Obama To Grant Work Visas To Released Immigration Detainees - Page 2
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 10:01PM “We want to take these undocumented citizens off the parking lots and get them into the store,” said Gonzales. She also drew an analogy to unspeakable conditions that once faced slaves. “This is like many years ago getting the slave workers out of the plantation and putting them inside the plantation house.”
To improve acceptance of the plan, Pres. Obama appeared at a Home Depot store in El Paso, Texas to outline its contours. He delivered a 10-minute speech alongside two Home Depot executives and one anticipated visa beneficiary.
“He gets caught up in some of our cultural disconnects and ends up languishing in a detention center.”
“Take Juan Castro-Hidalgo,” said Pres. Obama. “He gets caught up in some of our unfortunate cultural disconnects and ends up languishing in a detention center.” The president explained that Castro-Hidalgo was swept up in a romance with a 16-year-old girl while living in Laredo, Texas. Castro-Hidalgo soon learned that while common his native Mexico romances with much younger women were not accepted in the U.S. Apparently, there were no programs in his community to teach him about local customs and subtle distinctions in U.S. law. After serving a five-year prison sentence, he was placed in a detention center awaiting deportation. “Juan is hard-working, wants to work and is ready to contribute to our economy,” Obama said.
The president suggested that Castro-Hidalgo cannot contribute in a detention center. Adding these hard, enterprising workers to home improvement stores will “help rebuild America,” according to the president. Castro-Hidalgo was unavailable for comment.
