Nearly two years after raids, questions remain

By Cindy Gonzalez

World-Herald News Service

OMAHA — Since her arrest two years ago in a high-profile immigration raid, Maria Gutierrez de Nunez has returned to trimming meat at Grand Island's Swift & Co. plant, where federal agents picked her up. She was jailed for three months.

She now has a government-issued work permit and is scheduled for a 2010 hearing to determine permanent residency.

And her five Mexican-born daughters have gained legal status through Nunez's U.S.-citizen husband. Four girls are in college, one is in high school, and all are employed.

Despite Nunez's fraud conviction, her family today is even more entrenched in American society than before the government nabbed her and about 260 illegal co-workers at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here in December 2006.

Whether such raids are effective and should remain a key enforcement strategy is an area where the presidential candidates diverge most on immigration philosophies that otherwise are fairly similar.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has declared raids ineffective and called them publicity stunts.

The Illinois Democrat's Web site says, "Despite a sevenfold increase in recent years, immigration raids only netted 3,600 arrests in 2006 and have placed all the burdens of a broken system onto immigrant families."

U.S. Sen. John McCain calls for "enforcement first."

While the Arizona Republican does not expressly address raids on his Web site, he emphasizes that his No. 1 priority is to secure U.S. borders. He has called raids "a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself."

Unlike many immigration policy changes that require congressional approval, the president has administrative authority to call a moratorium on raids, said Frank Sharry of America's Voice, which supports the legalization of undocumented workers.

Sharry said he would expect a continuation of raids under a McCain administration and a de-emphasis on raids under an Obama administration.

Even an advocate of restricting immigration such as Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies called the recent raids a political gimmick to make amnesty more palatable.

But Krikorian said they're helping his group's cause, noting the slowed growth of the foreign-born population. He expects wages to rise and more American workers to replace deported immigrants.

On the immigration debate's most contentious issue -- a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States -- McCain has changed his earlier stance.

He crafted a 2006 package that featured a way for qualified illegal foreigners to legalize their status. More recently, though, McCain said he would not vote for his own bill nor consider a guest worker plan or other initiative until after the U.S. border is secure.

Obama, while calling for beefed-up border control, favors what he calls a more "complete solution" that includes legalization for immigrants who pay fines and have clean records. He said he would introduce such a bill his first year in office.

People here in Nebraska's fourth-largest city haven't reached a consensus on whether raids are worth the financial and social costs.

But certain facts have come to light since the crackdown.

In the subsequent year, the immigrant population in the Grand Island area of Hall, Merrick and Howard counties dropped by 30 percent -- from about 7,000 to 4,800, according to an annual Census Bureau survey. The data don't distinguish legal from illegal immigrants.

So, are raids effective?

"If the target is to reduce illegal immigrants, looking at the data … probably," said Steve Joel, Grand Island public schools superintendent.

He added, "People are scared, really, really scared."

Children were separated from parents who worked at Swift. Social service agencies were strained. And the demand for laborers to replace outgoing Latin Americans ushered in a new kind of cultural tension.

After more Sudanese and Somali refugees filled vacancies at the Swift plant, tensions over Muslim Somali workers' request for prayer time erupted last month into worker walkouts, protests, a brief plant shutdown and employee firings.

Joel, like others, questioned the underlying struggle.

"Is it the ’illegal' issue, or is it that Grand Island has changed?"

Some residents wrongly assume that the Sudanese and Somali refugees are in the country illegally. In fact, the Africans were resettled by the U.S. State Department and are eligible for such public benefits as food stamps that are off limits to undocumented immigrants.

City officials say that, despite the disruption following the raid, schools and Hispanic merchants mostly are back to business.

Some areas are stronger.

Grand Island schools now have a raid disaster plan that has become a model for other districts. Officials who literally knocked on doors to restore trust strengthened the parent-teacher relationship, said Kris Burling, director of the English language learner program for the Grand Island public schools.

Employers more vigilantly check worker eligibility and some now provide training to detect fraudulent paperwork, City Councilman Jose Zapata said.

Still reeling two years later are many Latinos.

Nunez's daughters, who range in age from 17 to 26, say they'll forever remember the day Mom didn't come home from work.

Nunez, 47, spent more than three months in an Iowa jail and visited with her children and husband only via telephone or a video screen.

Her young grandson required therapy. A distraught daughter threatened to drop out of high school, but her sisters persuaded her to stay in school.

Nunez, who worked as a teacher in Mexico before she came to the United States 10 years ago, was placed on probation after being found guilty of fraud and misuse of documents, a federal felony.

She was released on $4,000 bail pending the 2010 hearing on the residency application filed on her behalf by her U.S.-citizen husband, Manuel Nunez.

Meanwhile, Maria Nunez continues to earn money for the girls' tuition and family living expenses, working the second shift at Swift.