CBS Highlights 'Agonizing' Plight of Illegal Immigrants in Alabama
On Wednesday's CBS Evening News, correspondent Chip Reid filed a report which took a sympathetic look at a family of illegal immigrants in Alabama who fear enforcement of the state's new law against illegal immigration. Reid also highlighted aspects of the law that even supporters consider to be flaws that should be fixed.
The CBS correspondent began the report by focusing on the "agonizing" plight of a 15-year-old illegal immigrant who fears separation from his parents:
CHIP REID: When 15-year-old Jose Perez says goodbye to his mother and family each morning before heading off to school, he asks himself an agonizing question:
JOSE PEREZ, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: Is this the last time I see them? Is this it? And I can never really come to terms with that.
The CBS correspondent continued:
What has Perez so frightened is the section of Alabama's tough new immigration law that authorizes police to jail without bail anyone suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, and to hand them over to immigration authorities. The Perez family came from Mexico illegally 13 years ago. They work hard and pay taxes, but now live in fear of being separated.
After a clip of Perez's mother in tears, Reid then turned to an Alabama state senator who supported the law, but wishes to make changes so that people who are U.S. citizens face fewer inconveniences as the law is enforced. Reid:
But Alabama State Senator Gerald Dial says there have been some unintended consequences. For example, the requirement that schools determine whether each student is here legally, a provision that's been temporarily blocked by a federal court. ... In Tuscaloosa, at least 66 people, most of them U.S. citizens, have been jailed for driving without a license. Prior to the law, most would have received a citation.
After devoting a portion of the report to an Alabama resident who complained about the consequences of illegal immigration, the CBS correspondent concluded his report by returning to the family of illegal immigrants who were the subject of the piece's opening:
CHIP REID: Adelina Perez says she considered fleeing Alabama with her family after the law was passed. Not anymore.
ADELINA PEREZ: We are going to fight.
REID: You're going to fight?
ADELINA PEREZ: Fight to stay here.
REID: Fight to stay, in a state where many want them to leave.
Below is a complete transcript of the report from the Wednesday, November 23, CBS Evening News:
SCOTT PELLEY: Nowhere is illegal immigration a more pressing issue than in Alabama. In September, Alabama began enforcing the toughest law in the nation. As written it requires schools to verify the citizenship of students, and it lets police arrest people who don't have ID. We asked Chip Reid to see how enforcement of the law is going, and he starts tonight with one of those families that Newt Gingrich was talking about.
CHIP REID: When 15-year-old Jose Perez says goodbye to his mother and family each morning before heading off to school, he asks himself an agonizing question:
JOSE PEREZ, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: Is this the last time I see them? Is this it? And I can never really come to terms with that.
REID: What has Perez so frightened is the section of Alabama's tough new immigration law that authorizes police to jail without bail anyone suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, and to hand them over to immigration authorities. The Perez family came from Mexico illegally 13 years ago. They work hard and pay taxes, but now live in fear of being separated. You spend a lot of time crying.
ADELINA PEREZ, MOTHER OF JOSE PEREZ: Yeah, because it's not fair.
STATE SENATOR GERALD DIAL (R-AL): I voted for the bill because I don't support having illegal people here.
REID: But Alabama State Senator Gerald Dial says there have been some unintended consequences. For example, the requirement that schools determine whether each student is here legally, a provision that's been temporarily blocked by a federal court.
DIAL: School teachers and administrators are not policemen. They need to be teaching.
REID: In Tuscaloosa, at least 66 people, most of them U.S. citizens, have been jailed for driving without a license. Prior to the law, most would have received a citation.
DIAL: That was just an oversight. So these oversights need to be fixed.
REID: The law's supporters say illegal immigrants cost Alabama a quarter billion dollars a year on education and social services.
JEAN DEASON, ALABAMA REAL ESTATE AGENT: Life's not always a bed of roses.
REID: Jean Deason, a real estate agent outside Birmingham, doesn't want another penny of her tax dollars spent on illegal immigrants and wants the law enforced.
DEASON: They knew when they came here illegally that they were taking a risk. One of those risks is the fact they may be separated. Now accept your risk and go on with your life, but don't ask me to support you in what you've done illegally.
REID: Adelina Perez says she considered fleeing Alabama with her family after the law was passed. Not anymore.
ADELINA PEREZ: We are going to fight.
REID: You're going to fight?
ADELINA PEREZ: Fight to stay here.
REID: Fight to stay, in a state where many want them to leave. Chip Reid, CBS News, Birmingham.
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Comments
Please CBS, tell me...
Submitted by bigdaddy on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 3:36pm.
...What is your definition of "Illegal"? Right after that maybe you could tell us what "Fair Share" means too.
"Agonizing"? What about the
Submitted by rbosque on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 3:39pm.
"Agonizing"?
What about the thousands of victims at the hands of illegals? Rape, fraud, murder, kidnapping? That agony doesn't count?
http://www.fncic-voiacm.org/
This is all we have to see.
Submitted by goon on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 4:55pm.
The Perez family came from Mexico illegally 13 years ago.
The Perez family has no legal right to be in this country. They are here illegally. Nuff said...
awwww shucks
Submitted by dmacleo on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 5:57pm.
you committed a crime and you're scared you will have to pay for it.
welcome to life.
and you get to boast all over national news that you committed the crime....go the hell home. fix your own damn country.
