Latinos scared by rumors of immigration sweep

Pat Schneider:

Rumors of a federal crackdown on illegal immigrants in the Madison area spun out of control Sunday, causing fear and panic in the Hispanic community and keeping many children out of school today.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said that Mario Mendoza, a Spanish-speaking aide, was preparing a statement for Spanish-language media.

"There's no truth to the rumors," Cieslewicz said. "People should just go about their normal daily lives."

"We don't know how it started, but it ran like wildfire in the Latino community," said Luis Montoto, program director for La Movida radio, the area's only Spanish-language station.

School officials reported absences this morning as parents called schools to report they were keeping children home because of the accounts they had heard of Latinos being arrested.

Absenteeism for Latino students was at nearly 50 percent at Cherokee Middle School, 41 percent at Sennett Middle School, and 33 percent at Leopold Elementary School, spokesman Ken Syke said after making a spot check at the request of The Capital Times.

Absentee rates district-wide are ordinarily less than 10 percent.

Syke said the school district would be contacting parents of absent Latino students today to tell them that the rumors of raids were not true.

Of course, if Latinos would use legal means of entering the United States then they would not have to worry about immigration sweeps.