Mexico's Cemex Expects Increased U.S. Sales In 2007 Following Rinker Acquisition
By Lisa J. Adams ASSOCIATED PRESS July 20, 2007
MEXICO CITY – Mexican cement giant Cemex SAB expects to increase its sales in the U.S. in the second half of 2007 with the recent acquisition of Australia's largest building materials maker, company leaders said Friday.
“Rinker will enhance our position as one of the world's largest building materials company, reduce our cash flow volatility and improve our capital structure,†Hector Medina, Cemex's executive vice president of planning and finance, said during a conference call.
Medina said Cemex now controls more than 95 percent of Rinker Group Ltd., which was acquired through a $14.25 billion tender offer.
The company will begin integrating the operations of Rinker – which obtains about 80 percent of its income from the U.S. – during the second half of the year, helping U.S. cement volume to grow for the whole year in the “mid-single-digit range compared to operations last year,†Medina said. He said the company expects a 20 percent increase in ready-mix volumes in the U.S. in 2007, and a 100 percent increase in aggregate volumes.
Cement volumes in the U.S. decreased 11 percent in the second quarter, compared with the same period last year. Ready-mix volumes decreased 21 percent, and aggregate volumes decreased 16 percent. Last month, Cemex lowered its outlook for the U.S. market that has been beset by a housing slump, predicting an 11 percent drop in cement sales for the quarter and a 4 percent drop for the year.
“We recognize that the correction and the eventual recovery of the residential sector in the United States continues to be uncertain and we maintain low visibility going forward,†Medina said.
Partly because of growth in other regions of the world and increased volumes from the Rinker acquisition, Cemex will achieve its target of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, of $4.3 billion, Medina said.
The size of the Rinker acquisition raised concern among regulators. The U.S. Justice Department allowed the deal on the condition that Cemex sell more than three dozen concrete and aggregate facilities in Arizona and Florida, which it is in the process of doing.
On Thursday, Cemex reported a 6 percent increase in second-quarter net profits, to $611 million, from $579 million in the same period last year.
The company also reported a 6 percent growth in sales to $4.9 billion, and a 6 percent decrease in operating income to $806 million. Operating income is equal to sales minus the cost of goods produced.
Cemex announced a 1 percent decrease in Ebitda profits for the quarter to $1.1 billion
Cemex's American depositary receipts dropped $1.18, or 3.3 percent, to $34.75 Friday afternoon
Mexico City To Build Tallest Building In Latin America
ASSOCIATED PRESS July 23, 2007
MEXICO CITY – Mexico City, already home to Latin America's tallest building, will see that title move a few blocks away to a new skyscraper set to be completed as the nation celebrates its bicentennial, officials said Monday.
Crews will break ground on the 984-foot tall Torre Bicentenario later this year and the building is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2010, the year Mexico celebrates 200 years since the start of its battle for independence from Spain, the Mexican capital's government said.
The privately funded, 85-floor collection of offices, restaurants and a convention center will cost an estimated $600 million. It will surpass Reforma Avenue's Torre Mayor, which was inaugurated in 2003 as Latin America's tallest building at 738 feet and 55 floors.
The Torre Bicentenario will be located just down the road from Torre Mayor, in Mexico City's exclusive Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.
Much of Mexico City is built on a silty, former lake bed, and officials have long shied away from tall buildings, especially after the devastating 1985 earthquake, which killed thousands. But a recent real estate boom and better building codes have sparked a construction frenzy, and skyscrapers are rising across the capital.
The Mexican buildings, however, are still far shorter than the world's tallest.
Developers of a 1,680-foot skyscraper still under construction in oil-rich Dubai claimed that it has become the world's tallest building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004. The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and its planned final height has been kept secret.
Previous skyscraper record-holders include New York's Empire State Building at 1,250 feet; Shanghai's Jin Mao Building at 1,381 feet; Chicago's Sears Tower at 1,451 feet; and Malaysia's Petronas Towers at 1,483 feet.
SHERIFF TO BAR ILLEGALS FROM VISITING COUNTY JAIL INMATES
July 27th, 2007 @ 6:49am by Bob McClay/KTAR
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is developing system designed to keep illegal immigrants from visiting county jail inmates.
Sheriff's deputies would do background checks on every one who comes for a jail visit.
"We will be looking at some type of procedure where we identify illegals coming into the jail. They won't be able to come in."
When someone comes to the jail to visit an inmate, they're required to show ID. Arpaio says the background check will be completed before their next jail visit.
