Impact of raids on families detailed

WASHINGTON -- Eleven members of the New Bedford families who were separated from their relatives after the March raid on a leathergoods factory came to the nation's capital yesterday to urge the government to stop cracking down on suspected illegal immigrant workers.

Among them were Lixiere and Yessica , a New Bedford couple originally from El Salvador, and their 2-year-old son, Jefferson. Both parents, who worked as machine operators at the factory, said they spent a week in detention after the raid. Meanwhile, their child was cared for by his uncle and was traumatized by the abrupt separation.

"In those days he did not want to eat," said Lixiere, who declined to give their last name because of their ongoing immigration case. "He only asked for us. He lost three pounds."

Now reunited, the trio drove to Washington with eight other New Bedford immigrants in a trip organized by the Boston-based Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, or MIRA. They took part in a mock hearing about the impact of immigration raids on families, urging a moratorium on such crackdowns before a panel of social activism leaders.

The mock hearing was held on a day in which the White House and Senate leaders announced an accord on legislation that would allow many undocumented workers to stay legally in the country.

Lixiere told his story alongside a Cape Verdean woman who said her first name was Sandra. After the New Bedford raid, she said, she was flown to a detention center in Texas and was separated from her 15-month-old daughter for 10 days.

The panel also heard from Amaro Laria , a Harvard Medical School professor who specializes in the psychiatric treatment of Latinos. Laria told the panel of treating several New Bedford immigrant children for severe anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

Immigrant -rights activists argued that the government was responsible for the children's distress.

"We want the government to stop the raids because families are being torn apart every day," said Carlos Saavedra , a MIRA Coalition organizer. "We need to reform the immigration system and stop treating people like scapegoats. These families weren't selling drugs or doing anything bad. They were just working -- and being exploited at their jobs, too."

But Marc Raimondi , press secretary for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency is just doing its job by enforcing the law.

"If a parent fails to pay a mortgage and the house is foreclosed upon, that action is going to affect the child, but that doesn't mean banks should stop collecting mortgages," Raimondi said. "The same thing goes for law enforcement. The responsibility lies upon the family member who is violating the law, not the government for enforcing the law."

The March 6 raid on the factory in New Bedford drew national attention, both because of its scope -- some 350 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested -- and because it resulted in the abrupt separation of dozens of children from their parents.

Senator John F. Kerry , Democrat of Massachusetts, issued a statement yesterday denouncing the New Bedford raid for having caused a "humanitarian crisis."

He promised legislation imposing tighter restrictions on immigration enforcement tactics.

But Raimondi said many parents were eventually released from detention on humanitarian grounds.

And, he said, it is up to Congress, not his agency, to decide what the laws should be.