Illegal Workers Get Help from Fund
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Susan Carroll, Houston Chronicle, August 7, 2008
When federal immigration agents raided a Houston rag factory and took 166 suspected illegal immigrants into custody, a Boston philanthropist and multimillionaire was ready to chip in bond money to help the workers.
Robert J. Hildreth, 57, is the public face of the National Immigrant Bond Fund, a fledgling organization that helps immigrants swept up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raids post bonds.
The controversial fund has the backing of major immigrant advocacy groups and religious leaders, but has drawn criticism from anti-illegal immigration organizations.
Since spring 2007, the fund has paid more than $180,000 to bond out immigrants snared in ICE raids in California, Massachusetts and Maryland.
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After ICE agents raided Action Rags USA, the Houston rag factory, on June 25, bond fund organizers struggled to find “on-the-ground support” to help mobilize the families of detained immigrants, Hildreth said. One of the principles of the fund requires detainees’ families to make matching contributions, which helps ensure they appear in court, organizers said.
“I was very disappointed in Houston because we were ready to help,” Hildreth said.
{snip}
Hildreth saw TV footage in March 2007 of workers picked up in an ICE raid in New Bedford, Mass., boarding a plane bound for Texas, where they were to be held before deportation.
“I was really ticked off,” he said. “Within 24 hours, ICE decided to take them to the detention centers in Texas just to facilitate removing them as fast as possible. I thought that was unfair.
“If they stayed in Massachusetts, close to where we could have bonded them out, they could have gotten due process.”
{snip}
Hildreth, the son of schoolteachers, said part of his motivation to help immigrants came from his father, a historian.
“One of his big themes was that the immigration story in the United States is vital to the health and growth of our country,” he said. “He drilled that into me.”
After graduating from Harvard University, Hildreth worked for the International Monetary Fund from 1975 to 1980, living in Washington, D.C., and La Paz, Bolivia. He returned to the U.S. and worked for major Wall Street firms until starting his own business in 1989, Boston-based IBS Inc., which buys and sells loans in international markets.
“I’ve been involved in Latin America since college,” he said. “I know many, many, many Latin Americans, including many, many Mexicans, so I have a personal friendship, a personal affinity.”
“And,” he added, “I am a devout Roman Catholic and a liberal.”
{snip}
(Posted on August 8, 2008)
Comments
Since illegal immigration harms those of us who are at the bottom of the ecomomic heap the most, and it helps some of us who are already rich to become even richer, why should this millionaire care about the poor?He is just being extremely selfish. He just wants to give himself an image as a do gooder, but it is at the expense of our own poor.If he were really sincere, then he would just give all of his moolah to all of the poor Mexicans,but he is really just forcing all of our poor people, who make it possible for him to be wealthy, to help them.
Posted by Peejay in Frisco at 6:51 PM on August 8
““I was really ticked off,” he said. “Within 24 hours, ICE decided to take them to the detention centers in Texas just to facilitate removing them as fast as possible. I thought that was unfair.”
Deporting people breaking our laws is not unfair.
““If they stayed in Massachusetts, close to where we could have bonded them out, they could have gotten due process.””
The only due process they are owed is to be humanely treated when being deported.
“Hildreth, the son of schoolteachers, said part of his motivation to help immigrants came from his father, a historian.”
Immigrants are people here legally, not illegally.
PS-Let’s deport these greedy white american factory owners who want their “slave” labor to mexico instead of allowing them to turn the USA into a 3rd world country so they can fill their pockets
Posted by at 8:46 PM on August 8
Remember when “philanthropy” meant donating money for research to cure deadly diseases, handing over a check for a new library, or even funding a medical wing at a local hospital?
Well, I do and in my book, Robert J. Hildreth is no philanthropist. Rather than interfering in the enforcement of the laws of our country perhaps he should move back to La Paz, Bolivia, or go to Mexico where he could immerse himself in hispanic culture while indulging in his alleged “philanthropic” impulses.
Oh, that’s right… to Hildreth, being a bail bondsman isn’t enjoyable unless you can thumb your nose at your own country.
Posted by at 9:33 PM on August 8
If you look at the National Immigrant Bond Fund’s website a very large percentage of its contributors and board members are Catholic. In fact, there are two Catholic bishop’s on the board, so this project is not being carried out by a few renegade priests, but by the Catholic hierarchy.
http://www.immigrantbondfund.org/nibf/main/default.aspx
Posted by Ronduck at 11:22 AM on August 9
He is a liberal. What a surprise!
Posted by Frank at 5:51 PM on August 9
“He returned to the U.S. and worked for major Wall Street firms until starting his own business in 1989, Boston-based IBS Inc., which buys and sells loans in international markets.”
This figures. Wall Street has destroyed Main Street with its unethical practices buoyed by the idiotic Fed. It makes sense that a Wall Streeter would want to stick it to the working class and depress wages even more. His compassion is completely misguided, probably the result of being brainwashed at Harvard.
And speaking as a Catholic, THIS is one reason I am not Catholic anymore. The religion of the misguided.
Posted by Tony S at 9:32 PM on August 9
I dont think he is a liberal. He is pretending to be a liberal so American would hate liberals. The Republican business owners are the biggest advocates of cheap labor. So they need a face to help their new found slaves. And they call them liberal to hide their real agenda.
Dont fall into these trickeries, the Republicans have a big propaganda machine.
Posted by John at 4:05 PM on August 10