually ran all day, often with bags of mulch on his shoulder.

He never asked for it, but I paid him double the rate per hour he was so good. I don’t discriminate... good workers are hard to find these days.

[Regulator]

a predominantly Latino town

How does a town in Oregon - which probably saw it's first "Latino" in 1995 - become predominantly that?

Woodburn - a rather English name - was American and some Russian for over a century.

Now the population is 60% "hispanic", whatever that means.

ICE could probably arrest and deport half the town now. And they should, because Woodburn never asked to be invaded and turned into a Mexican colony.

[Bigg Red]

Oh, these were “workers” and not illegal invaders. Those big meanie ICE guys!

[Does so]

A salesman at a heartland Florida wholesale-only pipe supply company hailed a non-English-speaking employee to assist me--a customer.

"Hey, Guatamala"!

[tired&retired]

I think you are correct.

Salal (Gaultheria Shallon)

A NATIVE SHADE-TOLERANT SHRUB FACES INDUSTRIAL EXPLOITATION

Indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, the salal plant was harvested in the past and remains important today. Traditionally indigenous people ate the berries and used the leaves for medicines. Recently, the salal plant has evolved into a key component of the floral trade industry.

Learning from Puget Sound Native Americans, many herbalists recommend the leaves of salal for use in tinctures and teas because of their astringent effect. The leaves are still advocated to lower bladder inflammation, treat diseases like heartburn, fever, cramping, and also used to reduce inflammation of the sinuses. Moreover, salal can strengthen the immune function of human body, reach and dredge collateral channels. A common benefit for the public is that the leaves of salal can be made into a poultice to treat insect stings and bites.

In addition to the medicinal purpose, salal is actually an essential food source for many First Nations bands of British Columbia. Aboriginal people eat fresh salal berries or prepare it into jam or preserves. Salal berries are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants that prevent degeneration and help us to live a long and sustaining life. They are such a gorgeous natural treat that can effectively reduce the risk of chronic disease. Admittedly, they are not as tasty as other berries like huckleberries, but they are readily available and have a good flavor. The easiest way to harvest is to pull the entire pink stem of berries off and process them all at once.

[Regulator]

I hired a legal Mexican

BS. You hired an illegal off the street like any other jerk trying to undercut the system.

Who gives a damn how hard they work. You can find hard workers all over the planet. There's 1.6 billion of them in China. What it means is that somebody else - our people - playing by the rules ended up with no work.

There are no visas for casual laborer. So you helped make America a worse place: I have to explain to my kid that we didn't have the vagrants of Mexico standing on our street corners and parking lots when I grew up. That's the world he has to live in, courtesy of cheap jerks like you.

If you're collecting Social Security and you lived with all the worker protections of the United States, you have even more to apologize for.

[tired&retired]

“BS. You hired an illegal off the street like any other jerk trying to undercut the system.”

No.. He, his wife and two children are all legal. Originally had a green card. They are a fine family and I have now known them for many years.

I remember when he and his wife became legal... They were proud beyond belief to become US Citizens. Devout Catholic and live their religion.

[ameribbean expat]

“Federal immigration officers stopped two vans carrying 19 workers...and took 10 of them away...most of the workers are Guatemalan and at least one is Mexican...four or five of the workers remained in detention and may be in Tacoma, Washington. The nine who were not taken away all had pending immigration court dates...”

Like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Regulator]

Sorry. Not buying it.

Lawful Permanent Residents rarely end up as yard workers. The visa compartments they come in under don’t include casual labor. Ag visas like H2A are what they come in under if they are legal and those are non-immigrant visas. In fact those are one of the chief causes of illegal immigration: they typically overstay their visas.

And just for the record, I oppose ANY further Mexican “immigration” into the United States for a lot of good reasons:

1. We have had tens of millions of them come here in the last 40 years. No other people on this planet were afforded that right, and what did they do to deserve it? Nothing. They have been our enemies for 5 centuries. They share nothing of our heritage other then being a problem since the beginning.

2. They are given special privileges whether they are illegal, Lawful Permanent Residents, or eventually citizens by virtue of the fact that they are “hispanic”, a category no one can define other then they came from a Spanish speaking country. Affirmative Action gives them rights far beyond any other American who has to compete on an equal basis. Why?

3. What nation are they loyal to? Will your friend’s children fight and die for the United States - a country founded by English Protestants - when they are Latin Catholics, the very people who murdered my Protestant ancestors? We defeated them at Fort Frederica in 1742, clearing the way for the entire Southeast to become American, safe from the decrepit Spanish Empire. Now you tell me they are “The Americans”? Really?

4. They believe in no laws except those which benefit them. The laws of contracts that compel us to pay our debts and taxes they love but the laws that ask them to do simple things like show a passport to get into the country (something I do many times a year as a business traveler) and refrain from staying there without leave to do so they dislike and ignore. We don’t need the titanic crime wave they brought with them. It’s one of the reasons Mexico looks the way it does. The defining feature of Mexican “government” is corruption. Believe me.

I could go on, but that’s a good start. And I still don’t believe your LPR story.

[Farmer Dean]

Why don’t you just call him a liar and have done with it?The man told you his story,why are you so predisposed to not believe him?