2007年VOA标准英语-Immigration Raid in Texas Leaves Behind Turmoil

By Greg Flakus
Cactus¹, Texas
25 January 2007

On December 12, the United States government carried out the largest nationwide operation against illegal immigrants at their workplaces in U.S. history, arresting 1,300 people at six meat-packing plants owned by the Swift Company. The government later charged some 200 of the people detained with identity theft and other charges, but most of the illegal aliens were deported². The raid on the Swift plant in Cactus, Texas, a small town in the Texas panhandle, opened the way to a lawsuit³ by 18 former Swift employees who claim they were fired by Swift as part of a company scheme to suppress wages by hiring illegal immigrants. VOA's Greg Flakus went to Cactus to find out more and filed this report.

 
Carlos Perez
The immigration raid in Cactus resulted in the deportation⁴ of close to 300 people, who are no longer here to pay rent or shop in such places as this butcher shop run by Carlos Perez.

He says he has lost 50 percent of his business since the December raid and his only hope now is that new workers will eventually come to town and shop in his store.

New workers are coming. Swift has raised the starting salary for line workers and has drawn⁵ people from nearby towns, but the company says the raid here and its other five plants in the West and Midwest resulted in a $30 million loss.

The raid at the Cactus plant created a momentary⁶ crisis for the community of around 3,000 people. Many children and spouses⁷ of deported workers were left behind in distress⁸. The local Catholic church stepped in to help, providing family members with a shelter.

 
Orlando Gajardo

Orlando Gajardo is one of the volunteers who has helped the families of deported workers. He says most of the families have gone elsewhere now, and local businesses all over the north Texas panhandle are feeling the loss.

"A lot of the business owners here, as far south as Amarillo and as far north as Guyman [Oklahoma], a lot of the businesses are affected⁹ pretty bad," he said.

Gajardo says he helped the families out of a sense of charity. But he is not sympathetic towards Swift and what he claims was the company's preference for hiring illegal immigrants over local people.

"It just amazed me how many illegal immigrants were working there and it basically pissed me off because I had a lot of friends who wanted to work there and who were better qualified¹⁰ as far as physique, but they were denied so many times," he said.

Swift company spokesmen deny that plants knowingly hired illegal workers, but the allegation that they did is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by 18 former workers at the Cactus plant. They claim Swift fired them after they sustained work-related injuries and hired illegal aliens, mostly from Guatemala, to take their place at a much lower rate of pay, thereby¹² suppressing wages.

 
Blanca Valenzuela

One of the plaintiffs is Blanca Valenzuela.

"There is no anger for my part towards the Guatemalans. It is anger towards the company because they did this. They gave them our jobs. They took food off our tables and put food on their table. We lost our homes," she said.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say wages at the Swift plant in Cactus fell from about $20 an hour to roughly $12 an hour since the plant was opened more than 30 years ago because the company hired illegal immigrants. Blanca Valenzuela also alleges¹³ that the company abused these workers, who, because of their illegal status, were reluctant to fight back.

"The only difference between us and them is that we know how to defend ourselves and they do not. We are not in the situation they are in money-wise. They want to support their families and all that, so they will do what they put them to do and they will work very hard to make that money, you know," she said.

Valenzuela, who was a union representative at the plant when she worked there, says she tried to help some of the workers understand their rights. But she said communicating with them was difficult because many of the Guatemalans came from indigenous¹⁴ groups in the highlands of that Central American nation and spoke¹¹ no English and very little Spanish.

 
Swift plant, Cactus,TX
The Colorado-based Swift company and H. M. Capital Partners, the Dallas investment firm that owns it, say the lawsuit is "completely without merit." Spokesmen say the plaintiffs have no evidence to support their case.

Swift says the company has been cooperating with federal authorities since the investigation¹⁵ began 10 months ago, long before the raids took place. It says the company used the pilot program for identifying the legal status of workers provided by the U.S. government and note that there have been no criminal charges filed against the company or its managers.

1 cactus   

n.仙人掌

参考例句：

• It was the first year that the cactus had produced flowers.这是这棵仙人掌第一年开花。
• The giant cactus is the vegetable skycraper.高大的仙人掌是植物界巨人。

2 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

4 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 momentary   

adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的

参考例句：

• We are in momentary expectation of the arrival of you.我们无时无刻不在盼望你的到来。
• I caught a momentary glimpse of them.我瞥了他们一眼。

7 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

8 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

10 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

13 alleges   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The newspaper article alleges that the mayor is corrupt. 报纸上断言该市长腐败。
• Steven was tardy this morning and alleges that his bus was late. 史提芬今天早上迟到的说词是公车误点了。

14 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

15 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。