Posted on 01/27/2007 2:20:17 AM PST by dennisw
Margarita sighs and glances around the home she’ll soon be leaving.
There’s the tiny Christmas tree, still perched by the window. Over there are the toys her kids should have put away before going to bed. On the kitchen counter, bamboo shoots and dishes wait to be washed. She doesn’t want to move away from this jumbled place, but she knows she has to.
Because this is now the law: Anyone like Margarita who lives in state-funded housing must show identification to their landlord and sign a paper that says they’ve come legally to the country. Like scores of immigrants in Telluride and across Colorado, Margarita crossed illegally and has no papers. So when her lease at the Village Court Apartments expires next month, she and her family are out.
“We’re moving to Norwood,” Margarita said in Spanish. “It’s going to be a drastic change, but we don’t have any other alternative. I don’t have the slightest hope of staying.”
So it goes at apartment complexes in Mountain Village and Telluride, where illegal immigrants — many from Mexico and Central America — live in subsidized or government-built homes or receive state aid to help pay the rent.
Now, as leases come due, these renters are rushing to file paperwork seeking a visa or green card.
They’re hoping someone with legal papers can move in and thus renew the lease. They’re living in church basements until they can find a viable spot to live.
Or, they’re simply packing up and moving to Ridgway, Montrose or beyond, where rents are cheaper and the private landlords don’t have to check IDs like bar bouncers.
Managers at Telluride Apartments and Shandoka Apartments said they didn’t know how many families would be touched by the reach of these new laws, which went into effect Aug. 1. They said they could not say whether families were leaving because they had no papers, or because they just wanted a new home.
But Shirley Greve, executive director of the San Miguel Regional Housing Authority, said immigrants may not feel the law’s brunt until the spring, when many leases come up for renewal.
Before leaving office, Gov. Bill Owens signed a package of laws aimed at denying illegal immigrants state aid and contracts. Owens had said that 50,000 illegal immigrants were receiving state aid, and the new laws require anyone seeking aid to provide a valid driver’s license, state ID card or other proof of legal residence.
Anyone hoping to buy or rent a deed-restricted property — another type of government-funded affordable housing — must also show identification.
A flood of people have applied for Colorado ID cards since the laws were signed six months ago, but state officials said they have no statistics on the number of people who have lost aid or have changed houses due to the law.
Still, one business owner in Telluride said the new laws have choked off his business. Sam Leyva and his family recently shuttered their Mexican grocery store on main street, saying that Hispanic families had been leaving Telluride apartments because they had no immigration papers.
“We asked what was going on, and we heard a lot of people were moving to Montrose,” Leyva said.
Take Esperanza Rivera and Eden Mireles, transplants from Telluride to Placerville.
A live-in maid, Rivera moved with an American family from California to Telluride but quit in August after her senora began screaming and insulting Rivera. Rivera left the house, but had nowhere to go. Some landlords asked for identification, others for three months’ rent in advance.
“I couldn’t find an apartment because I don’t have papers,” she said. “I have a tourist visa, but I’m illegal because I’m working.”
Rivera found refuge in a church basement, where she met Mireles, a 21-year-old in the same situation. Mireles said he’d been living with his sister in the 134-apartment Shandoka complex, but when she couldn’t furnish ID, they both lost the apartment.
With help from some friends, Mireles and Rivera said they found a cheap apartment in Placerville, privately owned, where the landlord only asked one question: When do you want to come?
“Hoy dia,” Rivera said she told the landlord. Today.
Others are still in the lurch.
A grandmother from Mexico living at the Village Court apartments said that if she can’t stay in her $920 two-bedroom, she’ll leave the area altogether. She won’t return to Mexico or Arizona, where she lived before. California, maybe, but she worries that the grandson she raises will turn bad around gangs and big cities.
She has filed paperwork to get U.S. residence, but the lease expires on Feb. 28, and the government does not move swiftly.
“I work today to eat tomorrow,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified, saying she worried about the consequences for her children. “I don’t have a car. How am I going to move? I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Daniel Molina, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, said he’ll move even farther when his lease at Shandoka expires May 4. Molina said his fake green card is worthless to extend his lease, since landlords and governments are verifying document numbers against federal databases.
“Some are going to change apartments and move to Montrose,” he said of the 15 companeros who crossed with him a year ago. “But if I go to Montrose, I have to get a ride or a car, and pay every day. The work is in Telluride.”
So Molina said he has decided. This spring, he’s returning to Mexico.
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Have ya ever noticed that when a liberal talks about abortion, legality is EVERYTHING, but when they talk about immigration, it's irrelevant?
Its called rule of law. Its what people in the US are expected to live under.
Hopefully the next doctor to treat this moron will have false diplomas, but a sincere intentions.
Actually, the ski industry would not fold -- it would employ legal residents. Big Sky Resort does just fine and I have never seen an illegal alien working there.
These stories always start out this way: some phony character (Maria or Consuela or some such -- always a female because it draws more sympathy) bemoaning with quiet grace the indignities thrust upon her by an uncaring political juggernaut, while surrounded by the artifacts of her crushed humanity.
Why doesn't Microsoft just provide a Word template for this claptrap, then the "writers" could just fill in a few blanks and zip it off to the publisher.
So Molina said he has decided. This spring, he’s returning to Mexico.
Smart move. Talk all of your buddies into going with you.
Good point. Immigration should be rare, safe, and legal. Do I sound like a liberal now?
Some stories really do have a happy ending!
"This spring, he’s returning to Mexico."
I hope he's not the only one going.
Oh hurray. So about a year from now, we can expect another illegitimate welfare recipient to appear in our midst.
Maybe because it's fake? (Cue the muppets on the balcony laughter) "BW-HAHAHA!"
Immigration should be rare, safe, and legal.
That would be a great tagline. lol
How's this?
Here's an alternative--take a lesson from Senor Molina--go back to mexico.
There's no bias in this article. /s
It sounds like the taxpayers have been subsidizing cheap labor for the rich people in Telluride.
This reporter is a total idiot. Where do they find these people? Don't they need to have at least basic critical thinking skills to get a job? Aren't there any adults in charge at that newspaper?
good point
ping
I would whine about being forced to prove I am who I say I am. If I wanted to rent an apartment, that's between me and the renter. Then again, there shouldn't be subsidized housing anywhere in the first place. The illegals shouldn't be here but I'll be damned if the government is gonna get itself all up in my personal life.
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