The Boston Globe
NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts -- To Cindy Tapper and her friends, gathered on black-upholstered banquettes at Shawmut Diner on a recent morning, the cause of New Bedford's economic woes was laid bare by a March 6 raid on a waterfront leather-goods factory and the arrest of 361 suspected illegal immigrants.
"I have a nephew who works at one of the fish plants," said Tapper, 56, a homemaker who grew up in the developments across the street from the diner.
"Nobody showed up for work for a week after that ICE raid," she said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "ICE needs to come to New Bedford and set up shop. The illegal immigrants are using the hospitals as a doctor's office. They're putting a strain on the city of New Bedford."
If you want to know where the illegal immigrants are working, said Tapper's friend David Gould, 47, "look for the bicycles. They're lined up outside all the fish houses."
"There are plenty of empty mills in New Bedford we can make into deportation centers very quickly," said Lynn Kelly, a graphic artist, 40. "That's the business to get into."
For years, illegal immigrants and native-born residents have been living side by side in this city of 94,000. Tensions flared occasionally, but mostly the communities coexisted without incident. But when federal immigration officials threw open the doors to the Michael Bianco plant, they also brought resentments into the open that had been long simmering in this struggling city.
"What this raid did, it forced us to look at the issue of illegal immigration in New Bedford for what it is," said Phil Paleologos, co-owner of Shawmut Diner. "The jobs taken, the services being utilized, the schools and the social services. . . . This raid has pinpointed exactly what the problems are and what needs to be done: Enforcement is the best way."
Posted by tyne at April 16, 2007