Those who can't prove citizenship would be denied a second visit and could be arrested.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio says one man decides who gets to visit an incarcerated loved one. "I run the jail. I decide who goes in there."
"I run the jail and I have to be careful for security reasons."
Arpaio says screening jail visitors is nothing new. Since 2004, over 1,600 people with felony criminal histories have been turned away when trying to visit a Maricopa County jail inmate.
Poll: Most in NJ Would Offer Citizenship to Illegal Aliens
By JEFFREY GOLD The Associated Press 7/29/2007
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — About two-thirds of New Jerseyans would offer a path to citizenship to illegal aliens who have lived and worked in the United States for at least two years, according to a poll released Sunday.
Nearly all the rest surveyed, 30 percent, said illegal immigrants should be deported, the Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll found.
About one-third of state residents believe illegal immigrants take jobs from Americans, while nearly 60 percent said they take jobs Americans don't want, according to the poll.
The findings on citizenship and work were similar to a national poll in May by CBS News and The New York Times.
An immigration overhaul supported by President Bush and leaders of both parties failed in the Senate in June. It would have allowed illegal immigrants to become citizens after fulfilling various requirements, a plan derided as amnesty by opponents.
"Immigration is a mixed bag for New Jerseyans," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "It is undeniable that immigrant groups have made significant contributions to the state. But issues around reforming illegal immigration policy raise serious concerns for many residents."
Immigrants have long made New Jersey a gateway, and almost one in five of the state's 8.7 million residents were born in other countries, according to U.S. Census figures.
State residents are almost evenly divided on the impact of immigration into New Jersey: 40 percent said it was good, while 44 percent said it was bad. In keeping with regional differences seen on other questions, residents in southern and central New Jersey had less favorable views of immigration: half felt it was bad for the state.
About 75 percent of those surveyed said illegal immigration was a serious problem for New Jersey, and nearly 90 percent said it was a serious problem for the United States, the poll found.
The survey noted that attitudes varied when people were asked about specific nationalities. More than half of the respondents rated immigrants "more of a good thing" if they came from Poland, India, China or the Philippines. Less than half held that view about immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Colombia.
The Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll was conducted by telephone with 800 New Jersey adults from July 16 to 19. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. ___ On the Net:
Arrests, Confrontations at Town Hall Rally Large Police Presence Tries to Cool Simmering Tempers as Opionions Clash
DAILY RECORD STAFF REPORT Saturday, July 28, 2007
MORRISTOWN -- At least four people have been arrested at an anti-illegal immigration rally on the steps of town hall this afternoon, including two men who tried to disrupt speakers while waving a banner that read "No racist deportation."
And shortly before 1:30 p.m., Diana Mejia, head of the pro-immigrant support group Wind of the Spirit, was removed by police while carrying a banner that read "No Human Being is Illegal."
Earlier, two other women were seen being taken into custody. And members of the National Organization for Women, on hand to counter the rally's speakers, were removed by Morris County Sheriff's deputies as they shouted toward the microphone.
About 150 people have gathered on the front lawn of Morristown's town hall, and another 100 have gathered across South Street, closing the thoroughfare during some of the speeches.
Chants in support of both sides of the illegal immigration debate are rising from the gathering.
A significant police presence is on hand surrounding the area of Morristown's town hall, including police from department's across Morris County, the Morris County Sheriff's Office, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and a New Jersey State Police helicopter.
Mayor at the microphone
A full slate of speakers was planned for the ProAmerica.org rally -- including Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello, who spoke around 1:45 p.m.
Targeting the state government, Cresitello called on Gov. Jon Corzine and Attorney General Anne Milgram to drop their opposition to the mayor's plan to deputize town police officers to enforce federal immigration laws.
"How dare they question my right to move on this program," Cresitello shouted to loud applause.
He said New Jersey's leaders contribute indirectly to an "illegal underground economy" by refusing to help rid the state of illegal immigrants by targeting those who rent to them and those who employ them.
Cresitello told the crowd he supports a national ID card and national work permit program.
He then targeted those standing across South Street who chanted "Cresitello KKK" and "Shame on You" as he spoke, calling them Communists and Marxists.
"We know your motives and we won't let you take over our government," he said.
Other speakers
Earlier, Carmen Morales of the group You Don't Speak For Me lobbied for stronger U.S. border controls.
"If we had strong immigration laws and strong borders, 9/11 would not have happened," Morales said.
Another speaker, John Rucki of New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control, insisted his group supports legal immigration. But he had strong words for those who supported illegal immigrants.
