Wilma highlights plight of Florida's migrant farmworkers [Barfer]

AP viaTBO ^ | November 26, 2005 | LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ

[ncountylee]

PAHOKEE, Fla. (AP) -- Ernesto and Carmen Vasquez intend to celebrate the holidays at home despite the SUV-sized hole in their living-room ceiling - a calling card left by Hurricane Wilma - and the red "X" on their door marking the trailer as condemned.

It's been one month since Wilma whipped through their Everglades mobile home park in western Palm Beach County, flattening many of their neighbors' homes, but the couple have yet to receive a visit from aid workers or local officials. Shelters here are scarce, so they plan to remain in their two-bedroom trailer with their two children - if the rest of the roof doesn't cave in.

"We still have a house, so I suppose we are among the lucky ones," Carmen Vasquez said, as she looked up at the ceiling boards, sagging above photos of her children.

The Vasquez family is among thousands of Florida's uninsured farmworkers, some still without electricity, who are awaiting help in the wake of the Oct. 24 storm that thrashed South Florida at the end of the nation's worst hurricane season on record. Farmworker advocates say the situation is bad, but worse is the fact that it is looking like a repeat of last year, with migrant workers' flimsy housing rebuilt just in time for the next season's storms.

They say Wilma also has underscored a larger problem: the state's failure to respond to the needs of the mostly Mexican and Central American workers who in recent decades have reshaped Florida's agricultural communities, replacing many of the native black and Jamaican workers who once dominated the sector

[no-to-illegals]

I have no sympathy for these people.
This author doesn't care about American
citizens otherwise this author would be
demanding these people be removed from
this nation. In all likelyhood these
people are illegally in this nation.
The author is definately a traitor to
the nation and its citizens.

[no-to-illegals]

after reading the article I still believe
they are here illegally and this author is
lying about these people's status.

[DTogo]

the state's failure to respond to the needs of the mostly Mexican and Central American workers who in recent decades have reshaped Florida's agricultural communities, replacing many of the native black and Jamaican workers who once dominated the sector.

There you have it in a nutshell: doing the jobs no American will do - because they are here ILLEGALLY and will work for below-market wages to remain here, stealing jobs once held by hard-working Americans.

[WasDougsLamb]

They say Wilma also has underscored a larger problem: the state's failure to respond to the needs of the mostly Mexican and Central American workers ----There's always somebody pissin' and moanin they were forgotten and that nobody cares.

[missycocopuffs]

From the article... The trouble with finding a housing solution is compounded by a language barrier, with local and state officials unprepared to deal with the Spanish-speaking immigrants...

Vasquez, who emigrated more than 20 years ago from Sinaloa, Mexico, to California, where she met her husband...

Vasquez, who speaks little English, and half a dozen other farmworker wives recently attended a regional meeting to discuss hurricane recovery issues for the area's most vulnerable...

Sorry, ma'am, but if you, having lived in a host country for 20 years, cannot be troubled to learn the language of your host country, why should your hosts trouble themselves about you.

[ARCADIA]

There's always somebody pissin' and moanin they were forgotten and that nobody cares.

The response from the insurance industry and officials has been less then stellar. Most homeowners have taken loses at just below their deductible level, and essentially discovered that they have no effective insurance; and some have had problems with failing (disappearing) insurers. But all of these issues, including an expected Florida Power and Light price hike, and the widespread damage to prefabs affects the wider community, not just migrant workers.

[DumpsterDiver]

ping

[WasDougsLamb]

But all of these issues, including an expected Florida Power and Light price hike, and the widespread damage to prefabs affects the wider community, not just migrant workers.

----The thread was about migrant workers moaning about being forgotten. If you will notcie , it seems like it is the same people/groups complaining about people not doing enough to help them. It does effect a wider community as you said but it said the migrant workers are the ones complaining this time. And I stand by what I said. It is always somebody pissin' and moanin' about something like they were the only ones effected.

[calrighty]

BTTT

[Joe Boucher]

I live about 60 miles north of Pahokee and a few weeks ago my wife and I rode our Harley around the lake to see what damage there was.
There was a marina on the dike which holds back the big lake.The marina is no more but several large boats have been lifted up onto the dike maybe twenty or thirty feet above the normal lake level.
On the north side of Pahokee as you come into town along the lake there used to be royal palms along either side of the road. many are no longer. They were about 35 feet each and absolutely beautiful.
Pahokee is a poor migrant town and illegals from Haiti mostly it seems. Here they pick sugar.
You can have absolutely no education and still pick sugar.
In nearly every city in America these apartments would be condemed and torn down. And that is on their best days. Now they are in even worse shambles.The trailers are demolished
These folks came here and live like animals in this mess, and it still is better then where they came from.

