From far east of border
Like many undocumented workers, T. works at a low-wage restaurant job. Unlike most, she is not from Mexico.
T., 20, is among the estimated 7 percent of illegal residents in America who were born in Asia. In 2000, that number was 500,000 – compared with 4.8 mil lion Mexican-born, according to a 2003 report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics.
Five years ago, T. came to America with her father on a six-month visitor’s visa. They stayed with her aunt in Aurora. Her father returned to their home country of Laos when the visa expired, but she stayed in order to seek citizenship.
That hasn’t gone as planned. T., who asked that her name not be used, said the immigration crackdown after the Sept. 11 attacks made the process of becoming a permanent resident tougher.
T. graduated from high school last year. She began working at a Chinese restaurant in Aurora in January. She earns about $35 a day, or roughly $4.40 an hour, paid under the table, she said.
Last month, she married a customer she met at the restaurant. Her husband is a U.S. citizen, but T. said efforts to get her citizenship have hit a hitch because her visa expired so long ago.
“I’m really stressing out right now. I don’t know what to do,” she said.
She said she plans to meet with a lawyer Monday.
– Andy Vuong
Georgia law a model?
The Georgia Security & Immigration Compliance Act is the toughest immigration law in the country. Proponents in Colorado say the state should adopt it.
The Georgia law: requires businesses to check the Social Security numbers of new hires against a federal online database; eliminates most state income-tax deductions for state contractors who hire illegal immigrants; and requires employers to withhold 6 percent state income tax from the pay of workers who have failed to provide either a Social Security number or a valid taxpayer ID number.
“What the Georgia legislature has done puts Colorado’s legislature to shame,” said former Colorado Senate President John Andrews. Andrews, a Republican, is a leader of Defend Colorado Now, a group that wants Colorado voters to restrict state services for illegal immigrants.
Fred Elbel, the group’s director, has discussed Georgia’s law with anti-immigrant activist Donald Arthur “D.A.” King, a retired insurance salesman outside Atlanta who was involved in the fight to get Georgia to pass the law.
Elbel would like to see Colorado adopt legislation similar to Georgia’s. But Defend Colorado Now won’t lobby for that this year. Instead, it will focus on getting the signatures needed for a November ballot initiative to restrict illegal immigrants from receiving state services, Andrews said.
– Tom McGhee
Seeking help for spouse
Alma Lopez turned to local immigration lawyer Lilian Shea to help her husband – who is in the country illegally – gain legal resident status.
Lopez, a native of Mexico, became a U.S. citizen four years ago. She plans to close the beauty salon she owns in Aurora on Monday so she and her five employees can attend the immigrant rights rally planned for Denver’s Civic Center park.
“I think it would be good to give (people who are here illegally) some kind of amnesty or permit,” said Lopez, 41.
“(Monday) is going to be a good day for Latino people. We have been waiting for someone to organize us. There are too many of us now – we’re powerful.”
Shea, who was born in Argentina, has been flooded in recent weeks with Latino clients seeking consultations on how to become U.S. citizens.
“I think more people are going to lawyers more now because they’re afraid,” said Shea, 41, who became an American citizen in 1999. “I have more work than I can handle.”
– Julie Dunn
Blacks worry about jobs
Bill Bell, owner of Mosaic Consulting in Denver, advises construction companies and monitors their contracts for minority participation. He said the immigration debate is driving a wedge between blacks and Latinos vying for basic labor jobs.
“If it’s hard for (blacks) to get a job in a particular industry that’s Hispanic-dominated, there’s a little animosity there,” he said. “But you can’t blame the Hispanics, because they have to feed their family like everyone else.”
Undocumented Mexican and South American workers coming to the U.S. will agree to wages and working conditions that American blacks and second-generation Latinos will not, Bell said. That feeds into the myth that blacks are lazy and willing to take government assistance in lieu of finding a job versus Latinos who are hardworking, he said.
Bell said that while some blacks may be sympathetic to the immigration rallies planned for Monday, he doesn’t expect many to stay home from work or join in the protests.
“I think blacks are trying to find their piece of the pie; they don’t have time to worry about other people’s piece of the pie,” he said. “We’re worried about how many contracts we can get. When we’re getting squeezed out and opportunities aren’t available, we’re going to get angry about it. But we’re not intolerant.”
– Kimberly Johnson
Money for kin in Mexico
Alfredo Quintan, a Mexico native living in Denver, said he sends about $200 every three weeks to his parents in Chihuahua, Mexico. The 37-year-old construction worker has lived in the U.S. for 20 years.
He said friends and co-workers are worried about the proposed immigration reform laws.
“It’s discrimination,” Quintan, a legal U.S. resident, said in Spanish. Quintan is one of an estimated 25 million Mexico natives living in the U.S., according to the Federal Reserve Bank. About 5 million of those regularly send money to relatives or friends in Mexico.
The U.S. Commerce Department estimates that $9.6 billion was sent from the U.S. to Mexico in 2004, although the Mexican government says the number is closer to $16 billion.
A large portion of those transactions is handled by Western Union Financial Services, the flagship subsidiary of Greenwood Village-based First Data Corp.
Revenue generated from transactions to Mexico accounted for 7 percent of Western Union’s money-transfer and bill-payments business in 2005. Western Union declined to provide financial details about transactions from the U.S. to specific countries.
– Will Shanley
