LA
RAZA LOOTS WASHINGTON STATE and FLOODS IT WITH ILLEGALS, ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS
and FRAUDULENT IDs
"They hauled them down to the border," Sakuma said.
"Three days later, they were standing in our office, but they had a
different name and a different Social Security number."
EASING 40 MILLION ILLEGALS INTO OUR JOBS WITH FRAUD
IDs – IT’S SOMETHING MEXICANS DO WELL!
“The Senator expressed
great concern on the rampant identification fraud taking place in her state.
She noted that there are 300,000 more driver's licenses in Washington than
there are drivers. (Id.)”
…
Many couldn't. Like the vast majority of
America's agricultural work force, they were illegal immigrants who used fake
documents to get jobs picking and packing fruit, in this case in and around
this small town on the Columbia River north of Wenatchee.
...
THE LA RAZA OCCUPATION
EXPANDS IN WASHINGTON STATE
The
total represents one of every 20 workers in the state and nearly 5 percent of
all residents — giving Washington the seventh-highest rate of illegal
immigrants in the country. (Nevada has the highest rate.) Three years ago,
Washington wasn't in the top 10.
…
OBAMA THE LYING
SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!
THIS CLOWN HAS
SABOTAGED E-VERIFY ALONG WITH OUR LAWS AND BORDERS FROM DAY ONE TO BUILD HIS LA
RAZA PARTY BASE of ILLEGALS.
HE SAYS HE WILL NOT
ENFORCE E-VERIFY UNLESS IT IS HIDDEN IN A BLANKET AMNESTY WITH MUCHO MAS
DEVICES HE CAN USE TO SABOTAGE IT MORE!
President Barack Obama
endorsed the idea at a White House news conference in late June, saying he'd
support requiring the use of E-Verify "if it's not riddled with
errors" and if it's part of a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.
Freshman
Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state said a mandatory
verification program would ensure that those who applied for jobs in the United
States were "legally able" to take them while keeping employers
accountable for their hiring.
"The
federal government has a constitutional responsibility to defend our
borders," Herrera Beutler said. "Unfortunately, for years it has
failed to live up to that responsibility."
*
Obama and Justice Sotomayor (A LA
RAZA PARTY MEMBER) Vow to Illegals to SABOTAGE E-verify!
VIVA LA RAZA SUPREMACY?
Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously
under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday. Criminal
arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal
immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009. REP. LAMAR SMITH
*
WHO IS FIGHTING TO E-VERIFY TO HELP PUT ILLEGALS IN
OUR JOBS AT A TIME OF STAGGERING UNEMPLOYMENT?
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, NOW THE PARTY OF LA RAZA
ILLEGALS
BARACK OBAMA, NO ADMIN IN HISTORY HAS BEEN MORE
INFESTED WITH ILLEGALS!
MEXICO, WE ARE MEXICO’S JOBS, WELFARE, “FREE”
MEDICAL AND JAILS PROGRAM!
U.S. CHAMBER of COMMERCE, BENT ON KEEPING WAGES
DEPRESSED WITH OBAMA’S OPEN BORDERS, NO E-VERIFY, AND CONTINUED
NON-ENFORCEMENT.
OBAMA BUILDS THE LA RAZA DEM PARTY WITH HIS SABOTAGE
OF OUR LAWS, BORDERS AND UTTER CONTEMPT FOR THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS (LEGALS)
Posted on Sun, Jul. 31, 2011
Farmers fear Congress might crack down on illegal labor
Rob Hotakainen | McClatchy Newspapers
last
updated: July 29, 2011 07:22:43 PM
BURLINGTON,
Wash. — If you buy strawberry Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Steve Sakuma says, there's
an 80 percent chance that you're going to get his berries, grown on some of the
richest black soil in America, in northern Washington state, about 50 miles
from the Canadian border.
And
he says there's a very good chance that you'd get berries handpicked by illegal
immigrants, too.