Fair???
Submitted by milootoole on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 6:34pm.
"The Perez family came from Mexico illegally 13 years ago. They work hard and pay taxes, but now live in fear of being separated. You spend a lot of time crying.
ADELINA PEREZ, MOTHER OF JOSE PEREZ: Yeah, because it's not fair."
Fair?? What is fair?? Taking American jobs?? Filling our schools with non English speaking children?/ Filling our ERs at hospitals with anyone ill or not because they know they cannot be turned away. I have actually seen them receive preferred treatment while a friend sat in pain and they were allowed in ahead of him as they made a whole family (2 families) visit to the ER.
The carpet industry in Georgia is overrun with illegals while citizens have been let go. Who was working in the poultry plants before they came??
In Collinsville Al, the poultry plant lost most employees after the law was passed. A young acquaintance went to apply and was told the plant was not hiring. They said they could not afford to stay open and pay higher wages.
Good businessmen , eh??
America has been importing (illegally) , poverty for some 40 years now. The bill has come due. Our middle class folks have been replaced in the trades and in almost every low and middle income job in America.
Your friendly employer has been benefiting as we pay his healthcare costs for his employees. A family of 4 or 5 comes in. Papa makes $8.50 an hour in the chicken plant, rents a trailer for $400 a month and put 2 or 3 kids in school with an annual cost , in my county, of $8800 per child. That's $26,400 for the mathematically challenged. Papa makes around $18,000. On top of that Mama has an anchor baby and they start collecting SS.
Can't you all see how they help our economy?? I cannot believe that there are politicians, churchmen and the like who insist that they improve our economy.
They improve certain employers economy, not America, not at all.
Every darned car dealer in Ame4rica wishes there were more illegals. They have more disposable income to buy their cars than an American making twice the money.
What a darned ripoff.
Then they go back to Mexico with all the treasures earned here at our expense and if they were slick enough to get false Social Security number, they got to the nearest US Post Office near the border to pick up their checks.
No Newt for me!!!!!
Albania, Today just slightly ahead of
Submitted by upcountrywater on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 6:53pm.
Alabama... Another few years of wealth destruction, the two places will look alike.
You Didn't Build That.
the "agonizing" plight of a
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 7:17pm.
the "agonizing" plight of a 15-year-old illegal immigrant who fears separation from his parents
Why wouldn't he go with them? What kid would choose to be separated from his parents?
He wouldn't have a choice anyway
Submitted by ckc1227 on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 9:42pm.
If they came 13 years ago, and he's now 15, that would make him illegal too, so he should have to go with them.
Even if he were born here
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 9:48pm.
Even if he were born here (which he wasnt') and was a citizen, why would his parents go back to wherever and not take him with them? Even the fact that he was a citizen wouldn't prevent him from going with them.
That's why this thing about breaking up families is nothing but a sham.
Motherbelt
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 5:41am.
I went to 7 different second grades and moved as often because my father was transferred to different places and I ALWAYS went with my family -- what on earth is this mantra that if the parents are deported the kids have to stay in America? This is nonsense writ large by the media.
One on one, I sympathize and
Submitted by amyshulk on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 8:51pm.
One on one, I sympathize and empathize. But from a macro view? This is a piece of the "Biggest wealth gap" story they *refuse* to connect.
Gov't took Health, Education, and Housing, did the sticks & carrots thing, and made those 3 out of reach unless you go into debt.
At the same time, allowing people to knowingly break the law, whilst giving all carrots to the law breakers {santuary cities, ER visits, Education} and sticks by hammering business with more rules & regs so they have less $ to pay workers... What did they think would happen?
So, to be competititive, they hire them at lower wages, which depresses wages for all - and then the Unions, putting upward pressure putting business out of work...
When will this madness end???
Ronald Reagan
Return to your own country
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 12:55am.
Return to your own country and you won't have to live in fear. All illegal aliens should be marched at gun point back mexico.
The fastest way...
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 5:51am.
The fastest way to return (most) illegals back to their countries of origin is to force employers to use eVerify to check the status of all its employees both before hiring and routinely afterwards. Failure to do so or failure to maintain a legal workforce should subject the employer to jail time and confiscation of his business. Shut off the job spigot -- it is the attractant and the employers are the exploiters. This country is having to borrow almost 40% of what it spends and in large part to pay for this country's illegal immigration generosity in both education and in health care costs.
I ask this question again
Submitted by ohio granny on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 9:33am.
Again I ask the question, are American citizens allowed to pick and choose which laws we obey? If the answer is no, then why are illegal immigrants allowed to disobey the law and we are supposed to sympathize with them because they are afraid of being caught?
Their very first act when coming into this country is to break the law. How in the world does that make them law abiding at any time in the future? Nothing they do after that fact matters because the fact they are here means they are breaking the law..
If they find the term illegal immigrants or illegal aliens insulting, that is too bad. They are ILLEGAL. Doesn't matter what they are called, they still are ILLEGAL.
They work hard and pay
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 1:23pm.
They work hard and pay taxes
So whose SS card are they using? ID theft is a felony.
Come on over
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 8:48pm.
They are welcome in California. They will be met at the state border by Dimicrat operatives that will register them to vote as Dimicrats, assist them with getting food stamps, section 8 housing, free medical care and sign them up for welfare.