"Those groups that are against us, I say your days are limited," Rucki said to a roar of applause. "English is our language -- speak it, write it, print it."
Prayer vigil
Across town, a much quieter prayer vigil in support of immigrants is taking place at St. Margaret's Church on Sussex Avenue.
Around 1:30 p.m., about 20 participants began marching across town to join counter-demonstrators at the town hall rally.
During the vigil, participants offered prayers and recited poetry while music from the 1960s peace movement play in the background.
Both rallies were expected to last until 2 p.m.
Some participants in the prayer vigil also plan to march across town to the anti-illegal immigration rally at town hall.
What they stand for
The town hall rally -- calling for the enforcement of immigration laws -- included representatives of at least four organizations. Early estimates called for more than 1,000 people to attend, according to organizers, while a smaller turnout was expected at the vigil.
"Over the past year, illegal aliens and their supporters have gathered in large numbers in communities all over America and made their unrightful demands. We've heard their voices. Now it's time they heard ours," town hall rally organizer Robb Pearson says on his Web site.
On the other side of town, the immigrant resource organization Wind of the Spirit hosted the prayer vigil to highlight the difficulties that immigrants face. Diana Mejia, its organizer, said she hoped attendees would get a positive message.
The vigil was cosponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Unitarian Fellowship and NJ Immigration Policy Network.
The debate in town heated up after Cresitello sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, hoping to get 10 local police officers deputized as immigration agents under the federal 287-G program. The officers would be given access to a database to inquire about the individuals' immigration status and to start deportation proceedings on illegal immigrants.
Anger of Immigrant Debate Bursts Forth at Rallies Opposing Sides Go Face to Face In Morristown
July 29, 2007 BY LESLIE KWOH AND ALLISON STEELE Star-Ledger Staff
On one side of South Street in Morristown, 250 protesters swarmed the lawn in front of town hall, armed with signs bearing anti-illegal immigration slogans like "We fought our revolution, go back and fight yours," and "Stop the Invasion -- Go Home!"
Directly across the street, separated by a wall of police officers, another 250 protesters filled the sidewalk in front of Kings Supermarket, shouting into megaphones and chanting angrily in counter-protest.
The two groups faced off for two hours yesterday, blocking streets, drawing crowds of curious passers-by and keeping police officers on high alert.
Sweating in the midday sun, anti-illegal-immigration protesters cheered and clapped as speakers took the stage to launch fiery tirades. Organized by the ProAmerica Society of Mount Olive, some blamed illegal immigrants for car accidents, drug smuggling, murders and job loss. Others said illegal immigrants are diluting the American culture.
"I will never accept English as a second language," said Daniel Smeriglio, from Voice of the People USA, an activist group based in Pennsylvania. "You disgrace us."
Carmen Morales, a speaker from the Hispanic anti-amnesty group "You Don't Speak for Me," told the crowd she opposed immigrants who do not enter the county the legal way, as she had.
"You don't belong in Morristown," she said.
Across the street, counter-protesters shouted and chanted so loudly that at times they drowned out the voices of the speakers at town hall. They waved signs with slogans like "Immigrants are not criminals," "Working people have no borders," and "Mayor KKK," referring to Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello's stance against illegal immigrants.
Michele Miculiani, who works at Kings, joined the counter-protesters on her lunch break.
"That side is hatred, and hatred is what causes the problems here," Miculiani yelled, pointing at the crowd outside town hall. "It's these kind of people, they're no better than the terrorists on 9/11!"
Anger of immigrant debate bursts forth at rallies Page 2 of 2 The rally comes on the heels of a ruling in Hazleton, Pa., on Thursday in which a judge ruled unconstitutional a law that would have penalized landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, and employers who hire them.
Protesters grew more vocal as the afternoon wore on, with both sides waiting for Cresitello to take the stage. Police outfitted in riot gear with helmets, batons and pepper spray surrounded the stage, while a line of reinforcements arrived to barricade South Street.
A man and a woman were arrested at about 12:30 p.m., according to Morristown Police Chief Peter Demnitz, when they attempted to jump onto the stage and damage the amplifiers. Police also broke up several fistfights between protesters, Demnitz said.
When he took the stage, the mayor, who is seeking to deputize local police officers as federal immigration agents, condemned his opponents for stalling his efforts.
"How dare they, how dare they question my right as mayor of this community to move this program forward?" he asked.
Then, as counter-protesters began chanting loudly, "Shame, shame, shame on you!" in an effort to drown the mayor out, Cresitello retaliated with a warning.
