News & Analysis This Month

Correspond with us, including our executive editor, professor Yves A. Isidor, via electronic mail:

news_ana_1_logo.gif (12092 bytes)

Science & Technology This Month

.Sports This Month

More News

Editorial/Op-Ed

Papa & Baby Doc's Crimes

Must learnedly read, too; in part, of intellectual rigor; in part, the repository of ultimate knowledge

MIAMI, April 21 — Alirio Lares, a waiter in South Beach here, had been hopeful lately that Congress would grant some form of amnesty to illegal immigrants like him. But after federal officials began a crackdown this week on employers of illegal immigrants, Mr. Lares's optimism faltered.

"Where I work, they don't check papers," Mr. Lares, 43, who moved from Venezuela 12 years ago, said on Friday. "But of course I am afraid because I am working illegally and I know they can fire me anytime."

In its first days, the crackdown resulted in the detention of more than 1,100 illegal immigrants in 26 states and the arrest of seven managers and former managers of a pallet supply company, bringing praise from groups favoring stricter enforcement of immigration laws but prompting dread and resentment among immigrant workers and some employers.

Alexandra Perez, a mother of three who cleans houses and blow-dries hair in Weston, Fla., said she thought the authorities were trying to intimidate the many immigrants who had closely followed the political debate over their status and watched or joined recent rallies pressing for legal status and citizenship.

"What happened yesterday, I think, is a tactic that they are using to scare us so we don't keep on pushing to get rights," said Ms. Perez, 38, who came from Venezuela 10 years ago. She was referring to an announcement on Thursday by Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, that the stepped-up enforcement would continue.

Some employers also criticized Mr. Chertoff's plan, under which Immigration and Customs Enforcement will increase the number of worksite enforcement agents and efforts to root out businesses that submit fake Social Security numbers for workers.

"If we didn't have them, we'd really be in a bind," Roy Pace, a mechanical contractor in Austin, Tex., said of immigrant workers.

Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for the immigration enforcement agency, said that the crackdown was aimed at employers who "egregiously and specifically violate the law," and that the agency believed most employers "do want to follow the law and be in compliance."

In Plant City, Fla., where thousands of immigrants tend citrus groves and berry fields, Melissa Gonzalez, who helped found the group Immigrants United for Freedom, praised Mr. Chertoff for singling out those who hire illegal workers. "They're the higher power," Ms. Gonzalez said.

"They're the ones that have slaves working for them. They should be the ones to be in trouble. A lot of them treat their workers badly, pay them badly and only take advantage of these people."

Billy L. Heller Jr., chief executive of Pacific Tomato Growers in Palmetto, Fla., said companies were not equipped to verify their workers' status, a task he said belonged to the government, not employers.

"Does this mean I have to have people spend the whole day on a government Internet site double-checking numbers?" said Mr. Heller, whose company grows produce in Florida, California, Georgia, Virginia and Mexico. "We are not document police, and we can't discriminate. If folks present what looks to be reasonably legitimate, then we have to act as if it is."

Mr. Heller and others said the crackdown would make them lobby harder for a guest worker program that would allow illegal immigrants to work temporarily in the United States and possibly apply for asylum. Some advocates for immigrants said they suspected that, in fact, Mr. Chertoff's announcement was meant to increase pressure on Congress to approve a guest worker program while also placating conservative voters who prefer stricter enforcement.

"This is political cover for the guys who want to keep the conservative right happy but also want to keep business happy," said Greg Schell, a lawyer for the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Lake Worth, Fla.

Several illegal immigrants said they should be left alone by the authorities because they paid taxes.

"I have proof that I have contributed to this country by paying my taxes," said Sabina Noriega, 38, who came here from Mexico 16 years ago and works on a farm in Homestead, south of Miami. "I don't plan to run from this. Why would I run if I'm not doing anything wrong? They are jumping the gun, but I think it's because something good is soon to come."

Diana Posadas, who arrived from Guatemala on a tourist visa 13 years ago and works in a Homestead pizzeria, said the crackdown made her frustrated and sad but also hopeful that change — possibly including amnesty for some immigrants — was near.

"What I think is that they know that something good is going to happen," Ms. Posadas said, "and they are trying to kick as many people out now to minimize the number of people they would favor in the end."

Lydia Gonzalez Welch, an executive board member with the League of United Latin American Citizens in Dallas, said she, too, questioned the timing of the announcement.

"Here it is on the forefront of a movement when the community is being empowered to stand up for themselves," Ms. Welch said, "and all of the sudden the fear of God is put into them."

Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami, predicted that the crackdown would drive illegal immigrants "further underground where they are invisible and untraceable." Ms. Little said her office had received far more calls lately from immigrants afraid of taking their children to school, seeking medical treatment and attending church.

Contributing reporting for this article were Terry Aguayo and Jennifer Saldarriaga in Miami; Tim Eaton in Austin, Tex.; Laura Griffin in Dallas; Karen Hastings in Alamo, Tex.; Barbara Novovich in Marathon, Tex.; and Andrea Zarate in Homestead, Fla.