Wearing
designer blue jeans and sunglasses, Sakuma, who's 65, surveyed his 250-acre
strawberry plot outside Burlington earlier this month, pointing to 231
employees, most of them from Mexico, who were crouched down handpicking the
fruit under a hot morning sun. He estimated that 80 percent of them were in the
country illegally, even though they'd provided him with the necessary
documents.
Like
throngs of other farmers nationwide who rely on illegal labor to harvest their
crops, Sakuma fears that Congress doesn't understand the complexities of his
operations. He said he'd promptly go out of business if lawmakers forced
employers to electronically verify the immigration status of their employees.
And he urged members of Congress to consider the ramifications carefully first.
NEWS TO SAKUMA WHO KNOWINGLY BREAKS
THE LAWS AND HIRES ILLEGALS, IN CALIFORNIA: TWO-THIRDS OF ALL ILLEGAL FARM
WORKERS END UP ON WELFARE (SEE BOTTOM FOR CASE STUDY ON THAT “CHEAP” LABOR)
"These
illegal immigrants, or whatever you want to call them, have been around for a long
time," Sakuma said. "And guess what? They're not bad. They're just
making a living. They're here doing what other people won't do. If you think
that white America is going to come out here and pick these strawberries, you
have been living in the dark for a long time."
While
farmers worry about the effects of a federal crackdown on illegal immigrants,
backers of legislation that would require verification say it would finally
force employers to operate legally and would represent a major first step in fixing
the nation's tattered immigration system.
Freshman Republican Rep. Jaime
Herrera Beutler of Washington state said a mandatory verification program would
ensure that those who applied for jobs in the United States were "legally
able" to take them while keeping employers accountable for their hiring.
"The federal government has a
constitutional responsibility to defend our borders," Herrera Beutler
said. "Unfortunately, for years it has failed to live up to that
responsibility."
Mike
Shelby, the executive director of the Western Washington Agricultural
Association, said many producers in the state faced circumstances similar to
Sakuma: "They're all vulnerable. .... We all agree that immigration reform
needs to take place, but we have to be very careful how we approach it. Because
if the first thing you do is interrupt the flow of labor for agriculture,
you're taking an industry and putting it at tremendous risk."
For
Sakuma, the answer is obvious: Allow the workers, who are paid by the pound for
their strawberry picking and earn an average of more than $10 an hour this
season, to become legal Americans.
"You
call that amnesty or whatever you want to call it, it's just the right thing to
do," he said. "We're responsible citizens, and we'll do what we believe
is right, but change the damn law. That's the issue. Make it right."
About
270,000 businesses use the federal E-Verify program voluntarily, and backers
say that number could jump to nearly 6 million if it became mandatory.
President Barack Obama
endorsed the idea at a White House news conference in late June, saying he'd
support requiring the use of E-Verify "if it's not riddled with
errors" and if it's part of a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws.
While
several pieces of legislation dealing with E-Verify have been introduced in the
current Congress, the main bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of
Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He objects to the
president's strategy, saying V-Verify is important enough to stand alone.
Smith's
bill, called the Legal Workforce Act, would require all employers to use the
national database to confirm that workers are legal. He said it would open up
millions of jobs for unemployed Americans. According to Smith, there are 24
million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed, while there are 7
million illegal immigrants working in the country.
"It
is not an immigration bill, it's a jobs bill," he said.
Sakuma,
one of eight owners of the Sakuma Brothers Farms, said farmers wanted a legal
workforce "as much as anyone else" but that the system clearly was
broken.
To
make the point, he told a story about how his farm was raided a few years back
by federal authorities, who found that some of his employees were in the
country illegally.
"They hauled them
down to the border," Sakuma said. "Three days later, they were
standing in our office, but they had a different name and a different Social
Security number."
Sakuma
said he consulted with two immigration lawyers in Seattle: "Both of them told
me the same thing. 'You have no choice but to hire them back. If they provide
you with a name and they provide you a Social Security number, you have no
choice but to believe them.' "
With
so many politicians talking about border security, Sakuma worries that Congress
will pass the mandatory E-Verify legislation. He just wants members to consider
the consequences on farmers across the country.