"To the Communists across the street, and the Marxists, we know your motives, and we will not continue to let you go forward with your intent to take over our country," he said.
Protesters attended yesterday's rally for various reasons. Morris Township resident Barbara Bock, 60, said she wanted to stop the drug gangs "coming across with border with drugs for our children."
Michael Manning, 45, a furniture worker in Dover, said he attended after almost losing his job last month to the "many illegals out there ready to just take my job."
In the two weeks before today's rally, the police had been tipped off to a plan to disrupt the event, said Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi. Bianchi activated the county's rapid deployment team for the first time since it was established several years ago, and about 140 state, county and municipal officers were deployed, along with an army of helicopters, horses and SUVs.
But the rally was mostly peaceful, with the exception of the arrests and a few heated exchanges. Diana Mejia, co-founder of Wind of the Spirit, the local immigrants resource center that organized a prayer vigil at a nearby church, was dragged from the lawn in front of town hall after she was spotted in the crowd with a pro-immigrant sign. Police officers carried her away as protesters across the street chanted, "Let her stay!"
"I just stood there," a visibly rattled Mejia said when she got back to the other side of the street. "I didn't say anything. They just grabbed me and pulled me."
Meanwhile, a mile away at St. Margaret's Church on Sussex Avenue, about 50 people read poems and sang songs during a peace vigil. Father Hernan Arias, pastor of the church, asked God to help the country's immigrant workers.
"In your eyes and ears we are all legal, because we are your sons and daughters," Arias said.
If immigration bill dies, so will many crops. U.S. consumers...can blame Congress for making a trip to the supermarket more expensive, and perhaps riskier.
By Dan Moffett Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 29, 2007
Idaho Republican Larry Craig ranks among the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate, and California Democrat Barbara Boxer could be the most liberal lawmaker in the entire Congress.
But last week, Sens. Craig and Boxer stood shoulder-to-shoulder, rallying to each other's support and defense, during an often contentious fight on the Senate floor. There was no left or right. There was no ideological divide or partisan posturing. Sens. Craig and Boxer were inseparable as they talked about the nation's most divisive issue: immigration reform.
The reason? Both come from states that stand to take heavy losses of fruits and vegetables because farmers are unable to find workers for harvesting.
Sen. Craig has potatoes that are moldering in the ground. Sen. Boxer has oranges that are rotting on the trees.
When Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill last month, provisions that would have allowed migrant farmworkers temporary legal status failed, too. Across the country, tens of thousands of immigrants who fear deportation or government penalties are staying away from farm fields.
"American agriculture is now in a crisis, in part because we have failed to pass an immigration bill," Sen. Craig told his colleagues. He said Idaho was short about 20 percent of the farmworkers it needed; nationally, the underemployment rate for the harvest season was about 35 percent.
Sen. Boxer predicted that the situation would get worse - "this is just the start of this thing" - and pleaded with senators to set aside immigration politics and fix the farm crisis by passing AgJobs, a guest-worker plan that has bounced between Senate committees and assorted floor fights for four years.
In fact, AgJobs has been around so long that one of its principal authors, Florida's Bob Graham, has long been gone from the Senate. The bill, a five-year plan that would legalize between 900,000 and 1.2 million farmworkers, ran aground again last month when the compromise over immigration reform fell apart.
Sen. Craig is among a group of farm state senators - Florida's Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson are also aboard - trying to pass AgJobs as stand-alone legislation and avoid the trappings of the greater immigration debate.
But that isn't easy. It may not even be possible.
Efforts to get AgJobs moving have stalled because of bickering over border security. Senate Republicans last week pushed measures that would appropriate $3 billion to add fences and patrols to the U.S.-Mexico border. More problematic, in the GOP amendment was a provision to require mandatory jail time for immigrants who overstay their visas. It also gave police, hospital workers and some public employees the authority to question people about their immigration status.
Democrats protested. Republicans dug in. The debate got testy and gave people in the C-SPAN cafeteria something to chat about. But nothing got done.
So Sen. Craig's potatoes are a molderin' in their graves, and Sen. Boxer's fruit is dying on the vine.
Frustrated with the federal government's inability to solve the immigrant labor problem, some farmers are renting land in Mexico to grow their crops. You know Congress has failed the nation when American farmers start deporting themselves.
Florida agriculture has labor problems but no crisis - yet. The winter harvest will tell the story. Without some sort of guest-worker reform, says Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association President Mike Stuart, there will be shortages of manpower. "That means leaving fruit and vegetable crops in the fields," he said. "Consequently, production will shift offshore, and we will become more dependent on foreign sources for our food supply."
