Immigration Raid Leaves Texas Town a Skeleton

Houston Chronicle ^ | February 9, 2007 | By Sylvia Moreno

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CACTUS, Tex. -- ......Although opened with local hires, Vietnamese and Laotian refugees became the dominant workforce by the late-1970s. By the mid-'80s the workforce was overwhelmingly Mexican immigrants, and by 2000 the Guatemalans, speaking the Mayan language of Quiché, had started to arrive. Before the Dec. 12 raid, Swift employed 3,050 workers in Cactus at a starting wage of $11.50 an hour to slaughter, process and package several thousand head of cattle daily.

Work inside the plant is hard, dirty, stinky and dangerous, and it is where Cactus's biggest business owner and mayor, Luis Aguilar, and Cactus's largest landlord, Thanh Nguyen, got their starts in the United States. Aguilar, a native of Chihuahua, began working at the plant in 1976 using false identity papers, he admits. In 1986, he was able to legalize his status in the United States, along with 2.7 million illegal workers, under the amnesty program authorized by the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act.

Previously criticized by some local officials who thought he aided and even encouraged illegal immigrants to settle in Cactus, Aguilar took the raids almost personally. He canceled the annual city Christmas party because so many residents, including City Council members, had spouses or other relatives who had been arrested by immigration authorities. Aguilar subsequently lent one of his buildings to be used as a food and used-clothing pantry for residents whose relatives were caught in the raid.

"These are my people," said Aguilar, 50, who today owns the largest house in Cactus, a nearby 575-acre ranch, a laundromat and the town's only full-fledged grocery store. About half of his 26 rental units are empty now......

[CPT Clay]

Only 1st shift was arrested. 2nd and 3rd are untouched.

[Rakkasan1]

no doubt

[Marie]

Now they have to someplace to put the Katrina refugees who need to get out of a FEMA trailer and find a job...

Woah, woah, woah... I almost missed that. There is so much more behind that statement than meets the eye.

Q: "Who will do the jobs if we get rid of immigrants?"

A: "Every person on welfare who is capable of working."

[devolve]

Meek-A-Bump

[Sword_Svalbardt]

Doesn't sound like minimum wage to me.

[Wolfie]

Wow. So the good mayor had his ownself legalized by Reagan's amnesty, and he just kept on bein' a criminal. Go figure.

[phillyfanatic]

It is the Mexican ploy to force the USA to feed, keep their underfed, underemployed. Yesterday, Mexican govt. officials met with Baca and Pelosi to draw up legislation on immigration. Imagine that! Look, this is out of control now. We need federal troops on the borders arresting the 'mules', the criminals, all the illegals crossing. They must be jailed, prosecuted and the devil with Mexican opinion.

[Gritty]

[leilani]

But I am sure it must be THIS Cactus, Texas (near Laredo):

Nope, it's the one in the panhandle. (Lots more cows up there that need packing)

[Old Professer]

Try getting rid of crabgrass.

[Moonman62]

A slumlord sob story.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Exactly.

You live by being illegal, your livelihood dies with illegals.

[CATravelAgent]

I'm not in favor of outsourcing the meat packing plants to Mexico for the simple reason of sanitation control.

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh! Okay. Thanks for the update. :)

[MeekOneGOP]

Well, it appears that I guessed wrong. It was THIS Cactus, Texas:

[potlatch]

Yes, in the panhandle I believe.

Hey Meek, great to 'see' you, I've missed you here.

As we all know, many of these illegals try to get as far away from the border as possible, maybe thinking they will be safer!

Thanks for your pings!!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Deep in the heart of our country.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Exactly.

[GATOR NAVY]

The actions and attitude of Luis Aguilar shows that the previous amnesty grant was a major mistake. I hope we don't make the same mistake again.

I agree.

[Rockpile]

CACTUS, TEXAS (Moore County). Cactus is on U.S. Highway 287 near Etter and thirteen miles north of Dumas in northern Moore County. It began as a company town to produce ammunition for World War II.qv The Cactus Ordnance Works, one of the largest plants in the county, was established there as a government project by the Chemical Construction Company in May 1942. About sixteen sections of land were purchased; the cactus and other prickly plants were cleared, and huge dormitories were hastily erected to house construction workers. After its completion in 1943, the plant began production of ammonium nitrate to be used in explosives. Housing was built for the plant employees, who at one time numbered 6,000, and many of whom lived in trailer houses. With the easing of the emergency after several months, officials of the Chemical Construction Company received orders to close the plant. Operations were suspended, and some of the residential structures were sold as surplus before the Shell Union Oil and Gas Corporation assumed control of the plant in early 1944 and began manufacturing aviation gasoline. This arrangement lasted until August 1946, when the Emergency Export Corporation took over and reconverted the plant to the production of ammonia. This company continued production until August 15, 1948, when Phillips Chemical, a division of Phillips Petroleum Company, assumed management. Phillips had erected another plant near the ordnance works in 1943. The Cactus post office was established in 1948, by which time the local population had decreased to 2,000. In the early 1980s Cactus had a population of 898 and fifteen businesses, including a large beef-packing plant. In 1990 the community's population was 1,529, and in 2000 it grew to 2,538.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. D. Minor, The History of Moore County, Stressing Education (M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1949). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

H. Allen Anderson