Raids sharpen divisions over immigration
In Miss. town, some residents cheer crackdown
By Miguel Bustillo and Richard Fausset
Los Angeles Times, September 1, 2008
LAUREL, Miss. - Fabiola Pena considered running away from her factory job when she realized that she was being targeted in a federal immigration raid. She was deterred when she noticed the helicopters hovering overhead.
But helicopters were not what shocked Pena the most on her last, fateful day at Howard Industries, the largest employer in this small Southern city. It was the black co-workers who clapped and cheered as Pena and hundreds of other Hispanic immigrant laborers were arrested.
"They said we took their jobs, but I was working from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.," said Pena, 21, a day after the raid last week that resulted in the arrest of 595 illegal immigration suspects. "I didn't see them working like us."
The raid at Howard Industries, an electronic transformer manufacturer, was the largest of its kind in many years, and it exposed some of the rawest emotions that fuel the illegal immigration debate.
It was also carried out during an odd period of political limbo: Polls suggest that for voters, the immigration issue has been eclipsed by the sputtering economy, and neither of the two major presidential candidates has made much of the topic during the election season.
As the Bush administration winds down its tenure in Washington, it has made efforts to step up immigration enforcement, especially after Congress failed last year to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
Since then, thousands of people have been arrested in raids at dozens of facilities, generating considerable controversy: Immigrant advocates have howled over the coarse treatment of suspects and the breakup of families, while anti-immigrant groups say the raids allow for the long-overdue enforcement of existing laws.
But the raids might not have much of a future after the swearing in of Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama, both of whom have staked out moderate-to-liberal stances on immigration reform.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/01/raids_sharpen_divisions_over_immigration/
