Community damage

A raid in New Bedford triggers debate on immigration reform

Serghino René and Howard Manly

Sen. John Kerry was clear. Last week’s raid on illegal immigrants working at Michael Bianco Inc. in New Bedford, the Massachusetts Democrat asserted, “has become a classic example of what not to do…”

No one needed to tell that to Anna Vieira. An employee of the leather factory for the last three years, she and her son Enrique, both illegal immigrants from Brazil, were two of the 361 people arrested during the raid.

On that day, the Vieiras were handcuffed, taken to Boston, then transported seven hours to Pennsylvania without food and water. They were detained there for two days before being returned to New Bedford, where they ended up in the basement of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Saint James Church in New Bedford’s South End.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Vieira. “I just came here for a better opportunity.”

The Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t agree.

Vieira now wears a monitoring device around her ankle and faces a deportation hearing in April. Until then, she must be home by 6 p.m. each day and her telephone calls are limited to 10 minutes.

Vieira’s story about her treatment at the hands of the federal government was repeated over and over again. Making matters worse were the revelations that her employer used sweatshop conditions to meet the demands of $91 million in U.S. military contracts to make products including safety vests and lightweight backpacks.

And so it is for immigration reform — a tangle of mixed messages.

The confusion dogged President Bush during his recent trip through Latin America, including Tuesday’s stop in Mexico where he was met with caution by Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Bush was unfazed.

“In the debate on migration, I remind my fellow citizens that family values do not stop at the Rio Grande River, that there are decent, hardworking honorable citizens of Mexico who want to make a living for their families,” Bush said as he stood beside Calderon. “And so, Mr. President, my pledge to you and your government — but, more importantly, the people of Mexico — is I will work as hard as I possibly can to pass comprehensive immigration reform.”

The biggest hurdle to immigration reform, Bush said, is figuring out what to do with the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the United States. The president has proposed a guest worker plan that would allow legal employment for foreigners and give some illegals a shot at becoming American citizens. Critics say this rewards unlawful behavior.

Calderon was unmoved. Relations between the two border countries have only grown worse since Bush signed a law calling for construction of more than 700 miles of new fencing along the long border the two countries share.

Calderon has lambasted the fence — a mix of physical and high-tech barriers. He likens it to the Berlin Wall, and argues that both countries need to improve Mexico’s economy to lessen the desire to seek work in the United States.

It is questionable whether the full 700-mile fence will be built. A bill authorizing the fence did not come with any new funding, and the $1.2 billion that Congress previously approved is not enough. A 14-mile stretch under construction in the San Diego area is estimated to cost $126.5 million alone.

Calderon’s complaints about the fence marked the second day in a row that Bush drew a rebuke from a host. In Guatemala on Monday, President Oscar Berger complained about roundups in the United States of undocumented Guatemalans.

One of those Guatemalans is Candelaria DeLeon. She lives in New Bedford with her two youngest children. Her oldest daughter, 14, is being detained in Miami.

She worked along side her daughter at the factory. Speaking through a translator, she described some of the harsh conditions.

“We worked seven days a week and we weren’t given time to go to the bathroom,” said DeLeon. “If they were late, they would cut an hour from their pay.”

They worked nine hours every day and DeLeon was making $6.75 and hour up until last month when they raised her wage to $7.50 an hour.

“I want my daughter back,” said DeLeon.

But the working conditions at the leather plant have caused community activists and state and federal politicians to renew attention to what they described as deplorable. The Defense Logistics Agency said last week that it was suspending the company from bidding on future contracts. It’s unclear how the raid will affect the company’s current contract.

Enrique Vieira told reporters about his experiences at the factory, recalling the day he used the bathroom for more than five minutes.

“When I came out, they told me to go home,” said Enrique. “I was suspended for a week with no pay.

“There was a lot of rules,” he continued. “We weren’t allowed to take too long in the bathroom and we couldn’t talk. We couldn’t even dry our hands with paper towels or we would be charged.”

But earlier this week, the debate focused on the lack of planning in executing the raid.

Many of the suspected illegal immigrants were shipped to detention centers in Texas before a federal judge ordered the rest to remain in Massachusetts because advocates said the raid created a “humanitarian crisis.”

Commissioner Harry Spence was among three-dozen state Department of Social Services (DSS) workers who traveled to Texas during the weekend to interview more than 200 detainees.

Spence said the detainees he wants released have children between the ages of 2 and 16, and a few of the children had medical conditions that required special care, including one child that required a feeding tube. All were believed to be born in the United States and therefore are U.S. citizens.

Along with the mothers being held, Spence said the group of 20 included a woman suffering from cancer and a 17-year-old boy.

In the days following the raid in New Bedford, a 7-month-old child was hospitalized for dehydration because the breast-feeding infant refused to drink formula and the mother was in custody for two nights. Another mother was located in Texas after her 7-year-old child called a hotline state officials created to reunite families.

“Mr. President,” demanded Ali Noorani, director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition, “look at these families, look at these children, and prove us that you care; put your political capital into passing a just immigration reform.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., echoed that message. “The recent federal raids in New Bedford where hundreds of immigrants were recklessly detained while the company owner was let off the hook only underscore how urgent it is that he work with Congress to fix our broken system,” Kennedy wrote. “Now it is time to turn talk into action by working with Republican leaders to push forward our efforts in Congress.”

In the meantime, communities across the state are rallying behind the immigrants, illegal or not.

The Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts (CFSEMA) has launched a fund in partnership with MIRA. La Vida, a Lynn-based organization serving the Guatemalan community, has committed a leadership gift. The fund has already been promised $65,000 to handle immediate expenses for the families of the detained immigrants.

“The needs are so great that we hope to raise at least $250,000 through this fund to help meet them,” said CFSEMA President Craig J. Dutra. “None of the donations to this fund will be used for overhead costs or salaries. In short, 100 percent of all donations will be used to directly assist the children and their families with basic needs.”

Material from the Associated Press contributed to this story. René reported from New Bedford.