Posted on 07/20/2005 10:56:08 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
Associated Press
GOLDSBORO, N.C. - One of the 48 illegal workers arrested this month at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base will return to Mexico richer by $31,700, thanks to his hard work and the cooperation of immigration officials.
That's the amount of money that Cristobal Chavez Torres saved in $100 bills from seven years of bone-crunching labor and buried in a well-sealed glass jar the yard of the rundown trailer he rented in Goldsboro.
Chavez, who began the bus ride home to Mexico on Wednesday, was allowed to return to the trailer to retrieve both his money and his 16-year-old son, Arturo, before he was deported.
"I didn't want to lose it," he said. "It was sweat from my brow."
Chavez, 66, has lived in the United States off and on since 1970, when he crossed the Rio Grande River in search of work. He came to North Carolina seven years ago and got a job with a private construction company after doing farm work and construction in California, Texas, Florida and Kentucky.
His son came to live with him six years ago after Arturo's mother died in Mexico.
Chavez never earned more than $7.25 an hour but was able to save, thanks to his thriftiness and stamina for long work weeks. When he had accumulated about $10,000, he decided it would be best to find a hiding spot other than the pockets of his pants. And he wanted somewhere outside his trailer.
"If there were an electrical short and my home caught on fire, I'd lose everything," said Chavez, who never tried to open a bank account because most of his documents were fake.
Randy Chambers, treasurer of the Latino Community Credit Union in Durham, said the credit union's surveys indicate that up to 80 percent of Latin American immigrants in North Carolina have never had a bank account, either in the United States or in their home countries.
Many say that they don't trust financial institutions or that bank employees don't speak their language, Chambers said. Others don't have the proper documents.
On July 6, Chavez was among 48 illegal immigrants working for private construction contractors at the Air Force base who were rounded up after a two-month investigation. He told his secret to a staff member from the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh, who had come to the jail July 8 to make sure Chavez and the other detained Mexicans were being treated fairly.
The staff member relayed the story of Chavez's treasure to Mexican Consul Armando Ortiz Rocha, who called Tom O'Connell, head of the local office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ortiz asked whether O'Connell would consider releasing Chavez if the consulate ensured that Chavez returned to Mexico after retrieving the money. O'Connell agreed and turned Chavez over to the consulate July 11.
O'Connell said he was swayed more by the plight of Chavez's son than the money.
"The main reason was the 16-year-old kid," O'Connell said. "I don't like to leave minors unattended."
After digging up his money, Chavez turned it over to consulate authorities, who placed it in a bank account. They'll transfer the money to Chavez once he returns to Mexico.
The first thing Chavez plans to do is build a concrete house on the small plot of land he bought years ago in El Mante, his hometown in northern Mexico.
Then he'll build a cart from which to sell fresh fruit juice in the town square. He doubts that he'll add to his savings as he did in the United States.
"In Mexico, who will pay me $500 a week?" he asked.
EEEsh, you're right! That, with the indignities our racist society has laid upon him, and the mistrust he endured from our capitalists, has surely earned him a visit from the ACLU.
"He (Charles Manson) was doing a job even illegals refused to do."
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Have you any idea how large the prison populations are with illegal aliens in at least seven of the border states with Mexico?
$7.25 an hour
X
40 hours
= $290.00
He said "Who will pay me $500 a week in Mexico?"
He did not pay income taxes
Even under taxable minimums - Medicare - & all the many other payroll deductions were not paid as per federal and state stautes
A 16 year old son here?
He had a wife or girl friend working off the books too
If he declared a minimum income - the Earned Income Credit would get him back $4000-$5000 cash from the IRS every year - while he hid the rest of his income
Mexicans have manuals, Mexican groups, churches that tell them all of these tricks
One trick is to declare minimum income under two different names and get two EIC checks fromm the IRS
Just like the Islamic imans in England - one article said they paid him 300 pounds a week + all or his rent on a house for over 17 years - while he made speeches about killing Christians and Jews and taking over England -
The English Parliament seems to be waking up now finally - The Home Secretary has revised the rules for coming into the UK and deporting scumbags
Illegal alien lawbreakers are not the kind of "immigrants" that we need, whether they're hard working or not. Why do you have a soft spot in your heart for foreign lawbreakers? By the way, the native born haven't stopped doing this. I have no idea where you got that crazy notion.
Border ping
And lawbreaking natives should be gotten rid of, too.
Let's start with you. You have broken the speed limit, right?
Damn lawbreaker.
"So, can the money gained as the result of a crime now be kept by the criminal?"
Sure, if you're a U.S. citizen.
Sorry. What I should have said was, Sure, but not if you're a U.S. citizen.
It's 2:30 am here. When you get to the point you make stupid mistakes like that, it's time to go to bed.
I wonder if he was taxed...
Let's start with you. You have broken the speed limit, right?
Damn lawbreaker.
LOL! An American citizen can't be deported from the United States, but then you already knew that.
So, do you support illegal immigration or are you opposed to illegal immigration?
We already have immigration laws in place that allow exactly what you described. Millions of foreigners have come to the United States legally over the last 40 years by using these laws. Millions more foreigners around the world have filed their paperwork and are patiently waiting for their turn to come to the United States legally. Unfortunately, Mr. Torres didn't wait for his turn to come here legally and instead made the decision to illegally cross over our border.
I think the American public would be much more willing to open up the gates for these people if we could shut out the blatant gatecrashers. There's a pesky little thing vital to our integrity called a BORDER, ya know. It means the place where it stops being the US and starts being the rest of the world.
Tax him? Hell, let's RICO him.
Thanks for the comments in your post #33. I pretty much agree with everything that you said. Our current immigration laws and the bureaucracy whose job it is to enforce them are in a state of disarray, but hopefully these laws will be reformed and streamlined sometime in the near future.
Is there any other country in this world whose borders are such a joke?
Only if they are in the country illegally!
Nope, no trouble at all.
Our Gov. Org. would just confiscate it all, alleging a "drug nexus" without any other evidence beyond the money's existence.
No trial, no conviction, just "asset forfeiture".
If you don't like it, you have to POST A BOND in order to file an appeal to get your money back!
Fourth amendment? State and Fed. "Law Enforcement" don't need to honor no steenk'in fourth amendment!
It sure seems the smart bet is to be an illegal these days, they get "rights" the rest of us can only dream of.
Well, the story doesn't provide any information as to what services and such that this guy used while he was here, "saving." If you aren't paying a great deal to support yourself, you can "save" a higher percentage of earnings.
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