"It's
a tough issue. It's very complex, very complicated and it's very
politicized," Sakuma said. "And I understand politics. But is that
really what you want? If they had E-Verify here, you'd shut us down.
Absolutely."
*
REP. LAMAR SMITH
HAS CONSISTENTLY AND OPENLY VOICED OPPOSITION TO OBAMA’S ASSAULT ON OUR BORDERS
AND JOBS… even as most politicians HISPANDER for the illegals’ ILLEGAL VOTES.
…
obama soft on illegals enforcement…in fact he
has promised illegals blanket amnesty or continued non-enforcement!
Arrests of illegal
immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according
to figures released Wednesday. Criminal arrests, administrative arrests,
indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by
more than 50 percent from fiscal
2008 to fiscal 2009. REP. LAMAR SMITH
The figures show that Mr. Obama has made good on his pledge to shift
enforcement away from going after illegal immigrant workers themselves - but at
the expense of Americans' jobs, said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican
who compiled the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security's U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Mr. Smith, the top Republican
on the House Judiciary Committee, said a
period of economic turmoil is the wrong time to be cutting enforcement and
letting illegal immigrants take jobs that Americans otherwise would hold.
*
LA RAZA LOOTS WASHINGTON STATE and FLOODS IT WITH FRAUDULENT IDs
State budget cuts to be felt by illegal immigrants
As the state Legislature looks for
ways to close a $5 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers are eyeing millions in
cuts that could reduce or eliminate services used by illegal immigrants.
Washington is projected to spend more than $300 million over the next two years
on services illegal immigrants can tap, primarily welfare and health care for
children, the seriously ill and pregnant women.
Seattle Times Olympia bureau
GOP Sen. Joe Zarelli
Related
Illegal immigrants and state programs
Washington state estimates it will
spend more than $300 million over the next two years on services illegal
immigrants can tap, not counting K-12 education. A breakdown:
“Through love of having
children, we are going to take over.” AUGUSTIN CEBADA, BROWN BERETS, THE LA RAZA
FASCIST PARTY
$125 million
on health care for 7,400 pregnant women ineligible for Medicaid because they
can't prove they are here legally. This program can't be changed, because of
federal restrictions.
*
$73 million
on welfare for children. The federal government requires proof that the
children are here legally, but not their parents. This program also can't be
changed.
*
$59 million
for medical and dental coverage for 25,000 children from low-income families
ineligible for Medicaid because they can't prove they are here legally.
*
$24 million
for kidney dialysis and cancer treatment for 1,300 low-income people ineligible
for Medicaid because they can't prove they are here legally.
*
$15 million
for in-state tuition subsidies for students who have lived in Washington for at
least three years. The state does not check legal status.
*
$5.6 million
in nursing-home care for low-income undocumented residents.
*
Sources: State Legislature, Department of Social and Health
Services
*
OLYMPIA — As the Legislature looks
for ways to close a $5 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers are examining
millions in cuts that could reduce or eliminate services used by illegal
immigrants.
Lawmakers already have passed a law
that effectively limits the state Basic Health Plan for the working poor to
legal residents.
The state estimates around 10,000
people, roughly 18 percent of those on the plan, will lose state-subsidized
insurance because they cannot prove they're here legally. It's expected to save
$59 million over two years.
As part of a much broader
budget-cutting plan, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire also has recommended
eliminating a health-care program for children who can't prove they're here
legally.
In both cases, Democrats say the
moves were made to save money and were not related to who was using the
program. Gregoire's office noted her proposed budget eliminated services used
by everyone, regardless of legal status.
Overall, Washington is projected to
spend more than $300 million over the next two years on services that illegal
immigrants can tap, primarily welfare for children and health care for
children, the seriously ill and pregnant women. However, programs that account
for most of that spending are effectively off-limits to budget cuts, because of
federal restrictions.
Sen. Joe Zarelli, ranking Republican
on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, says the Legislature should take a
closer look at spending on illegal immigrants.
"We've got to question whether
we can afford to have state-only programs that only serve illegal-immigrant
populations," said Zarelli, of Ridgefield, Clark County.
