← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · confederate_commando
Thread ID: 20935 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-11-08
2005-11-08 00:33 | User Profile
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El Corazon de Dixie
The 'Heart of Dixie' is changing as unprecedented numbers of Hispanic immigrants seek a better life and support an economic boom
KELLI HEWETT TAYLOR, JEFF HANSEN and MIKE CASON News staff writers
Hector Nolasco was 16 when he left his family farm in Ahualulco, Jalisco, Mexico, in 1996 for work in the United States.
His two older brothers and several uncles had gone before him, leaving their $5-a-day jobs at home for the chance to make more than 10 times that amount.
[COLOR="Red"]Nolasco, who is now a legal resident, and other immigrants who came here illegally broke the law when they entered the United States. [/COLOR]
About 35 percent to 40 percent of all Hispanic immigrants in Alabama are believed to be illegal - roughly 35,000 in 2004 out of an estimated 98,388. Most of them are Mexican, according to population experts Jeffrey Passel and Roberto Suro of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington.
Nolasco is part of a massive entry of Hispanic people into Alabama and five other Southeastern states since 1990, a migration that has increased the population of Hispanics in the area by 456 percent, or 1.3 million people, according to Pew reports released this summer.
Growth in construction, poultry processing, farming, service and hospitality industries is fueling the migration. The impact is being seen at churches, retail stores, hospitals, public schools, social service agencies and law enforcement throughout Alabama and the Southeast.
Illegal immigrants see mixed messages coming from the United States. It's illegal to cross the borders without documentation, but once they're here, business owners are eager to hire them; counterfeit Social Security cards are available for $50 to several hundred dollars; and a shortage of immigration enforcement officers makes policing and deportation unlikely.
"I came to get a better life, to help my dad pay for the farm and get whatever he needed," Nolasco said. "We are not coming to destroy America, we are coming to help America. And they (Americans) can help us, too."
Facing a wait of several years for a legal visa as an unskilled worker, Nolasco chose the way that was immediate - as an illegal immigrant. He packed his ID, school papers, family snapshots, a few clothes and cassette tapes from church, and walked six hours in the desert. He paid a human smuggler - known as a "coyote" - $100 to drive him in an RV to San Diego.
Relatives told him about jobs in Birmingham.
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é 2005 The Birmingham News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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:crybaby:
2005-11-08 02:41 | User Profile
[quote=confederate_commando] Nolasco said. "We are not coming to destroy America, we are coming to help America. And they (Americans) can help us, too."
Help America? Well aren't the criminals so nice to point out to us that by thumbing their noses at our laws, our customs, our culture, our language, and our heritage is helping us.:censored:
2005-11-08 22:51 | User Profile
Report 'em...and their employers too.
2005-11-09 02:16 | User Profile
[quote=Pennsylvania_Dutch]Report 'em...and their employers too.
It doesn't seem that would do any good. When the cops were called out to a rally in CA by citizens who wanted the illegals arrested, the cops said that it was out of their jurisdiction.