ROCHESTER

ROCHESTER (New York) DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE

August 3, 2006

Deportations protested

Dozens demonstrate against removal of illegal farmworkers

IRONDEQUOIT — More than two dozen people Wednesday protested the continued detention and deportation of illegal farmworkers by the U.S. government.

Hundreds of such workers, mostly from Mexico, have been apprehended in raids in upstate New York by a "fugitive operations team" formed late last year by the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"They're dumping on folks whose only crime is to try and work," said Brian Erway, an organizer of the event and member of Rochester Alliance for Immigrant Rights.

Sister Lucy Romero of Catholic Migrant Ministries said 40 to 60 workers were taken from their job sites and homes in raids near Sodus, Wayne County, in recent weeks.

"They're violating our human rights and international treaties for workers," Romero said in Spanish.

"You don't know how traumatizing it is to be grabbed and deported. It's like the world has ended," she said.

Romero said the process to become a legal citizen is very complicated, takes years and is very costly.

Belen Colon of Rochester befriended a 26-year-old Mexican jailed here who was deported in March, only to return here for work and detained again.

"I'm very aggravated," she said. "He's not killing people. He took the risk of coming back to feed his wife and son. He looks like a very decent kid. He deserves to be in this country. It's a country of freedom."

The protest took place on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Border Patrol office on Pattonwood Drive. The office was closed for the day.

Even if it had been open, it's doubtful anyone would have commented because the office focuses on border crossings. Illegal farmworkers are a focus of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit, a separate agency.