STILLMORE, Ga. (The Southern Cross) - The Catholic Latino community in Stillmore, Georgia, has been affected as never before. Some men have been taken away, their families torn apart and the women and children, unprotected and scared, have been left behind, abandoned.
The full enforcement of the law by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has created a chilling effect throughout the Hispanic community. People are afraid to come out of their homes.
In mid-Septemter, with Rey Morales, Diocesan Director of Hispanic Ministry as a guide, I traveled to Oak Park (near Stillmore) and visited a group of women who are living communally since their husbands were forcibly removed by ICE raids on Sept. 1. Maria, Sandra, Amelia and Gladys—who declined to give their last names—received us around the family dinner table in the kitchen, where they usually gather for meals. Today the situation was different. They gathered around the table to tell us about the havoc the raid is causing in their lives and how they are dealing with their fear and lack of work for the past two weeks.
The women recalled that ICE agents’ cars surrounded the trailer and eight officers forced their way in after threatening to use gas if those inside did not open the door. Without any explanation they took their husbands away, and confiscated the women’s Mexican identification cards. In light of similar reports and allegations of brutality, Marc Raimondi, of ICE Public Relations, told The Southern Cross, “All ICE Agents acted in accordance with National Immigration Laws.”
Gladys, an American citizen, begged them not to take the other women away so that the children would not be left alone. According to Raimondi, the women left behind most likely received a “Notice to appear.” At their hearing, the women will be given options for returning to their country of origin.
Since the ICE action, the four women have been living in a trailer waiting to hear from their husbands, and pooling their savings to pay for rent, services and food. “Without work, or husbands to provide for us, we are on a dead end street” said Maria.
Working is impossible and leaving town is not an option, as they have nowhere to go. They are afraid to leave the trailer and the look of fear in their eyes reminded me of the look of lost children.
“We only came here to work. We are not harming anyone. Why are they being so brutal to us?” Amelia asks, “What are we supposed to do now? Our husbands are in jail and we are broke.”
During the interview Maria received a call from her husband who was in a detention center in Texas. They had both been working in this country for five years. He told her to pack up and head back to Oaxaca. She has no idea how she will pay for the trip and is unaware of any assistance available from ICE.
When asked if she would come back to work in the U.S., or recommend that other family members come to work she said “no” — not after the terror of the raid and its impact on her family.¸
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Carmen Alarcón is a journalist with La Voz Latina in Savannah, Ga.
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