U.S. consumers, who already were trying to figure out how to protect themselves against foods from Asia and Latin America that come here with inadequate inspections and safeguards, can blame Congress for making a trip to the supermarket more expensive, and perhaps riskier.
By Stebbins Jefferson Palm Beach Post Columnist Saturday, June 30, 2007
"Jeffie, I'm deeply concerned about what happened this week, and you ought to be, too," my former high school classmate Bernard Thomas exclaimed as he approached me at the corner service station.
"I can't imagine why, B.T.," I replied, hanging up the gas nozzle. "Things are definitely getting better. For the first time in months, I can afford to fill up my tank. My husband says I should fill up at night or early in the morning when it's cool. That way I would get more gas for my money."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! There you go, thinking about yourself. Woman, we got some bigger terroristic, socioeconomic problems in this country than the price of gas."
"Wow, B.T., 'terroristic' and 'socioeconomic,' huh? You had to dig deep for those, didn't you? You've got to be less confusing and more specific to make me worry."
"Maybe 'worry' is not the right word. What I'm trying to say is we need action now. We can't keep putting off solving problems until the next election. By then we'll be so far behind we'll never catch up."
Suddenly, I had a flash of insight: "Bro, now I'm feeling your pain. You're all hot and bothered because Thursday the Supreme Court ruled affirmative action can't be used to maintain diversity in magnet schools. That's a little like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse without supervision. But notice the decision was 5-4. That means we've come a long way from where we've been."
"That's your opinion, not mine. But if you can bring yourself to think about other people, you will recall it also was on Thursday that Congress gave up on solving our illegal immigration problem. Jeffie, that was like letting a house burn down while you wait until you can buy a new hose to spray water on the fire. Do you want to know why I believe that?"
"Not really, but since you're going to tell me anyway, hurry up before I burn up in this heat."
"Woman, right now we got about 12 million illegal immigrants living in this country. By the time a new Congress starts in 2009, that number will be even bigger. If we can't solve the problem now, waiting until it gets bigger won't make it easier. "
"Our senators and representatives know that, Bro. They just want to wait until they can put together a perfect immigration bill, one that will punish the illegals for providing cheap labor and still please all the voters in the next election."
"I know the drill, Jeffie. The employees need to pay for the employers' play (while for decades the government winked at the whole mess). When we get that done, we can lock down the borders to keep terrorists out."
"B.T., what else can we do and still respect the law?"
"Give the illegals amnesty, close our borders and start over with strictly enforced immigration standards. Next time around, no government winking or blinking or nodding."
"Well, well, well! Old hard-hearted B.T. is going all soft and mushy over illegal immigrants. I'm surprised you care. Now, why is that?"
"Because I can identify with them, Jeffie. We black people have been in the self-same place many Latino illegals are in now. We got used for other peoples' purposes. On the cheap, Americans have built a real cushy lifestyle for themselves."
"True, but our democracy is based on law. We can't just ignore past crimes and let the illegals off without some penalty. That would undermine what this country stands for."
"Woman, believe me when I tell you: What our country will stand for in spite of the law is what caused this immigration problem in the first place. If we separate that crime from punishment, amnesty is the next sensible step."
"Do you really think that's possible?"
"Sure it is. All Congress needs to do is pass an 'Amnesty Proclamation.' That would set the record straight and let the new immigrants start all over again. Then we can lock down the borders with strict laws and enforcement. We're in a fix that only amnesty can fix. The important thing is to not get in that fix ever again."
Al Sharpton and Wal-Mart's Lee Scott Allies for Immigration Bill
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ AP Hispanic Affairs Writer July 24, 2007
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The Rev. Al Sharpton and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott became unlikely allies Tuesday in their call to revive immigration legislation, in speeches before the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights organization.
"Congress needs to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill now," said Scott, who heads the world's largest retailer.
Scott attributed his views in part to his Mexican-American granddaughter, who has helped him to understand immigration as more than "simply a cerebral exercise."
But Hispanics also provide a major part of the chain's business, Scott acknowledged, roughly 14 percent and growing. And their relatives are increasingly shopping at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in countries such as Argentina and Guatemala.
Sharpton, a civil rights activist who has often railed against corporate America, went further in his support for a bill that would provide a path to legalization for many of the nation's more than 12 million illegal immigrants. He denounced TV and radio shows that foster an "us against them" mentality.
