U.S. Crackdown On Illegal Labor Swells Numbers In Forgotten Guatemalan Village Of Xicalcal

Xicalcal used to be an abandoned Guatemalan town, but after a series of immigration raids on U.S. factories, deportees from America are now flooding back into the northern village. The swelling population in Xicalcal is a testament to the harder stance taken by American immigration officials against illegal labor, and especially to the famous “showcase” raid on the Michael Bianco factory in Massachusetts.

That raid happened back in 2007- after years of suspicion that Bianco was employing undocumented workers, government officials raided the factory and arrested 361 of its workers. That raid signaled a coming wave of similar labor arrests, and the effects are still being felt, both by those who stayed in America and those who ended up taking over the abandoned town of Xicalcal back in Guatemala.

The 2007 Bianco raid had several significant consequences- on a larger scale, the extensive media coverage of the raid has been cited as one of the reasons that employers across America were scared into firing or not hiring undocumented workers. U.S. arrests of undocumented workers have now increased tenfold since 2003, and that wave of arrests has also been partly responsible for the number of deportees now moving in to Xicalcal.

160 of those arrested in the Bianco raid were deported to Guatemala, and about 200 still remain in limbo in the U.S, fighting to be allowed to remain there. One of those deported after the Bianco raid, Victor Garcia, now works outside Xicalcal, making 1/100th of what he used to make in the U.S. He says of his time working in the U.S;

“I wasn’t stealing anything, I just wanted to work.”

We think it’s sad that he had to make that distinction in defense of himself, as it shows how deeply entrenched the preconceived ideas Americans have of immigrants still are.
In the meantime, Francesco Insolia (founder of Michael Bianco) has recently pled guilty to the charges of harboring and concealing illegal immigrants, and will pay workers $850,000 in back pay.

Guatemalan village fills with deportees as U.S. cracks down [AP]