San Diego -- in the border city, fewer parents are walking their children to school. The crowd of day labelers huddled in a parking lot outside a McDonald's has dropped by half. A sense of unease has spread to the community since immigration agents began walking the streets as part of a nationwide effort targeting an estimated 590,000 immigrant fugitives.
" Juana Osorio, an illegal immigrant from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, said her neighbors have largely stayed indoors since agents visited her apartment complex June 2. Her husband, Juan Rivera, has stopped taking their two children to the park on the weekends. "We want to go out but we can't." Said Rivera, a construction worker. "
Recently in the news about 2200 illegal immigrants being rounded up in operation "Return to Sender", 400 of those illegal immigrants were from the San Diego area.
" We can't just turn our heads away from people we find along the way," said Lauren Mack, an ICE spokeswoman in San Diego. "
ICE has increased it's fugitive task forces nationwide from 18 to 38 and plans to expand a 52 teams by the end of next year. The Bush administration has proposed a total of 70 teams.
" Day laborer Fredy Calleja said his uncle was arrested about two weeks ago while watering plants outside his home. An agent asked him about someone suspected of selling drugs in the area. When the uncle said he didn't know the drug dealer, the agent asked if he was in the country illegally and arrested him when he said he was. "
Calleja's uncle was deported and was back in San Diego a little bit more than a week later.
5 comments:
"Calleja's uncle was deported and was back in San Diego a little bit more than a week later."
Pretty much describing the problem in a nutshell.
I noticed they sent all those Nat'l Guardsmen to the border but they aren't allowed to 'hassle' anyone coming accross. They are there to mend and errect fences. And this will do what for border security?
Nope! they are only there to free up the border patrol from doing the mundane task of paperwork
Until it is made unattractive for people to come here, this will never stop. There is no fear of being caught because the punishment is.....oh, yea, a free ride home. The target needs to be the businesses that hire illegals.
As far as these heart rending stories about families in fear - they knew what they were doing when they came here illegally. In the words of Barretta -'Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.' And don't make ME feel bad because you have to explain it to your children.
It's about time.
What I think will help the most is putting very extreme penalties on employers that hire an illegal alien, and I mean EXTREME!
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