"I want to say what a lot of people won't say. The immigration debate is not simply about border security, it is a problem of America dealing with race," Sharpton told the audience of more than 1,000 community, political and business leaders, at the National Council of La Raza's annual conference.
"No one is calling for English-only tests when it comes to fighting in Iraq," he added.
Black Americans must stand up for Hispanics because the issues they face are the same, Sharpton said.
"We cannot have the tribal psychology in the civil rights movement," he said. "We must fight all for one and one for all, or we lose the moral authority to fight for anybody."
Sharpton dismissed the notion that immigrants are taking jobs from black Americans.
"What jobs?" he demanded. "Blacks were doubly unemployed by whites before anyone came across the border."
He also slammed presidential candidates he said wink at black and Hispanic Americans and say: "you know what I mean. We'll take care of you later," then ignore them in the primaries.
"No, we don't know what you mean," he said. "Do not treat us like some cheap date that you cannot take home to your mother."
But Tomar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research who did not attend the conference, disputed the notion that opposition to last month's immigration bill was based on racism.
"Much more widespread are worries about the culture. Are we going to be speaking Spanish? Are our politics going to look like Mexican politics? Can this work?" she said.
Jacoby said some Americans are so disillusioned with the government's handling of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and even current immigration laws, that they have little confidence the government will keep its promises on new ones.
"That can spill over into bigotry, but it isn't bigotry," she said.
Sharpton and Lee spoke as immigrant rights activists discussed last month's failure to achieve new immigration laws and their strategies for renewing the debate.
Many called for more civil rights-era type protests against local anti-immigrant ordinances and efforts to reach out to local media.
"Ultimately, you can't argue with demographics," said Joe Garcia, vice president of the Democratic nonprofit NDN Network. "Being anti-immigrant doesn't work in some places, and as America changes, being anti-immigrant isn't going to work in a lot more places." ___ Copyright 2007, The Associated Press.
By JOHN LANTIGUA and DIANNA SMITH Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Sunday, July 15, 2007
Lydia, an undocumented worker from Bolivia, points at a partition in her mobile home in a Palm Beach County trailer park.
"We have thought of building a false wall there," she says of herself, her husband and young daughter. "A space maybe a foot and half wide and long enough for the three of us, just in case they come looking for us."
"They" are immigration authorities making sweeps to pick up undocumented individuals. Lydia - not her real name - concedes that those immigration agents do not want to harm her or her loved ones physically.
"They don't want to send us to concentration camps either," she says. "But still you start thinking the way the Jews thought in the time of Nazis. You are always thinking of the need to hide."
Undocumented people working throughout South Florida and the nation had hopes this year that they no longer would have to "hide in plain sight" as they do now.
But on June 27, bipartisan efforts to pass a massive immigration reform bill collapsed in the U.S. Senate. The new law would have put some 12 million undocumented individuals, such as Lydia and about 200 other families in her trailer park, on the path to legal residency.
Lydia and her family have been here about eight years, and some of her neighbors twice as long, many of them working in agriculture, landscaping, construction, roofing and house cleaning.
"The day it failed, there were a lot of tears around here," Lydia says.
The bill, which President Bush supported, was attacked from both the right and left and finally scuttled on a procedural vote. The main criticism was that it granted a form of amnesty to individuals who had entered the country illegally. That criticism won the day, even though the bill contained provisions for fines, the need to leave the country eventually to apply for permanent residence, a 13-year wait for citizenship and billions of dollars in increased immigration enforcement.
Since the demise of the legislation, the already precarious lives of undocumented workers have been thrown into greater turmoil.
Rafael, 28, originally from Mexico, was detained last year in Miami-Dade where he traveled with his employer to do construction work. Security guards on Fisher Island, one of the wealthiest enclaves in the U.S., unexpectedly asked for proof of citizenship, he says. When he couldn't produce it, immigration authorities were called, says Rafael who was detained and eventually given a deportation date of Sept. 19.
Recently married and having just bought his own trailer for $4,000, he had hoped the immigration reform bill would save him. But the bill failed.
"On that day, I lost my life," he says somberly. He and his wife plan to accept the deportation order, and after seven years of steady work in the U.S., during which he says he has paid taxes and Social Security religiously, he will return to a very uncertain future in Mexico.
'People are scared'
That very fate - to be identified and listed for deportation - terrifies other undocumented workers, most of whom face return to lives of deep poverty in their native countries.
For example: Since the immigration bill failed, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Delray Beach, which serves the Haitian community, has seen its congregation diminish considerably.
