Migrants sell up and flee Arizona ahead of crackdown

[Liberal_in_LA]

Migrants sell up and flee Arizona ahead of crackdown

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.

A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbour Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

"Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving," said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. "We have no alternative. They have us cornered."

The two women are among scores of illegal immigrant families across Phoenix hauling the contents of their homes into the yard this weekend as they rush to sell up and get out before the state law takes effect on Thursday.

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE66O1JY20100725

[laureloak]

1. Why didn't they think this could happen when they stole over

the border?

[Kali]

7. because they were more concerned with living and taking care of their families

you know, they don't come here on some kind of lark. Please get a clue.

[jwirr]

2. I would guess more than a few legal immigrants are also leaving.

The law does not allow for the reality of citizenship during the arrest period. You can land in jail just for look a certain way.

[blondeatlast]

8. More than a few US citizens are. I live in Phoenix, my best friend is staying

but one of her brothers, who has three small children, is already gone as of a month ago.

The Chandler Roundup remains fresh in many minds.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/06/nation/la-na-chandler-20100606

[datasuspect]

3. well, you have to hand it to americans, to be fair . . .

they do ethnic cleansing a lot cleaner than some other people do.

[Bobbieo]

4. Arizona's economy is going to pay very dearly for this, in time!

[MadMaddie]

5. They don't get it!

Arizona is going to suffer in ways they couldn't imagine. The Repugs are always so short sighted they never look down the road.

[Kali]

6. I know somebody who left

guy came here more than a decade ago - worked 3 jobs and lived in an ppt with 5 other men for a year or so, eventually got his wife and kids up (she was a freaking attorney and couldn't make it in Mexico) kids all did good in school, oldest qualified for a free ride in-state scholarship but couldn't get it due to status, so he went to work too. They owned their house, a rental trailer and space in a park, (one of their interim homes as they worked their way "up") and several vehicles. They were model "citizens" if there ever were any. They left the state - subtracting one good family to keep Arizona racist and ignorant.

[blondeatlast]

9. Bet that family remembers the infamous Chandler Roundup.

Still fresh in the minds of many, I was shocked when someone reminded me it was 13 years ago.

[Bobbieo]

10. They are not going back to Mexico are they? Az has sent them on to other states.

which means more states will be following SB 1070. What a mess!!!!

[blondeatlast]

11. Of course not. My friends are US citizens. nt

[Peter1x9]

13. Mexico needs a regime change

It's nothing more than an extreme plutocracy. Has been for a VERY long time. you know there's a problem when even lawyers can't make it. Until the Mexican people overthrow their "government" nothing will change in that country.
Sadly, instead of fixing their government so that it actually represents them, they chicken out and head north.

Most of Latin America is the same way. Entire countries are owned by a few families and every one else is dirt poor.

[Fumesucker]

14. We're heading down that road ourselves..

Illegal immigration will be the least of our problems before too long.

[Bobbieo]

15. How much of Mexico's gov't is controlled by the drug cartels and

how long before they will be moving into the US policital scene if they have not, already? Money, money momey and they have it!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Arizona's real estate development strategy. Ghost Towns.