THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603020246
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Eight Hispanic men with broken dreams sit in orange jumpsuits in a cell block in Virginia Beach City Jail. They are tied together by language, circumstance, uncertainty about the future and - from their perspective - a cruel twist of fate.
All are illegal workers who were caught up Monday in the largest immigration raid in more than a decade in Hampton Roads.
One arrived in Hampton Roads the day before the raid. Another, a father of four, was trying to save enough money to build a house in Honduras. He had been on the job just eight days.
A third had dropped out of college in Guatemala when his mother became sick and was trying to pay for her care and save enough to return to school.
All were going about a regular day's work as drywall installers, framers and roofers at the Ben Moreell Navy housing construction site on Hampton Boulevard. None expected to have their work interrupted by men asking to see their documents. None expected to have their dreams crushed and find themselves behind bars by nightfall.
``A lot of people come here with an economic illusion about the United States,'' William, who did not want his last name used, said Friday. William left his wife behind in Nicaragua after losing a management job during political upheaval.
``When you finally get to this country, it converts into a nightmare. You think about the United States and the dreams are real. The nightmare is to come here and realize it's all a make-believe dream.''
While 29 other illegal workers netted in the raid have been deported or bonded out, these eight languish behind, unable to come up with the $2,500 cash to make bail.
The reason they came to America is simple, the men said. They wanted to work.
``If you work hard here, you get a good income and can support your family,'' said Juan Carlos Flores, 25, of El Salvador, who left his wife and 6-year-old daughter behind. ``In El Salvador, you work as hard or harder and you can't support your family.'' Flores dreamed of providing a better life and education for his child. That ended when his hands were cuffed behind him on Monday, he said.
The eight jailed men - two from Guatemala, four from El Salvador and one each from Honduras and Nicaragua - said they had little difficulty getting into the United States or obtaining fraudulent documents, though some paid as much as $4,000 to do so.
Some flew. Others came in cars. Some by way of Washington, D.C., Maryland, other points in Virginia. All found their way to Norfolk, one by way of a contractor in Houston.
One man, Armando Alverado, 45, borrowed $1,200 from friends in Honduras. Now, he fears, he can't possibly make enough money in his native country to pay them back.
Some, like Alverado and Flores, left their families behind, hoping to send money back to ease life at home.
Christian Alverado (no relation), 19, came to Hampton Roads four years ago with his mother and brothers and sisters. Other family members, also illegal, are still in Maryland and California. There will be no family to greet the teenager when he returns to El Salvador.
Monday's raid marks the third time Jose Alfonso, 18, has been caught and sent home to El Salvador. He'll probably be back, he said. ``I came here with two cousins to pay off debts,'' Alfonso said. ``Then I got into a car accident and owe $5,000 to friends.''
For an illegal worker, bail isn't a matter of posting the usual 10 percent with a bonding agent and getting out. A $2,500 bail means cash. Cash they just don't have.
But if they did, the dream just might come back to life again.
``If you make bail, you can get back out, get another job,'' one explained Friday, ``and the chance they'll catch you again is not very big.''
KEYWORDS: ILLEGAL ALIENS U.S. NAVY RAID ARREST by CNB