Some Republicans have proposed
limiting services to people who can prove they are here legally. Democrats, who
control the Legislature, say budget cuts should not single out anyone.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Ed
Murray, D-Seattle, said he'll oppose any efforts to target services used by
illegal residents. But he noted the reality is "every program is going to
be cut because of the fiscal crisis. Everybody gets cut."
Lawmakers over the years have set up
several programs specifically for residents who have not or cannot prove legal
residency. Exactly how much the state spends on illegal immigrants is not known
because some people in these programs may be here legally, even though they
haven't provided documentation.
Advocates for such programs contend
eliminating health-care services for illegal immigrants could cost more in the
long run, in part because they end up in emergency rooms where care is more
expensive.
Fatima Morales, with the Washington
Community Action network, said proposals that target illegal immigrants — aside
from ignoring the fact that they do pay taxes — are immoral.
"Everyone deserves access to
health care, to services, to have a decent life," she said. "It's the
humane thing to do. It's the morally right thing to do."
Ricardo Sanchez, director of Sea
Mar's Latino/a Educational Achievement Project, also argues that illegal
immigrants are critical to the economy, particularly in agriculture.
"That's what's missing in this
whole debate about all this 'don't serve illegal immigrants and keep them out
of schools and don't let them have access to college,' " he said.
Some numbers not solid
The next two-year budget could
affect all immigrants without documentation of legal status, although much of
the discussion involves the impact on Hispanics — the state's largest and
fastest-growing minority, with more than 755,000 residents, according to the
2010 census.
It's not known how many people of
all nationalities and ethnicities are in Washington illegally.
There's also a dearth of
comprehensive research comparing benefits states provide that illegal
immigrants can tap. Services appear to vary by state. But Washington is not
unique, at least in some of its offerings.
For example, Massachusetts,
comparable to Washington in population, provides many of the same social services
for illegal immigrants, including health care for children as well as kidney
dialysis and cancer treatment for adults.
The Congressional Budget Office in
2007 published a report on the impact of "unauthorized immigrants" on
state and local budgets nationally. The study concluded that a small proportion
of spending on state and local services went to undocumented residents.
But the analysis, which reviewed 29
reports published over 15 years, also said tax revenues generated by those
residents "do not offset the total cost of services provided to those
immigrants."
Washington state has made only a
quick estimate of state expenses. Roughly half of tax revenues are generated by
the sales tax, which everyone pays, including illegal immigrants.
The state is expected to spend more
than $100 million over two years on services the Legislature has the authority
to change or eliminate, including $59 million for medical and dental care for
more than 25,000 children from low-income families. The children are not eligible
for Medicaid because there's no proof they're here legally.
An additional $24 million is
expected to be spent for kidney dialysis and cancer treatment for about 1,300
people ineligible for Medicaid because they also can't prove they're legal
residents.
Millions more will go to in-state
tuition subsidies for college students and nursing-home care.
The state also expects to spend
about $200 million over two years on two other programs that officials say the
state can't change due to federal restrictions. Those programs receive federal
matching dollars, and changing them could put overall federal Medicaid funding
at risk, state officials said.
One program, projected to cost $125
million, provides health care to about 7,400 pregnant women ineligible for Medicaid
because they have not shown they're here legally. The service is provided, in
part, because their newborn children will be U.S. citizens. The other program
provides welfare payments for children, estimated at $73 million. The federal
government requires proof that the children are here legally, but not their
parents.
When it comes to K-12 education, the
state does not track how many undocumented children attend public schools, and
federal case law requires states to provide an education to all children,
despite citizenship status.
Lawmakers from both parties have
said there are services used by illegal immigrants that would not be
eliminated.
While Zarelli questions a lot of
state spending on services for illegal immigrants, he said he would not cut funding
for kidney dialysis and cancer treatment:
"That's something you shouldn't
pull the plug on. It would be inhumane."
HOW
DOES OBAMA BUY THE ILLEGALS’ VOTES… ONE LIE and ONE ILLEGAL AT A TIME!
MORE OBAMA DREAM ACTS of WELFARE for ILLEGALS?
