BY MARILEE TAYLOR
CHICAGO - Since early February, the Immigration and Naturalization Service raided almost a dozen workplaces in the Chicago area, picked up 390 undocumented workers, and sent 290 of them back to their country of origin. In most cases officials deported the workers less than 12 hours after their arrests.

More than 100 people protested outside the INS offices in downtown Chicago after an April 21 raid at Web Finishers in Elk Grove Village. Immigration cops raided the factory, which produces notebook binders, at 5:00 a.m. and detained 75 Mexican workers. By 3:00 p.m. 59 of them had been loaded onto a plane headed for El Paso, Texas. The INS claims that all detainees were given the right to contact one family member and that those deported signed affidavits asking to be sent back to their native country.

Family members and some of those detained gave a different story. Francisco Delgado, 20, was not allowed to speak to two cousins who went to visit him, though they were able to pass him money, according to a report in 25 La Raza. Later he spoke by telephone with María Díaz, his cousin, who told him not to sign anything. But, she said, "they [INS] told him if he did not sign they would put him in jail for five years." She added, "Not even criminals are treated like they are treating them."

A.D. Moyer, regional director of the INS, explained that the agency's campaign against undocumented workers was launched February 1. It is cynically code named "Operation Jobs." When Moyer was asked about violations of constitutional rights he said, "I don't know what you are talking about." He went on to say that, "The roundups were carried out to protect the jobs of legal immigrants."

Moyer was asked why the sweeps, sometimes 10 a week, were taking place at factories where workers are paid below the minimum wage. "Those who are here legally are not going to accept a job that pays less than minimum wage," he said. "They look for jobs that pay 5, 6, 7 or 10 dollars an hour and those are the workers we are trying to protect." He further claimed that he is receiving letters and calls everyday saying that undocumented workers are taking jobs away from legal residents.

The Chicago Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Protection is planning further protests, according to Carlos Hereda- Ortiz, including bringing attention to the situation facing undocumented workers by participating in a May 13 protest against the "Contract With America."  
 
 
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