Federal raids on plant cause humanitarian crisis, say advocacy groups

Published: 2007-03-09

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (CNS) -- A short time after federal authorities and local police raided a New Bedford manufacturing plant early March 6, detaining 327 illegal immigrants and arresting the firm's owner and managers, offers of help for families affected by the raids came from clergy, Catholic Social Services and advocacy groups. The immediate concern was for the children in day care and elementary schools who would return home to find parents missing. Advocacy workers told the media the situation was a "humanitarian crisis." The majority of those being held were Guatemalans, Mexicans and Hondurans, "with a few Brazilians and some Portuguese and Salvadorans," reported Ondine Sniffen, a lawyer for the Catholic Social Services office in Fall River. "The church never supports disobeying the law and those who break it -- like those who seek to hire only illegal immigrants and those who provided false identification cards -- and they should be prosecuted," said Father John J. Oliveira, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish. "But what's important here is that the church's stance supports caring for people hurting and seeing them treated fairly, normally, with due process and their human rights respected and for family unification. To say these illegal immigrants have no rights is wrong," he said.

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