More than 300 illegal immigrants were taken into custody in the raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at Michael Bianco Inc. Most of the workers were taken by bus to a detention center at the former Fort Devens in Ayer.
These low-wage workers had been cutting and sewing vests and backpacks for our military, under a government contract. Now they're in federal custody, many separated from their children back in New Bedford and destined for deportation.
The irony? Francesco Insolio, owner of the factory, who paid minimum wage and no benefits - and reportedly fined workers $20 or more for snacking at their work stations or arriving late for work - was arrested, charged and released on Tuesday.
"This is irony," said Shuya Ohno, who handles communications for MIRA, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. Insolio and his handful of managers "appeared in court, they were released and they slept in their own beds that night."
Hundreds of immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Brazil are still sleeping in a lockup at Devens, waiting to be sent to federal facilities across the country where they'll sleep while they await deportation hearings.
The irony is that many of these workers came to the U.S. illegally because they knew they could find these factory jobs in the 21st century version of a sweat shop in New Bedford. They worked long shifts cutting and sewing gear for American soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The workers paid their rents, were raising their children and, in some cases, were able to send money back to their home countries.
They came to America and landed in a workplace that exploited their illegal status so the owners of the company could fulfill a government order for equipment for our soldiers fighting for the American way of life.
"They're here, working, trying to raise families and find the American dream they heard about and now they're being punished for a broken immigration system," Ohno said yesterday. "They're trapped in a Catch-22.
"These people were here being exploited. That makes no sense. They've been working, making vests for our soldiers and now they have to suffer and they've been separated from their children," he said.
Several dozen women who were arrested were released by immigration officials after if was determined the women were sole caretakers, were nursing or were pregnant. Hundreds of others are still in custody, even though Ohno said the chaos after the raid has hardly abated.
Children were left waiting at daycare centers, at schools, in the apartments of neighbors or friends, not knowing that their parents had been arrested - and the parents were either afraid or didn't know how to get word back to their children.
Have all the children been accounted for, Ohno was asked yesterday?
"The last I heard, we don't think so, not yet. We're still getting reports where landlords are taking care of children, or neighbors or strangers who had heard about these children, that the mother couldn't pick them up at neighborhood daycare or at school," he said.
There are many people who will ignore these injustices and say these people brought this on themselves. They broke the law to get here, they're taking jobs away from American workers and getting caught and deported is the price to pay.
The reality is that these workers came here to fill jobs that needed to be filled, in a state that is steadily losing population, if not for the arrival of immigrants - legal or illegal. These workers labored for $7.50 an hour so they could build a life, raise their kids and be part of a place that, even with those low wages, was better than where they had been.
"Obviously these people are working, they're not eligible for welfare or food stamps. They were working to make a living, to create a better future," Ohno said. "We need a better immigration system that allows people to come in and work legally. We have a need for these workers, clearly."
But, because the workers sneaked into the country and found a company ready and willing to exploit them - knowing that the fear of arrest and deportation hung over every one - the "Catch-22" means the willing laborers lose their jobs and get deported, possibly tearing their families apart.
Another irony? Many of the children of these workers were born here, so they are U.S. citizens. In some cases, their parents might be deported and the children placed by the Department of Social Services with Massachusetts foster families.
"Now we basically have these orphaned kids," Ohno said. "Instead of the parents actually working and raising their children on their own, we're looking at orphaned kids the state takes over."
Isn't it ironic?
Richard Lodge is editor of the Daily News and writes a column published on Friday. His e-mail is rlodge@cnc.com.
