Immigration raids empty New Bedford fish plants. Massachusetts

“A waterfront sweep by the US Coast Guard and immigration authorities that resulted in the arrest of 13 men has sent panic through New Bedford’s large immigrant community, causing workers at seafood processing plants to stay away from their jobs.

When workers at the AML International fish processing plant arrived for their shifts at 7 a.m. Monday, officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were waiting for them. Eight of the men, who could not provide identification, were handcuffed and loaded into a van. Officers arrested five more men at other plants….”

Another industry that relies on immigrants and one raid causes the whole community problems and the area’s industry and economy problems.

“The fish processing industry in New Bedford has become increasingly dependent on immigrant labor, particularly on young men from Guatemala. At least 3,000 Guatemalans, most of them undocumented, work in the plants, cleaning, cutting, and packing seafood. They send hundreds of dollars a month to their families in Central America and repay loans to smugglers who bring them to the United States through México.

”If they are not there, the industry will die,” Juillard said.

”The worst-case scenario is playing out,” said Corinn Williams, executive director of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts. ”Immigrants have come to this city and filled jobs Americans are not willing to take.”"

I never highlight more than two paragraphs on this site but this story is one that I feel I needed to highlight more because this, I feel, may begin to happen more often and the impacts will be felt by every American not just immigrants, illegal or legal.

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