[traviskicks]

How can they be doing jobs no americans will do yet stealing American jobs?

Immigration, illegal or not, increases economic growth for the United States and prosperity for all americans.

[DTogo]

How can they be doing jobs no americans will do yet stealing American jobs?

They're doing jobs no Americans will do because of the below-market wages they are willing to work for in order to remain here ILLEGALLY.

Immigration, illegal or not, increases economic growth for the United States and prosperity for all americans.

Are you SERIOUS?!

- So ILLEGAL immigrants who are willing to work for below-market wages and thereby take jobs once held by Americans is good for the American worker?

- ILLEGAL aliens being trafficked like cattle across the border is good for America?

- The ILLEGAL aliens here who work without paying taxes, or their employers not paying payroll taxes, is good for America?

- ILLEGAL aliens here in America who commit crimes or cause accidents involving Americans is good for the USA?

- ILLEGAL aliens here who don't assimilate yet put their kids in our schools and enter our society expecting everything to be duplicated into Spanish is a good use of American taxpayer money?

- ILLEGAL aliens who show up in emergency rooms with ailments but no means to pay for treatment, good for America?

- ILLEGAL aliens who show up in America with once-erradicated communicable diseases like TB, good for America?

- ILLEGAL aliens who may be from the Middle East and members of an Al Qaeda sleeper cell, but we don't know it because our Govt. won't make the effort to secure the border or track these people down, good for America?

Do the terms legal and ILLEGAL mean anything to you? How about the word "border?" Are you bayourod's brother?

[traviskicks]

Not only am I dead serious, I am also right. :)

Most of the 'problems' you speak of are problems of socialism, not immigration. Priorities.

Some thoughts on the subject:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503496/posts#71

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1237232/posts?q=1&&page=190#190

The only valid point you make, IMO, is regarding terrorism, the borders need to be secure for that.

[raybbr]

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

Debasing Reagan's speech. Nowhere does it say illegal alien.

[raybbr]

If government did not give itself the power to restrict immigration, a private company could hire who they wanted to and pay them what they wanted to to work on their factory/farm here in the US.

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

From the Constitution. Congress has always had the power to regulate immigration. It has not needed to grow bigger to do so.

In your world are there any borders? If not, why not?

[Eva]

Do these people own the mobile home? There was an article in the Seattle paper about the Florida residents who are still displaced from Ivan. The profiled a woman who was complaining that the home that she rented was not rebuilt for her, that the homes that were wrecked were replaced with more expensive housing.

[traviskicks]

Yes, it has always had the power, but rarely acted on that power, until this century (although it did restrict immigration of various groups, depending on the political whims of the populace, chinese comes to mind). Government has gotten bigger to regulate all of this and as the regulations increase, so does the size of government. The US government used to pay for advertisements in Europe to try to get more immigrants to come here. Europeans governmetns were upset because many of their citizens were leaving the freedom suppressing countries of europe. Of course, I don't suggest government steal any more of our tax money to enact such a a progmam...

I don't propose open borders as terrorists need to be stopped. I'm in favor of moving the military towards the borders and building a fence. However, I'm also in favor of letting anyone who can get here on their own free will into the country.

[ARCADIA]

However, I'm also in favor of letting anyone who can get here on their own free will into the country.

That works for me; so long as we are willing to extend citizenship to any and all who enter. If allowing 10,000,000 more minimum wage workers - potential Democrats - in every year floats your boat, then do so. I would think it wiser to develop and invest in our own domestic labor pool; and, to allow only those who must be added in the event our industrial capacity makes a massive comeback.

[DTogo]

Most of the 'problems' you speak of are problems of socialism, not immigration. Priorities... I'm also in favor of letting anyone who can get here on their own free will into the country.

So if someone wants to set up shop on the street and sell moonshine or homebrew for cash, too bad for the liquor store that has to buy LEGAL booze and pay sales tax.

If one grocery store buys meat directly from a rancher, too bad for the stores that have to buy it LEGALLY from the slaughterhouses where it's FDA approved.

And I guess we should just let Merck sell whatever they can put on the drugstore shelf of their own free will.

Maybe we should allow thieves to take whatever than can get out banks of their own free will.

Or allow rapists to have at any woman they can grab of their own free will.

Who needs laws and borders? They just cause problems of socialism...