After the bill died, false rumors circulated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were raiding churches. Now many believers are staying home on Sundays, even though the immigration agency never has detained anyone in or around the church, says the pastor, the Rev. Roland Desormeaux.
Haiti is the poorest and one of the most crime-ridden nations in the hemisphere, and parishioners call Desormeaux, begging him to help keep them from being deported.
"People are scared. It's very heavy on their shoulders," he says.
Some undocumented immigrants are so worried that they are virtual prisoners in their own homes, afraid to run simple errands such as trips to the grocery.
"They pay other people who are legal to go buy their groceries for them," says Mara Martinez, who works at the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth. "They are afraid immigration will arrive at the stores."
Many pregnant immigrants are afraid to visit clinics for regular prenatal visits and wait until late in the pregnancy or the birth to seek care, social service professionals say.
This always has been a problem in the undocumented community, but it has gotten worse of late.
"If the rumor runs that immigration agents have been anywhere around a clinic, the women won't go," Martinez says.
The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Palm Beach County sends employees into the minority communities to spread the word that these mothers will not be turned over to immigration authorities, but it doesn't always work.
"They're afraid to reach out," Cathy Cohn, president and CEO of the organization, said of the mothers. "They often think that by putting off prenatal care and just walking in and having the baby, it will be better, but, in fact, it hurts everybody because it costs everyone. The woman, the baby, the taxpayers."
Enforcement beefs up
The wave of fear is a far cry from spring 2006 when many undocumented workers, both in Florida and nationwide, staged large demonstrations for immigration reform.
Those demonstrations energized the attempt to pass an immigration reform bill, but they also provoked voters and office holders who were "anti-amnesty" to press for more money for stricter enforcement of immigration laws.
"When the word got out that there were 12 million undocumented in the country, certain people decided, 'We have to get rid of them,''" says immigration attorney Judith Ballen of West Palm Beach.
In the end, the reform bill failed, and undocumented workers ended up with no new protections and many more agents hunting them.
In June 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement opened its Fugitive Support Operations Center in Burlington, Vt., which targets undocumented people who have used their legal remedies and have been ordered deported but have not left the country. As of this month, about 630,000 people were on that list.
The center has produced 150,000 leads during the past year, the agency says. More than 17,000 people were deported in 2006.
"We've tripled the number of our fugitive operations teams nationwide," says Barbara Gonza***, the agency's spokeswoman in Miami, speaking of field officers who track the leads.
The agency focuses primarily on "those persons who present national security and public safety threats," Gonza*** says.
They include undocumented people who are sexual predators, gang members, people smugglers and others who have been involved in criminal activities.
But she emphasizes that, just because a person doesn't fit into any of those categories doesn't mean he shouldn't worry about the immigration agency.
"Those who are in the country illegally shouldn't be surprised if they are arrested," Gonza*** says. "If in the course of exercising our law enforcement activities (involving warrants or deportation orders) we find people who are in the country illegally, it doesn't mean we are going to turn our faces away. We will arrest them."
Members of the immigrant population interviewed around Palm Beach County say they have all experienced the increased enforcement during the past year.
"You hear about people being detained all the time," says Ana Matias, 31, of Palm Beach Gardens, a Guatemalan in the U.S. legally, whom many undocumented acquaintances consult. "Many people here wake up full of fear and go to bed at night full of fear."
Lydia, the woman living in the trailer park, also fears being sent back to Bolivia, another one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. She and her neighbors worry since immigration agents, known as la migra, drove through the park in June, as many as three times. Fear has changed the ambience in the trailer park, she says.
On a pleasant summer evening, an hour before sunset, Lydia looks out the trailer door onto empty paved streets.
"There are 92 kids from this park who go to the local elementary school, and at this hour in the summer, the streets here were once full of children playing," she says. "Now people are keeping their children inside.
"They are worried," she says. "There are younger children here who are just learning to speak, and one of the first words they can say is 'migra.' That gives you the idea."
Think Your Ancestors Were Legal Immigrants? THINK AGAIN.
"There's nothing people are more proud of than these huddled masses yearning to breathe free. It's based on a very skewed or no knowledge of history.
Palm Beach Post By Brian Donohue July 29, 2007
There are many solid arguments for why the United States should not grant legal status to illegal immigrants, as proposed in the Senate immigration reform bill quashed last month.
But throughout the immigration debate, one particular mantra was heard from opponents of legalization, perhaps more than any other:
"My ancestors came here legally.''
