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ICE raid on Swift plant creates a ghost town
The Greeley Tribune ^ | 2/10/1007 | Trteamer

Posted on 02/10/2007 3:38:44 PM PST by Trteamer

CACTUS, Texas — The streets of this small, isolated city in the Texas Panhandle are virtually empty nowadays, and “For Rent” signs decorate dilapidated trailers and shabby 1940s-era military barracks that just weeks ago were full of tenants.

Sales of tortillas and other staples are down. Money wire transactions to Central America have mostly dried up. The “Guatemalas,” as local residents call them, are almost all gone...........


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aliens; ice; illegalimmigrants; immigrantlist; ohthehorror; strikeuptheviolins
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To: hatfieldmccoy

Yea,like you me or anybody we know wants to eat meat processed in a Mexican packing plant.Just find Americans to work these jobs and the problem should be solved.Oh,and by the way-all the HR people at Swift who hired these illegals need about 10 years in the pen.


41 posted on 02/10/2007 7:16:29 PM PST by Farmer Dean (Every time a toilet flushes,another liberal gets his brains.)
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To: Trteamer

See, you can deport these illegals. You don't have to get all of them; just put the fear of God and ICE in them and those you don't catch go away on their own.


42 posted on 02/10/2007 7:19:05 PM PST by Lion Den Dan
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To: Trteamer
On Dec. 12, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents clad in riot gear and armed with assault rifles

About time!

43 posted on 02/10/2007 8:04:04 PM PST by thiscouldbemoreconfusing
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To: Trteamer


BFLR = Bump for later reading


44 posted on 02/10/2007 8:05:14 PM PST by Kevmo (The first labor of Huntercles: Defeating the 3-headed RINO)
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To: cripplecreek

ROTF!


45 posted on 02/10/2007 8:43:51 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Our troops will send all of the worlds terrorists to hell in a handbasket with no virgins!)
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To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

ping


46 posted on 02/11/2007 11:38:22 AM PST by gubamyster
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To: Trteamer
“For Rent” signs decorate dilapidated trailers and shabby 1940s-era military barracks that just weeks ago were full of tenants.

Gee, sorry to ruin your business, slum-lords.

47 posted on 02/11/2007 11:44:14 AM PST by John Jorsett (scam never sleeps)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

The problem is the too small percentage who were deported.


48 posted on 02/11/2007 11:49:00 AM PST by Richard-SIA ("The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield" JEFFERSON)
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To: Trteamer

I didn't hear anybody crying the blues when the spotted owl put whole lumbering & mill towns out of business.


49 posted on 02/11/2007 11:52:38 AM PST by 4yearlurker ("Nothing is true,and everything is permitted"--7 th Satanic vow. Sounds like Liberalism!)
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To: Spktyr

bookmark for later printing.


50 posted on 02/11/2007 11:53:44 AM PST by IrishCatholic (No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
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To: RegulatorCountry

I'm always incredulous at these figures.

The "Poor Immigrants just seeking a better life" are able to pay thousands of dollars to Coyotes and for false ID, often in CASH, and we are supposed to feel sorry for them?

How many of us could afford to spend 5K-20K or more in CASH on an uncertain chance at a better job?


51 posted on 02/11/2007 11:54:02 AM PST by Richard-SIA ("The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield" JEFFERSON)
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To: Trteamer
Mario Lux, 26, from the town of Canilla in Quichi, said the piece of paper that gave him his work name cost him $1,400 and was obtained for him by a friend in Cactus.

With that document, Lux said he got an identification card in nearby New Mexico and then a job at the Swift plant in March 2006, cutting fat and gristle off meat for $11.90 an hour. He was not working the day of the raid but now will not return for fear of being discovered and arrested. He says that he still owes $3,200 to the smuggling network that got him to Cactus and that he has been unable to send money to his wife and three children back home. He is also three weeks behind in his rent. He and his three roommates pay $120 a week for their small apartment.

“I have no idea how I will pay that now,” Lux said as he stood in the food and clothes pantry established in the Cactus town center.

No problem, Dane will be happy to pay all his bills.

52 posted on 02/11/2007 12:28:16 PM PST by Petruchio (Single, Available, Easy)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

The Border patrol recently said that 10 million probably got in in 2006!


53 posted on 02/11/2007 3:29:29 PM PST by TheLion (How about "Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement," for a change)
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To: jcparks
My Grandmother had a dairy ranch in Dumas (not far from Cactus and the site of another raid) and this is rich farming country.

The small towns that dot the Panhandle were supported by the ranchers and they actually used to employ American's to work the meat packing plants in the area, and I don't recall American's all around the country not being able to afford meat because they paid the better wage required at the time.

The other business in the area were all related to the oil industry and there was smelters in the area. Basically, I don't have sympathy for any businesses who have CEO's making huge bonuses on the backs of illegal immigrants.

54 posted on 02/11/2007 3:34:29 PM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: TheLion

and heaven help the BP agent who does his job and tries to stop them.


55 posted on 02/11/2007 3:48:38 PM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: Spktyr
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.

It seems very clear why it is a terrible idea to give amnesty to folks whose first act in this country is to break the laws. Clearly, even after they become elected officals as AMERICANS their loyalties lie elsewhere. Expect more of the same as we get another amnesty and more of this sort of person is elected in American cities.

susie

56 posted on 02/11/2007 6:36:57 PM PST by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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