City May Help Families of Illegal Immigrants Arrested In Raids

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio may offer assistance to the families of undocumented workers arrested in immigration raids in the city, Mayor Phil Hardberger said.

Hardberger met Tuesday with family members of workers who were arrested and deported in the April 19 raid, workers who escaped the raid and activist groups. He said the raid left families behind, including women and children who may be here legally or are U.S. citizens.

“Right now, some of them are very torn up and have very bad circumstances,” he said.

The federal raid on IFCO Systems resulted in the arrests of 1,187 workers who were in the United States illegally, including 27 in San Antonio. The raid was part of a national crackdown on the company, which makes crates and pallets.

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The mayor said he would meet with City Manager Sheryl Sculley “to see if our existing institutions to help the needy are enough to take care of the needs of these people or whether we should have some sort of special effort in the same sort of sense that we helped the evacuees.”

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