Many years ago, I watched a journalistic piece (Morely Safer on 60 Minutes) about undocumented immigrants in Colorado's construction industry. The owner allowed as to the fact that he "probably" had many such people working on his projects because he followed the strict letter of the law that only required him to check the presence of work papers of each individual job applicant... but not to see if copies of the same papers were being used by multiple applicants. He allowed that, if he checked the veracity of each applicant's papers, he would probably reject most of the applicants... BUT, that the law did not make it his responsibility to do such a check and he needed the applicants to do the work. He made the point that those applicants showed up every day for work and, through their willingness to work hard and be reliable, they earned every penny that he paid them. To make a point, Safer interviewed the applicant's at that week's induction of new employees and, again, a week after they were on the job. He found that 100% of the possibly-undocumented employees were still on the job, while 75% of the new employees with US birth certificates had already quit. The owner of the construction company pointed out that the new construction during a boom year was only possible because of the reliability of the immigrants.
Laws like HB56 not only harm the immigrants impacted personally by job losses, harassment, and detention or worse. They enable even kids to be racist jerks, bullying immigrants or kids who look like the cliché of an immigrant. The racism behind anti-immigrant fervor causes tragedies such as the needless deaths of innocents. This is a horror that must be reversed.
I hope that if faced with some of the issues our immigrants are faced with that I would have the courage to do whatever I could for my family, for my children, as the migrant workers here do. I am so disgusted with humans.
I live in Alabama. HB56 was the beginning of my end of being a Republican. My son's schoolmates stopped coming to school because they were afraid. The produce rotted on the vines. The immigrants left. They went to other states where they at least had basic rights. It was a shit show. My heart was broken and I was filled with shame for the people in my state who did this and those who supported it. I am grieving for the society I thought was different than the area where I live. I never dreamed in 2011 that the rest of the country would have a large number of people who would be so cruel.
I agree — Jocelyn’s story is heartbreaking in a pantheon of heartbreak for America’s students for so many reasons. When school is a place of pain and fear we are all failing and we are all responsible for fixing what’s broken.
I’m a native Texan and these stories are sad but not surprising to me. I want better immigration laws and I want criminals deported. But there are so many more people who are here just to survive and make a better life. Their presence does not harm me. We need to do better by all our neighbors.
Immigration is necessary for prosperity. If we want it to be orderly, our representatives have to vote for more ways for people to stay and enter legally and for more funding of Immigration courts. Those who will not admit that the people preventing any sort of compromise legislation are racist are enabling the worst elements of society. Why is it we only talk about unintended consequences when discussing government programs to help people? Is it because refusing to negotiate about immigration reform is intended to cause violent outcomes? When I was a child, a Hispanic man entered a bar in my home town of Marion IN during the fall tomato harvest. He was asked to leave because of the way he looked. At first he refused, but eventually he left. He was shot in the back on his way out the door. The next day my dad's coworkers were talking about the incident at the RCA picture tube plant. One of them asked if the shooter would be found guilty. Another answered, "Not in Indiana; not in my lifetime"
I have been repeatedly reminding people of what Alabama discovered when they wrote HB56, and of Florida's experience this past year when DeSantis pushed through a bill that went after migrant workers just before orange-picking season. It seems to me that far too many people don't pay enough attention to current events.
I remember when Alabama passed a law that any farmer hiring immigrants who were not here legally would be severely fined and the immigrant sent back. Well, it was a total failure. Immigrants did not show up to plant or pick crops and so they tried to hire Americans. It was such hard work and so hot that Americans lasted only one day! Well, that probably was the end of the ban for the next year and we never heard another word. Terri Quint
You shouldn't. I am an American, and I have come to the view that the sooner you guys, the Europeans, the Japanese, the Australians, and the Koreans flush us down the toilet, the better off you'll be. It will hurt at first, but the sooner you get rid of us, the better. A large part of our population is getting progressively stupider. Stupidity is contagious, so don't let us in--too late for the UK, though...they let in Americans, and then they go Brexit--and we see how marvelously that has gone. As for the rest of you, it's not too late.
So heartbreaking to hear about school children bullying vulnerable classmates and knowing that they are modeling what they see and hear from “grownups.” In better moments, I believe forgiveness and reconciliation are the only way forward. In other moments, I completely understand why so many christians freely consign others to hell.
