Posted on 12/14/2006 8:15:55 AM PST by WestTexasWend
First it was the chaos. Then it was the confusion as to who was arrested and where they would be taken.
Now, the Spanish-speaking residents of Cactus, Dumas and other neighboring communities who escaped Tuesday's raid because they either are here legally or do not work at the Swift meat plant, face an even bigger problem: what is going to happen to the more than 100 children whose parents were rounded up and arrested?
"Right now the children are being taken care of by relatives or friends of those who were deported," said Orlando Gajardo, spokesman for the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Dumas.
The church is actively helping the families of the hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants who were busted Tuesday morning by U.S. immigration agents at the Swift and Company plant in Cactus, which is about 60 miles north of Amarillo.
"But we are worried about their future," Gajardo added. "We are afraid that if they are not reunited with their parents soon, some may end up in foster homes."
The children of those busted, whose ages range from a month to 18 years, are for the most part U.S. citizens, according to residents and volunteers helping the families of those arrested.
"Their parents may be here illegally, but those children are American citizens," said Eric Perez, a Dumas resident who owns El Jacalito, a combination of a convenience store and a Mexican fast food restaurant.
"Many of those children were left without their father and mother," said Lorena Adame, an El Jacalito employee who, like her boss, witnessed the early morning raid because the store is across the U.S. 287 from the meat plant. "There were many cases in which both parents were arrested."
Like others, Adame, Gajardo and Perez don't know for sure how many Swift workers were arrested Tuesday and how many children had a parent or both parents busted.
Some estimate that the number of workers arrested may be as high as 520, and the vast majority were either natives of Mexico or Guatemala.
"We don't have official figures but we are told that 220 Guatemalans were arrested," said Jose Barillas-Trennert, the Guatemalan Consul in Houston. "We're obviously worried because we don't know what is going to happen to our fellow citizens and because we don't know what is going to happen to their children."
Immigration authorities have been secretive about the number of arrested and where they were taken, Barillas-Trennert said.
In Cactus and Dumas it is widely believed that the arrested were bused to detention centers in Amarillo and Lubbock, the Guatemalan consulate has been told, also, that some of the detainees might be taken to New Mexico and other states, the Consul added.
Although the fate of the children of the detainees is the main worry for the immigrant community in Cactus, Dumas and surrounding communities, some fear another major headache - burglaries.
"We already heard stories that the homes of those who were arrested were burglarized Tuesday night," Gajardo said. "The thieves went looking for money, jewelry and other valuable objects."
Cactus Mayor Luis Aguilar and Police Chief Tim Turley could not be reached to comment on the unconfirmed reports.
An additional worry, though flatly denied by Gajardo and Perez, is that some immigration officers knocked on some doors looking for suspected illegal immigrants.
However, in Grand Island, Neb., where Swift also owns and operates a meat packing plant, The Independent, a sister publication of The Avalanche-Journal, filmed some agents going inside the house of a suspected illegal immigrants, said Editor Bill Dunn.
Dumas resident Socorro Rodriguez, whose wife Mercedes has been helping the families of those deported, said the immigrant community in the area was shocked and saddened by the massive immigration raid.
"I've been here for 47 years and I've never seen anything like this," said the 65-year-old Mexican immigrant. "And we are also very upset because the agents chose one of the most sacred days for Mexicans: the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
"If the (immigration) agents had been planning this raid for a long time, why couldn't they wait a little longer, like January," he added. "They spoiled our Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe and our Christmas."
Cry me a river!!!
Come here legally and you wont be putting your children through this. Enough with the anchor babies. Time to change that ridiculous law.
"The bankrobber was very upset because agents chose the sacred day of Christmas to apprehend him."
The second one soumds silly, huh?
I used to have a lot of friends who smoked pot. Over the years those friends got older, had children and stopped smoking pot.
The reason they stopped smoking pot?
They put their children first and aren't going to risk getting arrested and imposing that situation on their children.
Boo-frickin-Hoo.
It's something Mexicans celebrate in Mexico. Maybe ICE wanted to make sure these Mexicans got back to their country on time for the celebrations?
"But it's my saint's day!"
"If I don't speed I won't be able to make it to work on time!"
"Who will care for my kids who I purposefully endangered by breaking the law?"
Pathetic. Deport every last one of these illegals and prosecute everyone who knowingly hires them to the fullest extent of the law.
Perhaps this is one of the things they should have thought about when they decided to sneak into this country illegally. The bad news is the you and I will likely end up paying for their support one way or the other.
Leave my country, please. That includes the future gangbangers you got at home.
No agenda here /sarcasm
so they're from Dumass?
We really need to do something about birthright citizenship so these children can be reunited with their parents in Mexico.
Leni
This is Rudy Guliani's approach to crime in NYC: arrest even the smallest offenders, and pretty soon everything gets cleaned up. The point about immigration all along was that we didn't have to deport 12 million. Just deport a few, and the rest will get the message; and put a few employers in jail, and the rest will comply with the laws.
I think this is hilarious! This is typical of the MSM. Let's just blow past the whole 'Here illegally' part, and the part about STEALING SOMEONE ELSES IDENTITY.
It's all about the kids of the criminals that got sent away. Here's a tip, send them home too.
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