REP. LAMAR SMITH for PRESIDENT
"We could cut unemployment in
half simply by reclaiming the jobs taken by illegal workers," said
Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, co-chairman of the Reclaim American Jobs
Caucus. "President Obama is on the wrong side of the American people on
immigration. The president should support policies that help citizens and legal
immigrants find the jobs they need and deserve rather than fail to enforce
immigration laws." REP. LAMAR SMITH
THOMAS PEREZ – LA RAZA SUPREMACIST
WHO IS OBAMA’S LATEST LA RAZA FASCIST
FOR SECRETARY of LABOR?
*
THE
REALITY OF OBAMA’S IN-SOURCING US INTO A THIRD WORLD DUMPSTER THAT WILL KEEP
HIS WALL STREET PAYMASTERS HAPPY AND GENEROUS!
"Wage-cutting, speedup and
the imposition of sweat shop conditions are at the heart of Obama’s strategy
for doubling US exports by 2015. He has repeatedly boasted of his
administration’s success in “insourcing” jobs back to the US, omitting to
mention that these jobs often pay half their previous wage."
*
The
danger, as Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson argues,
is that of “importing poverty” in the form of a new underclass—a permanent
group of working poor.
THE
ENTIRE REASON THE BORDERS ARE LEFT OPEN IS TO CUT WAGES!
JOE LEGAL vs LA RAZA JOSE ILLEGAL:
DURING OBAMA’S FIRST TERM 2/3s OF ALL
JOBS WENT TO IMMIGRANTS, BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGAL. FEDERAL WORKPLACE ENFORCEMENT
of LAWS PROHIBITING THE EMPLOYMENT of ILLEGALS PLUMMETED 70%.
EASING 40 MILLION ILLEGALS INTO OUR JOBS WITH FRAUD
IDs – IT’S SOMETHING MEXICANS DO WELL!
DREAM
Act proposals are also a magnet for fraud. Many illegal immigrants will
fraudulently claim they came here as children or that they are under 30. And
the federal government has no way to check whether their claims are true or
not. REP. LAMAR SMITH - ONE OF THE VERY FEW IN CONGRESS WORKING FOR
AMERICANS!
*
A CASE STUDY ON THE
STAGGERING COST OF ALL THAT “CHEAP” MEXICAN FARM LABOR THE DEMOCRAT PARTY
IMPORTS TO VOTE DEM AND LOOT AMERICANS:
“Through
love of having children, we are going to take over.” AUGUSTIN CEBADA, BROWN BERETS, THE LA RAZA
FASCIST PARTY
Jose Herria emigrated
illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker.
He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 -- all
illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family
had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" -- an American citizen by
birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in the U.S.
permanently.
*
THE LA RAZA OCCUPATION
EXPANDS IN WASHINGTON STATE
POPULATION EXPLOSION OF
MEXICANS IN WASHINGTON STATE – THE LA RAZA ANCHORS THEIR WELFARE STATE IN WA.
“Through love of having children, we are going to take over.” AUGUSTIN CEBADA, BROWN BERETS, THE LA RAZA
FASCIST PARTY
Seattle
Times
THE MEXICAN
BREEDERS….
February 1, 2011
By Lornet Turnbull
They clean the floors of swanky office towers downtown, pick wine grapes in Wenatchee
and wash dishes in Belltown restaurants.
An estimated 230,000 illegal immigrants were living in Washington state last
year — 35 percent more than three years earlier, according to a new report by
the Pew Hispanic Center.
The total represents one of every 20
workers in the state and nearly 5 percent of all residents — giving Washington
the seventh-highest rate of illegal immigrants in the country. (Nevada has the
highest rate.) Three years ago, Washington wasn't in the top 10.
Researchers at Pew Hispanic, a project of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center
in Washington, D.C., used the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey
data as a basis for the report.
They found that nationwide, illegal immigrants numbered 11.2 million, virtually
unchanged from 2009 and down from a peak 12 million in 2007. Many have
attributed the slide to more immigration enforcement and a weaker economy.
