Immigration Law

WILL ILLEGALLY PRESENT IMMIGRANTS EVACUATE NEW ORLEANS

By Greg Siskind

There will be no shelters in New Orleans this time. Mayor Nagin has ordered the city completely evacuated as Hurricane Gustav approaches. The AP is reporting disturbing news that many immigrants are avoiding evacuation buses because of a fear of being arrested by ICE officers.

Advocates have criticized the decision not to establish a shelter, warning that day laborers and the poorest residents will still fall through the cracks. As lines at bus stations kept building, about two dozen Hispanic men talked under oak trees near Claiborne Avenue, where on better days they would be waiting to be picked up for day labor.

They'd been listening to Spanish radio and television but none of them knew what to do and were waiting for someone to come by and tell them, said Pictor Soto, 44, of Peru. Told they could take a bus at Union Passenger Terminal, they all shook their heads, fearful that immigration agents would be looking for them. "The problem is, there will be immigration people there and we're all undocumented," Soto said.

And there is good reason to worry if you are illegally present.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on August 31, 2008 (boomark / email).