IFIRE.org

IFIRE Announcements and Discussion Forum
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:00 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Update on some illegals arrested at BP in Whiting
PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:39 pm 
Offline
Site Admin

Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:30 pm
Posts: 2037
The 15 illegal aliens arrested at the BP Refinery in Whiting must be the most written-about illegals in history! Every week we have a follow-up story on their latest trials and tribulations.

Be sure to click on the link, scroll down and read the comments.


http://www.post-trib.com/news/1477625,i ... 15.article

Fate of illegal cleaning service workers in limbo
Recommend (3)
Comments


March 15, 2009
By Andy Grimm
Post-Tribune staff writer
WHITING -- It has been more than three months since federal authorities arrested 15 illegal immigrants in a raid at the BP plant in Whiting.

Sorting out what becomes of those 15 people, however, may take years.

What, for example, will become of Mario Lanuza, the husband of a legal U.S. resident, who has lived in the U.S. since 1975 and claims immigration officials still are processing the request for residency he filed in 1997?

Lanuza, who at age 18 entered the U.S. from Guatemala, spent three months in federal custody before he was released after pleading guilty to one count of illegally entering the U.S. He returned to his wife and five U.S.-born children last week, and his next immigration hearing is in February.

His wife was laid off from her job Dec. 20, and he is not allowed to work while his case is pending in immigration court. So far, the family has been getting by on his wife's unemployment and donations from the congregation at St. Mary's Catholic Church in East Chicago.

"My children, they have never been (to Guatemala)," he said Friday, as he considered the thought of deportation after more than 30 years in the U.S.

"There, it was like the economy now in America: no jobs, no work," he said. "We come here to work, we don't make very nice money."

The workplace raid that led to Lanuza's arrest Dec. 10 was rare for Chicago, where most immigration arrests come in ones and twos -- the product of traffic stops or immigration warrants targeting individuals, said Guadalupe Ramirez, a staff member at Centro Communitario de Juan Diego, a Latino community center based in Chicago.

"People were scared, because this happened at work, and they were targeting people who came to work," Ramirez said. "People were talking about it; they still are. This doesn't happen here, and you had people on the south side afraid to go to work."

Immigration officials said in December the raid came after a two-year investigation of the cleaning company that employed the workers, United Building Maintenance. No charges had been filed against the Carol Stream, Ill.-based firm or its owners or managers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said Friday. The investigation is ongoing, she said.

The criminal charges against the workers are part of a mandate issued by former President George W. Bush in 2006, during which time the number of workers charged criminally -- rather than placed into deportation hearings in immigration court -- rose from 25 in 2002 to more than 1,000 in 2008.

Roman Torrano-Ramirez had worked for UBM a few months when he was arrested in the raid. A handyman who works construction jobs outdoors during the summer, he and his wife took the jobs, which paid $7.50 an hour, so they would have income during the winter.

Torrano-Ramirez, 49, came to the U.S. from Mexico City 22 years ago, and few of his neighbors in East Chicago knew he was here illegally. UBM hired him even though he had no Social Security number, Torrano-Ramierez said. He said the 15 people arrested with him -- also illegal workers -- represented 90 percent of the employees on his crew.

For his part, Torrano-Ramirez has paid taxes on his wages using a government-issued tax identification number, and had never been in trouble with the law until the December raid. He has two U.S.-born children, and a daughter who came to the U.S. when she was 3 years old and graduated last year from East Chicago Central High School.

"In East Chicago, I was always a person who helped people. Now, I thank everyone who helped my family," he said, rattling off a list of attorneys and community groups.

While he still faces deportation, he believes his record prior to December will mean good news at his February date in immigration court. The lengthy time between hearings, during which he said he cannot work or drive, will be difficult.

"We have been in the shadows all this time, and it is not easy," he said. "I am going to fight for my case and I hope they will hear my case."

Contact Andy Grimm at 648-3073 or agrimm@post-trib.com. Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group