While 57 percent are from Mexico, the illegal immigrants hail from across the
world, including Canada. They include people who sneaked across the country's
borders, as well as those who came legally but overstayed employment, student
or visitor visas.
Continued failure by the federal government to address the nation's immigration
problems has led states to find fixes of their own.
All but
Washington, New Mexico and Utah now deny driver's licenses to illegal
immigrants, and some believe that has made Washington a magnet.
This
year, state lawmakers here have introduced an unprecedented number of bills
aimed at immigrants — legal and illegal — and several proposed cuts to the
state budget would hit them hard.
There are measures that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for illegal
immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, make English the state's official language
and require the Department of Employment Security to verify the legal status of
those it refers for employment.
In addition, a group of residents, for the sixth straight year, will circulate
petitions for an initiative to severely restrict benefits and services to
illegal immigrants in the state.
Uriel Iñiguez, director of the state's Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said the
fact that the illegal immigrant population nationally hasn't declined shows
people aren't going anywhere.
"It's one of the arguments I make all the time — passing laws won't
prevent people from being here undocumented," Iñiguez said.
Even with the restrictions on driver's licenses, he said, "we've not seen
an entire outflow of people to wherever they are from. What these laws do,
however, is drive this population further underground."
State Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, sponsor of several of the bills, said the
state needs to act, since the federal government hasn't.
She said the illegal-immigrant cost to the state is $272 million
a biennium for such functions as social services, health and corrections.
"The illegal-immigration problem really came to the forefront after what
happened in Arizona," Stevens said. "It's the lack of a secure
border. If we can't keep them out of our country what's the point?"
*
LA RAZA AT WORK:
“The Senator expressed
great concern on the rampant identification fraud taking place in her state.
She noted that there are 300,000 more driver's licenses in Washington than
there are drivers. (Id.)”
*
Washington and New Mexico to Continue Issuing Driver's
Licenses to Illegal Aliens
Two states
last week took affirmative steps to continue issuing driver's licenses to
illegal aliens. In New Mexico, despite a push from Governor Susana Martinez to
tighten the state's lax licensing laws, the state Senate passed a bill last
Wednesday which continues to allow illegal aliens to obtain driving privileges.
(Reuters, Mar. 10, 2011; HB 78)
The bill does increase the residency requirement for any foreign national to
acquire a driver's license in New Mexico from three to six months. (HB 78) It also requires
illegal aliens to reapply for a license every two years and increases penalties
for falsified documentation. (HB 78)
Governor
Martinez expressed disappointment after the Senate vote. "I promised the
people of New Mexico that I will fight to repeal this law and that fight will
continue," she said. (Id.) Senate supporters, however, felt their
actions were sufficient. "If it's really about toughening the current law,
then we did it," said state Senator Eric Griego. (Id.) The Senator
did admit that the Senate bill is unlikely to pass through New Mexico's House
of Representatives, leaving room for a continued debate on licensing illegal
aliens in New Mexico. (Id.)
Similarly,
the Washington state Senate killed a bill last Monday which would have banned
driver's licenses to illegal aliens. (Fox News, Mar. 8, 2011) The bill also included other measures
designed to reduce identification theft in the state. (SB 5407) The Washington Senate defeated the
bill in a procedural motion, but state Senator Mary Margaret Haugen said that
she will lobby the state's governor to provide support for the issue.
"Nothing is ever dead in the Legislature," Haugen, a chief sponsor of
the bill, said after the vote. "I'd ask the governor that she needs to
stand and take leadership in this role. She needs to recognize what's happening
in this nation." (Fox News, Mar. 8, 2011) The Senator expressed great concern
on the rampant identification fraud taking place in her state. She noted that
there are 300,000 more driver's licenses in Washington than there are drivers.
(Id.)
Washington
Governor Chris Gregoire has said that she would sign a bill that bans the
issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens if it passed through the
legislature. Currently New Mexico, Washington and Utah are the only states in
the U.S. to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Roughly 83,000 foreign
nationals hold driver's licenses in New Mexico alone.
