'Desperation' in immigrant communities [View All]

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: Riverhead

One man kicked a police car in hopes of getting arrested and deported back to his home country. Another simply asked the cops for a ride to his homeland, then stood in traffic until cops nabbed him for disorderly conduct.
The two Guatemalan immigrants -- the first a 27-year-old laborer arrested in January, the second a 38-year-old homeless man arrested on Monday -- are symbolic of the devastating effect that the nation's troubled economy is having on immigrants, whether they are here legally or not, according to immigration experts.

"I've never seen things as difficult as they are now. There is a lot of desperation," said Sister Margaret Smyth with the North Fork Spanish Apostolate. "Last week, I had at least one person a day come here looking for a ticket back home. The amount of work is so sparse."

The American dream is falling apart for millions of immigrants who count on work in landscaping, construction, cleaning, food service and agriculture, said Steven Camarota with the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C.



Read more: http://www2.timesreview.com/NR/stories/R050709_laborers_bh

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poverty has nothing to celebrate