NEWS
Immigration raid cripples Ga. town
By Russ Bynum
STILLMORE, Ga. – (Associated Press) – Sept. 15, 2006 - Trailer parks
lie abandoned. The poultry plant is
scrambling to replace more than half its workforce. Business has
dried up at
stores where Mexican laborers once lined up to buy food, beer and
cigarettes
just weeks ago.
This Georgia community of about 1,000 people has become little more
than a
ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began rounding up
illegal
immigrants.
The sweep has had the unintended effect of underscoring just how
vital the
illegal immigrants were to the local economy.
More than 120 illegal immigrants have been loaded onto buses bound
for
immigration courts in Atlanta, 189 miles away. Hundreds more fled
Emanuel
County. Residents say many scattered into the woods, camping out for
days.
They worry some are still hiding without food.
At least one child, born a U.S. citizen, was left behind by his
Mexican
parents: 2-year-old Victor Perez-Lopez. The toddler's mother, Rosa
Lopez,
left her son with Julie Rodas when the raids began and fled the
state. The
boy's father was deported to Mexico.
"When his momma brought this baby here and left him, tears rolled
down her
face and mine too," Rodas said. "She said, `Julie, will you please
take care
of my son because I have no money, no way of paying rent?'"
For five years, Rodas has made a living watching the children of
workers at
the Crider Inc. poultry plant, where the vast majority of employees
were
Mexican immigrants. She learned Spanish, and considered many
immigrants
among her closest friends. She threw parties for their children's
birthdays
and baptisms.
The only child in Rodas' care now, besides her own son, is Victor.
Her
customers have disappeared.
Federal agents also swarmed into a trailer park operated by David
Robinson.
Illegal immigrants were handcuffed and taken away. Almost none have
returned. Robinson bought an American flag and posted it by the pond
out
front - upside down, in protest.
"These people might not have American rights, but they've damn sure
got
human rights," Robinson said. "There ain't no reason to treat them
like
animals."
The raids came during a fall election season in which immigration is
a top
issue.
Last month, the federal government reported that Georgia had the
fastest-growing illegal immigrant population in the country. The
number more
than doubled from an estimated 220,000 in 2000 to 470,000 last year.
This
year, state lawmakers passed some of the nation's toughest measures
targeting illegal immigrants, and Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue last
week
vowed a statewide crackdown on document fraud.
Other than the Crider plant, there isn't much in Stillmore. Four
small
stores, a coin laundry and a Baptist church share downtown with City
Hall,
the fire department and a post office. "We're poor but proud," Mayor
Marilyn
Slater said, as if that is the town motto.
The 2000 Census put Stillmore's population at 730, but Slater said
uncounted
immigrants probably made it more than 1,000. Not anymore, with so
many homes
abandoned and the streets practically empty.
"This reminds me of what I read about Nazi Germany, the Gestapo
coming in
and yanking people up," Slater said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi would
not
discuss details of the raids. "We can't lose sight of the fact that
these
people were here illegally," Raimondi said.
At Sucursal Salina No. 2, a store stocked with Mexican fruit sodas
and
snacks, cashier Alberto Gonzalez said Wednesday that the owner may
shutter
the place. By midday, Gonzalez has had only six customers. Normally,
he
would see 100.
The B&S convenience store, owned by Keith and Regan Slater, the
mayor's son
and grandson, has lost about 80 percent of its business.
"These people come over here to make a better way of life, not to
blow us
up," complained Keith Slater, who keeps a portrait of Ronald
Reagan
on the wall. "I'm a die-hard Republican, but I think we missed the
boat with
this one."
Since the mid-1990s, Stillmore has grown dependent on the paychecks
of
Mexican workers who originally came for seasonal farm labor, picking
the
area's famous Vidalia onions. Many then took year-round jobs at the
Crider
plant, with a workforce of about 900.
Crider President David Purtle said the agents began inspecting the
company's
employment records in May. They found 700 suspected illegal
immigrants, and
supervisors handed out letters over the summer ordering them to
prove they
came to the U.S. legally or be fired. Only about 100 kept their
jobs.
The arrests started at the plant Sept. 1. Over the Labor Day
weekend, agents
with guns and bulletproof vests converged on workers' homes after
getting
the addresses from Crider's files.
Antonio Lopez, who came here two years ago from Chiapas, Mexico, and
worked
at the Crider plant, said agents kicked in his front door. Lopez,
32, and
his 15-year-old son were handcuffed and taken by bus to Atlanta with
30
others. Because of the boy, Lopez said, both were allowed to return.
In his
back pocket, he carries an order to return to Atlanta for a court
hearing
Feb. 2.
But now, "there's no people here and I don't have any work," he
said.
The poultry plant has limped along with half its normal workforce.
Crider
increased its starting wages by $1 an hour to help recruit new
workers.
Stacie Bell, 23, started work canning chicken at Crider a week ago.
She said
the pay, $7.75 an hour, led her to leave her $5.60-an-hour job as a
Wal-Mart
cashier in nearby Statesboro. Still, Bell said she felt bad about
the raids.
"If they knew eventually that they were going to have to do that,
they
should have never let them come over here," she said.
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