Families scattered after raid
By EMMA JAMES • January 11, 2009
Hattiesburg American (Miss)
In less than 24 hours, Mendoza, 27, lost her husband, her job on an assembly line and a secure future as officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept through Howard Industries in Laurel that day, looking for illegal workers.
They ended up arresting 592 workers, about 14 percent of Howard's work force of 4,200.
"It's very bad," Mendoza said as Socorro Leos, community organizer with the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance, translated. "Because of one day, it changed my entire life 360 degrees."
Now almost five months later, Mendoza plays with her daughters and thinks of her husband, Malegando.
Malegando was deported after a brief stay at LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, La., while Mendoza remains in alternative detention, ordered to appear before a court in New Orleans in February to determine whether she can obtain a voluntary departure to Mexico to join her husband.
Mendoza said that the departure of their father has devastated daughters Allari, 4, and Shala, 2.
"They ask where their daddy is and then they cry because he isn't here," Mendoza said "Sometimes I tell them that their daddy comes when they are sleeping and kisses them while they are asleep and then leaves again so they know he loves them."
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20090111/NEWS01/901110303/1002
