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This story was originally published by Source NM.
By Patrick Lohmann
The federal immigration raid at a dairy farm in Eastern New Mexico last week tore families apart, damaged trust and “undermined our shared values of compassion and justice,” according to Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a statewide immigrant advocacy organization.
According to a social media post from Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, the agency executed a search warrant at the Outlook Dairy Farms in Lovington on June 4, arresting 11 people accused of misuse of visas, permits or other documents.
The owner of the dairy farm told the Albuquerque Journal that the people arrested provided him false paperwork and that, following an audit before the raid, he’d been required to fire 24 other workers at the farm.
In a statement Monday morning, María Romano, coordinator of the Lea County office of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, said that the raid undermines New Mexico’s economy, which relies heavily on immigrant workers who are “powering industries from dairy farms to oil and gas.”
“The individuals targeted in this raid are our neighbors, coworkers and friends, many of whom have lived here peacefully for years, contributing to our economy and enriching our culture,” Romano said. “These enforcement actions do not make us safer.”
The organization called on local and state leaders to demand transparency from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to protect New Mexicans’ rights regardless of immigration status.
“This recent raid reminds us that our communities must be aware of their rights. We must continue to empower ourselves to defend our dignity and demand justice for all New Mexicans.”
The group shared a website it created explaining people’s rights, regardless of immigration status, with information for victims of wage theft, along with dealing with ICE, Border Patrol and police at border checkpoints and elsewhere.
Imagine that, an immigrant rights group alleged that families are being torn apart and shared values are being undermined and the New Mexico News repeats this propaganda. No mention that those illegals were multiple violators and that they were using phony Social Security numbers to work.
You cannot hire illegals. My husband had a business, and he was checked. So sorry Charlie. You know the laws. Yes, he was handed fake documents by an employee, they said you need to know the difference and run them through the database. How much would you wager, they were never run through the database? And that is on the dairy, just like it was on our business.
There are work visas. If working illegally they need to be arrested/deported. It is the law.
I’m tired of hearing about people complaining about situations they brought upon themselves. Be legal or go home. If others can do it, then so can they.
I agree with Tim. The people that live here legally and vote here don’t care about people complaining about how mistreated they are. They can go home and re-apply for legal immigration the way all of our immigrant forefathers did.
Families need not be “torn apart”. This is leftist reporting. Families can choose to deport with those arrested. And the illegals are taking full advantage of our tax-payer funded social programs from health care & hospitalization to Medicaid, food stamps to ESL teachers who need to be hired in schools. I’m 75 years old, living on Social Security alone, no pension, and used to qualify for these programs as I’m “low income”. Then the illegals started coming by the millions and suddenly Medicaid has run out of money and can’t help me. I have 8 prescriptions that I need to fill monthly and most times I have to eat cornflakes for dinner to afford the co-pays. I wish the illegals would go so I could get assistance again and have hamburger once in a while. Who’s looking out for me in our blue state?
ok Tim, then you can go to work and help the owner of the dairy farm- these heavy-handed jack-booted thug tactics of Stephen Miller are a great way to create fear, sow chaos and a create labour shortages, which will eventually affect the economy
you probably aren’t even a native New Mexican with a gringo name like ”Orum”
Why don’t you go back to where you came from?