Many years ago, I watched a journalistic piece (Morely Safer on 60 Minutes) about undocumented immigrants in Colorado's construction industry. The owner allowed as to the fact that he "probably" had many such people working on his projects because he followed the strict letter of the law that only required him to check the presence of work papers of each individual job applicant... but not to see if copies of the same papers were being used by multiple applicants. He allowed that, if he checked the veracity of each applicant's papers, he would probably reject most of the applicants... BUT, that the law did not make it his responsibility to do such a check and he needed the applicants to do the work. He made the point that those applicants showed up every day for work and, through their willingness to work hard and be reliable, they earned every penny that he paid them. To make a point, Safer interviewed the applicant's at that week's induction of new employees and, again, a week after they were on the job. He found that 100% of the possibly-undocumented employees were still on the job, while 75% of the new employees with US birth certificates had already quit. The owner of the construction company pointed out that the new construction during a boom year was only possible because of the reliability of the immigrants.
Thank you for your great work shedding light on important human stories, Adrian. I very much appreciate it.
Laws like HB56 not only harm the immigrants impacted personally by job losses, harassment, and detention or worse. They enable even kids to be racist jerks, bullying immigrants or kids who look like the cliché of an immigrant. The racism behind anti-immigrant fervor causes tragedies such as the needless deaths of innocents. This is a horror that must be reversed.
I hope that if faced with some of the issues our immigrants are faced with that I would have the courage to do whatever I could for my family, for my children, as the migrant workers here do. I am so disgusted with humans.
I live in Alabama. HB56 was the beginning of my end of being a Republican. My son's schoolmates stopped coming to school because they were afraid. The produce rotted on the vines. The immigrants left. They went to other states where they at least had basic rights. It was a shit show. My heart was broken and I was filled with shame for the people in my state who did this and those who supported it. I am grieving for the society I thought was different than the area where I live. I never dreamed in 2011 that the rest of the country would have a large number of people who would be so cruel.
Oh wow thank you so much for your comment here as someone from Alabama!
I agree — Jocelyn’s story is heartbreaking in a pantheon of heartbreak for America’s students for so many reasons. When school is a place of pain and fear we are all failing and we are all responsible for fixing what’s broken.
I’m a native Texan and these stories are sad but not surprising to me. I want better immigration laws and I want criminals deported. But there are so many more people who are here just to survive and make a better life. Their presence does not harm me. We need to do better by all our neighbors.
Immigration is necessary for prosperity. If we want it to be orderly, our representatives have to vote for more ways for people to stay and enter legally and for more funding of Immigration courts. Those who will not admit that the people preventing any sort of compromise legislation are racist are enabling the worst elements of society. Why is it we only talk about unintended consequences when discussing government programs to help people? Is it because refusing to negotiate about immigration reform is intended to cause violent outcomes? When I was a child, a Hispanic man entered a bar in my home town of Marion IN during the fall tomato harvest. He was asked to leave because of the way he looked. At first he refused, but eventually he left. He was shot in the back on his way out the door. The next day my dad's coworkers were talking about the incident at the RCA picture tube plant. One of them asked if the shooter would be found guilty. Another answered, "Not in Indiana; not in my lifetime"
It's about time that someone mentioned this. No learning from history in this current world.
Great reporting. And difficult to read, especially the story of Jocelynn Rojo Carranza.
I have been repeatedly reminding people of what Alabama discovered when they wrote HB56, and of Florida's experience this past year when DeSantis pushed through a bill that went after migrant workers just before orange-picking season. It seems to me that far too many people don't pay enough attention to current events.
I remember when Alabama passed a law that any farmer hiring immigrants who were not here legally would be severely fined and the immigrant sent back. Well, it was a total failure. Immigrants did not show up to plant or pick crops and so they tried to hire Americans. It was such hard work and so hot that Americans lasted only one day! Well, that probably was the end of the ban for the next year and we never heard another word. Terri Quint
Funny how ultra-Xtian Alabama is still mired in fucking19th century racism
old times there are not forgotten
Look away indeed
"DONALD TRUMP WANTS YOU TO ENVISION a world where providing running water or renting an apartment to illegal immigrants is a crime. "
Oddly, though, he seems to be okay with employing those same immigrants--at least judging by his complete lack of interest in EVerify...
Why would we (Canada) want to be friends with a country like this?
Please sign my petition to make Kentucky the 11th Canadian Province
You shouldn't. I am an American, and I have come to the view that the sooner you guys, the Europeans, the Japanese, the Australians, and the Koreans flush us down the toilet, the better off you'll be. It will hurt at first, but the sooner you get rid of us, the better. A large part of our population is getting progressively stupider. Stupidity is contagious, so don't let us in--too late for the UK, though...they let in Americans, and then they go Brexit--and we see how marvelously that has gone. As for the rest of you, it's not too late.
So heartbreaking to hear about school children bullying vulnerable classmates and knowing that they are modeling what they see and hear from “grownups.” In better moments, I believe forgiveness and reconciliation are the only way forward. In other moments, I completely understand why so many christians freely consign others to hell.