So too, the argument holds, must today's immigrants. We're a nation of laws, we must be consistent, and we must not reward law breakers.
It's a mighty handy argument that worked wonders for opponents of the legalization bill. It's logical, and draws a clear moral distinction between previous generations of law-abiding immigrants and today's border-jumpers. It heads off allegations of xenophobia, allowing the speaker to say it's not immigrants he or she is against, just illegality.
It works, too, because it rings true with Americans. The images burned into our brains of previous immigration waves come largely from newsreels and photos of immigrants disembarking at Ellis Island, one at a time, orderly, legally.
There's one problem with the argument. It's utter hogwash.
First of all, for hundreds of years, as immigrants poured in by the hundreds of thousands from the 1600s to the early 1900s, there were simply no federal immigration laws to break.
Unless you were a criminal or insane (or after 1882, Chinese), once you landed here, you were legal.
Crediting yesteryear's immigrants with following the laws is like calling someone a good driver because they never got caught speeding on the Autobahn.
"Only 1 percent of people who showed up at Ellis Island were turned away,'' said Mae Ngai, author of "Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.''
"What that statement is ignorant of is that we didn't always have restrictions. It's a fairly recent phenomenon.''
Level the playing field hypothetically, and the argument becomes even more preposterous.
Imagine today's immigration laws, which make it impossible for most poor foreign farmers to immigrate legally — in effect in, say, 1849.
Somewhere in Ireland, a starving farmer turns to his family, their mouths green from eating grass in the midst of the potato famine.
"We could escape to America and have food to eat,'' the farmer says. "But I'd never do that without a visa. That would be a violation of U.S. immigration law.''
Ridiculous, of course. That farmer would have done exactly what today's Mexicans, Chinese and Guatemalans are doing by the millions — get to the United States so they can feed their families, and worry about getting papers later.
Which brings us to the second reason the "my ancestors came legally'' argument is absurd.
It's because lots of people's ancestors simply didn't.
Once Congress put immigration quotas in place to keep out less desirable Eastern and Southern Europeans in 1921, they began sneaking in by the thousands.
On June 17, 1923, the New York Times reported that W.H. Husband, commissioner general of immigration, had been trying for two years "to stem the flow of immigrants from central and southern Europe, Africa and Asia that has been leaking across the borders of Mexico and Canada and through the ports of the east and west coasts.''
A story from the Sept. 16, 1927, New York Times describes government plans for stepped up Coast Guard patrols because thousands of Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Russians and Italians were landing in Cuba and then hiring smugglers to take them to the United States, illegally.
Two years earlier, the immigration service reported that 1.4 million immigrants might be living illegally in the U.S., according to the immigration service's 1925 annual report.
"The figures presented are worthy of very serious thought, especially when it is considered that such a great percentage of our population ... whose first act upon reaching our shores was to break our laws by entering in a clandestine manner,'' the report found.
The problem got so bad that the government was forced to legalize an estimated 200,000 illegal European immigrants by a process called pre-examination. These days, the process would be called amnesty.
Clearly, if everyone's grandparents said they immigrated legally, someone's grandparents were lying.
"When people cite their grandparents, they're basically operating with a very limited understanding of what immigration was back then,'' said Edward O'Donnell, author of ``1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History.''
"There's nothing people are more proud of than these huddled masses yearning to breathe free. It's based on a very skewed or no knowledge of history.''
Stanford University history professor Richard White discovered that after he began researching a book on his family's immigrant past.
White found his grandfather tried to immigrate from Ireland through Canada in 1936 because he could not get a visa under the quota laws.
"He tried to come through Detroit. It was hard to get caught at Detroit, but he managed to get caught,'' White said. Back in Canada, his grandfather called his brother, a Chicago police officer, who crossed the border and met him there. The two then walked to Detroit, his brother flashing his Chicago policeman's badge to U.S. customs officers who waved the pair through.
"I wouldn't be here, my brothers wouldn't be here if illegal aliens had been rounded up and dragged out,'' said White, a 1992 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Few people say what White does in public. But since Ngai wrote her book in 2005, she has heard from some of them. They're not going on talk shows, blogging or writing letters to newspaper editors. But they're out there, even if they don't know it.
Perhaps if the Senate's legalization bill comes around again, their story could be a rallying cry for those in favor of amnesty.
"Their voice drops to a whisper,'' Ngai says. "And they say to me, 'You know, my grandparents came illegally.'''
(Brian Donohue covers immigration issues for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He can be contacted at bdonohue(at)starledger.com.)
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