*
AMERICA: NO LEGAL NEED APPLY – BUT WE STILL GET PAY
FOR ALL OF MEXICO’S LOOTING!!!
WASHINGTON
STATE MOVES TO END MEXICAN INVASION???
ILLEGALS AND
STOLEN OR FRAUDULENT I.D.S
Massive
firings in Brewster, and a big debate about illegal immigration
By Melissa Sánchez
Yakima Herald-Republic
BREWSTER, Okanogan County — The
letters came on a Wednesday, hand-delivered to hundreds of field and warehouse
workers two days before Christmas.
Each contained a four-sentence
explanation beneath the company's letterhead.
Federal immigration authorities had
alerted Gebbers Farms that a number of its employees' hiring forms were
suspect. Unless those employees could prove they were in this country legally,
the company would let them go.
Many couldn't. Like the vast majority of America's agricultural
work force, they were illegal immigrants who used fake documents to get jobs
picking and packing fruit, in this case in and around this small town on the
Columbia River north of Wenatchee.
Five days later, the company
dismissed an estimated 550 workers — equal to about a quarter of Brewster's
population. It was the biggest firing of its kind ever seen in Washington. And
former workers say the letters and firings are still coming.
What's happened at Gebbers Farms has
been felt far beyond this shaken community. It's raising worries about more
audits and firings across Central Washington, where much of the agricultural
economy depends on an illegal work force.
"If the entire industry was
audited it'd be impossible to fill all of the jobs," says Mike Gempler,
executive director of the Washington Growers League.
With the firings, the complexity of
illegal immigrants in the work force becomes starkly clear.
Other immigrants — some legal and
some not — have learned of the sudden job openings and are arriving to fill
the void. Some of the applicants may not be new at all.
"I was thinking about changing
the Social Security number I use and reapplying," says Antonio Sanchez, a
51-year-old former Gebbers orchard worker. "I don't know what to do."
Five generations of the Gebbers
family have farmed here along the Columbia River. The company runs more than
5,000 acres of apples and cherries, including one of the world's largest
contiguous orchards. Its products are marketed internationally.
"This town exists because of
them," says Esteban Camacho, who manages a local bakery and like most
Mexican immigrants here has worked for Gebbers.
By most accounts, the company is
well thought of. It built housing and soccer fields for its workers and, unlike
many other growers, provides stable year-round work.
Rumors about the firings abound in
Brewster, but details remain scarce.
Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Seattle, says she can't say
anything about the incident at Gebbers or even confirm her agency conducted an
audit.
Industry officials say ICE has
audited a half-dozen smaller Washington growers in recent years. The only other
known massive firing prompted by an ICE audit was last year at American
Apparel, a Los Angeles-based garment company.
ICE first notified Gebbers in 2008
that it had been audited and that it needed to take action, according to
industry officials. Gebbers acknowledged the audit in a brief statement dated
the day of the firings. The statement closed with: "Gebbers Farms will
continue to welcome workers of all backgrounds with proper work
authorization."
Since then, company officials have
declined to speak publicly about the situation. Even Brewster's mayor says he's
had trouble finding out what happened.
Obama shift to audits
What happened at Gebbers reflects a
change in strategy under President Obama's administration, which is shifting
ICE's focus away from targeting illegal immigrants and instead focusing on
those who hire them.
The Federation for American
Immigration Reform, which favors tougher enforcement, sees Obama scaling back
efforts to crack down on illegal immigration by emphasizing audits instead of
workplace raids.
Immigrant-rights advocates call
audits the more humane of the two approaches.
"This is not to say this new
approach does not create hardship," says Matt Adams, legal adviser for the
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle. "But I think if the
government is going to enforce the laws that are on the books, they should be
given credit for doing it in a way that is not tearing families apart."
Thirty-three Washington companies
were audited last year, and ICE spokeswoman Dankers says employers can expect
more to come.
"We know that changing the
behavior of employers to ensure they hire a legal work force doesn't happen
overnight," she says. "We want employers to know that regardless of
size and industry or your location and the type of business you have, the
federal government expects these businesses to comply with the law."
