First, I'd like to thank everybody who has given me feedback on this blog. Your comments have been very helpful, and I'm really happy that everyone is enjoying it so much. Please feel free to post comments on the website, or send me an email (immigrantperspectives@gmail.com) with suggestions, thoughts, etc.

Second, I'm thrilled that word of what I'm doing - and what the people I'm writing about are doing - is really starting to get around. Pam told me yesterday that, after the article on Blessed Kateri was published in the Sparta Independent, she got a call from a man who wanted to volunteer. I hope that more people respond similarly, but even one person makes a difference.

Several of my mom's colleagues live in Sparta, and they have been talking to her about my article and blog as well. It's interesting to see what they care about: one woman told my mom that she didn't care how the immigrants got here, so long as they paid taxes. Most people don't realize that immigrants, documented or undocumented, do in fact pay taxes. Not only do they pay sales taxes whenever they purchase something, but they also contribute to Social Security. Undocumented immigrants are actually the biggest contributer to the Social Security fund, because they pay Social Security taxes but never get to collect.

One colleague, a legal secretary who asked to remain anonymous, told me a story about immigration in Worthington, Minnesota, where her mother lives and works in an outreach organization. I'd like to tell it here, as well. I know that the focus of the blog is immigration in Northern New Jersey, but what happened in Minnesota occurs across the country; I think that it's an issue more people should be aware of.

So, here it goes:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials rounded up several Mexicans who had been working illegally in a food processing plant in Worthington. The immigrants were deported, although many had children living in Minnesota. The children were left floundering, so local churches and community members stepped in to care for them. It is unclear whether the children were ever reunited with their families.

"In Marshall the... company (which is no longer there) would "advertise" with big signs in Mexico (several immigrants told my Mom about this) telling people to come to Marshall to work at [the turkey processing plant] for good wages. It was up to the people to sneak across the border and make their way to Marshall. Mom witnessed several times over the years her museum was located in the County Courthouse building, across a parking lot from [the company's], that an open bed pickup truck with INS on it would pull up to [the plant], load Mexican workers into the open bed and drive away. At the same time other Mexicans would be going in another door to take the place of the arrested workers," she explains. "The money paid was a lot of money to the Mexicans, so they kept coming, risking arrest, etc. The immigrants who told my Mom about this said when workers left Mexico to make their way to Marshall for those jobs, they believed it would be o.k. since an American company was advertising for them to come. The company was never to her knowledge fined or found to be knowingly hiring illegals."