Few growers will speak openly about
the issue. Bob Brody, who owns King Blossom Natural, a 344-acre organic apple
orchard in Brewster, is one of them.
"What happened at Gebbers —
it fries my brain sometimes," says Brody, adding that he shouldn't have to
verify whether a worker's status is legitimate.
He says every one of his employees,
except for his office manager, is Latino. "Americans don't stop by and ask
for jobs right now," Brody says. "There is a 10 percent unemployment
rate. And I've not had a single U.S. American stop by and ask for a job."
On many evenings, the conversation
between Daniel and Angelica Aguilar turns to just that. The recently dismissed
couple and their toddler daughter live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment near the
center of Brewster.
"During the cherry-picking
season, there's maybe 2,200 of us working in the orchards," says Daniel
Aguilar, 26. "Of those, there wasn't a single white American.
"Why does it bother them that
we're doing the work they don't want to do?"
In part, the Gebbers firings have
produced the desired effect. Of the dozen or so families in Brewster
interviewed by the Yakima Herald-Republic, about half say they plan to return
to Mexico. And everybody knew someone who had already left.
"What's the point of staying?
There are no jobs," says one woman, who identified herself only as Mariela
in fear of being deported.
"Fight the good fight"
But for every illegal immigrant who leaves, there seems to be
another one willing to risk his luck.
Before dawn one recent foggy
Tuesday, groups of men waited in the cold for Gebbers vans to pick them up for
work pruning apple trees.
"I just got a job here," says
one young man who came from Los Angeles after learning about the sudden
openings. He would not identify himself.
The others laughed nervously.
"Are there supposed to be more audits?" one called out, before saying
he needed to find a better Social Security number.
The presence of new workers who are
here illegally has created some resentment among those who were laid off. But
some have a hard time blaming their fellow countrymen.
"It's not their fault they're
working," says Janeth Hernandez, who doesn't know how her family will make
the rent this month. "They have to fight the good fight, too, just like
us."
The December firings clearly
disrupted the Gebbers operation, says Dan Fazio, the Washington State Farm
Bureau's director of employment services.
"It's wrong for the
administration to be doing raids or ... audits without investing time and
energy into a functional guest-worker program," says Fazio, noting that
growers can't compete with lower wages in Chile and China.
ICE encourages the companies it audits
to use the federal E-Verify system, which allows employers to check whether new
hires are legally authorized to work, Dankers says.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services, which operates E-Verify, says no companies in
Brewster use it. Industry leaders say most growers are reluctant because the
program won't give them an answer they like.
And in politically conservative
Eastern Washington, that doesn't gain them many supporters. Some people,
including the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and Grassroots on Fire, blame the
growers for attracting illegal immigrants.
"They want the illegals to
disappear and they want the employers that hire illegals to be put in
jail," the farm bureau's Fazio says. "We want to assure these people
that farmers don't want illegals more than any other citizen ...
"But when you ask these people,
'Do you want to have your apples from China?' they always respond, 'No, we'd
like American apples.' "
U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco,
says it doesn't have to be an either-or issue.
"First we have to realize that
we have to secure our borders," Hastings says. "The nature of our
agriculture industry requires a migrant labor force, and ... the best way to
address that is with a workable guest-worker program."
Few Washington growers use the
current guest-worker program, which they consider expensive and cumbersome.
The Growers League, meanwhile,
supports a bill that would create a path toward legal status for agricultural
workers as well as revise the guest-worker program.
"Most difficult times"
In Brewster, the next six weeks will
see a tense waiting game for former Gebbers employees. The company has given
those who live in a series of camps deep inside its orchards until the end of
March to vacate. School officials are bracing for the loss of state funding
that comes with each of the children of the fired workers. Food-bank volunteers
say they're seeing plenty of new faces.
Despite what happened, few former
employees complain about the company. They just want their jobs back. The rumor
these days is that in March they'll be rehired.
"Fifteen years I've worked for
this company," says one man, who declined to give his name for fear of
losing his housing. "I still have some hope that maybe by March everything
will get sorted out. In the meantime, these are the most difficult times."
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