The Southern Cross recently reached out to parishes with a Spanish-speaking population to gather perspectives on how immigration laws have affected them. This is the first installment of a four-part series running through November.

By Dana Clark Felty

Father Pablo Migone watched as attendance dropped at the 2 p.m. Sunday Spanish Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Warner Robins earlier this year.

Word had begun spreading among parishioners that busloads of Hispanics were fleeing the area. Panic had set in, and many of the faces Migone saw most Sundays in the pews were disappearing.

“I know of families who sold their trailers, their cars in a hurry just get out of here,” Migone said.

About half of the 300 or so Hispanic families involved at Sacred Heart are living in the United States illegally, Migone estimates.

That number corresponds with the estimates on the Catholic population in the Diocese of Savannah. About 80,000 people are registered with 72 parishes and missions across the 90-county area covering middle and south Georgia.

Diocesan leaders believe the actual number of active Catholics to be double that number based on population studies by the Archdiocese of Atlanta and some cultural norms in the Hispanic communities against registering information with parishes.

And the numbers are rising.

In the last decade, Georgia has experienced one of the largest rises in the Hispanic population in the nation, nearly doubling from 5.3 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent of the population 2010, according to the U.S. Census.

About 425,000 people living in Georgia in 2010 were unauthorized immigrants, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Catholic churches across the state have added Masses to serve the rapidly growing Spanish-speaking community.

Of the 79 parishes and missions in the diocese, more than 50 hold a weekly Mass in Spanish.

The Southern Cross recently reached out to some parishes with Spanish-speaking communities to better understand the impact across the diocese.

Their stories are the focus of a four-part series running throughout November.

One of the greatest challenges to Hispanic immigrants in Georgia was the state’s passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act, House Bill (H.B.) 87, last spring.

The law requires many Georgia businesses to use the federal e-Verify system, which checks the work eligibility requirements of newly hired employees.

Days before the bill went into affect in July, a federal judge put on hold two parts of the law pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. They include a provision that would allow police to investigate the immigration status of suspects who they believe have committed another crime and who cannot produce identification. The other part would punish those who -– while committing another offense -- knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants.

But before the most controversial provisions were blocked, damage had already been done.

Farmers began reporting a shortage of migrant workers to harvest crops. Many, they said, were avoiding the state because of the immigration law.

The Center for American Progress estimated the state’s economic loss for the 2011 growing season to be $300 million to $1 billion.

Some ministry leaders say attendance at their Spanish Mass fell slightly after news of the bill’s proposal began to spread in the spring:

“Our people are very fearful for the most part,” said Sister Grace Calvisi, coordinator of the Hispanic ministry at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in Macon. “They are afraid to go anywhere other than the grocery story.”

“Some have left, others (who were) not so fortunate have been deported for traffic violations,” said Joseph Rodriguez, director of Hispanic Ministry at Immaculate Conception in Moultrie. “Others use their their vehicles only when necessary or have their teenage children drive.”

“We have Mass in Claxton on Sunday evening. We have about a hundred people attending that Mass. We have lost about 12 families because of the changes in the law,” said Father Bob Poandl.

Poandl said other missions he pastors in Pembroke and Sandhill have not noticed a significant drop in attendance. Other ministry leaders say attendance slipped temporarily but is now strong again.

Fear and hesitation are now a daily part of many Hispanic families’ lives in Georgia.

When asked if anyone was afraid to leave their homes, nearly all of the 15 participants in a Spanish-speaking prayer group at St. Peter Claver raised their hands. Some said they are legal immigrants and all said they have lived in the U.S. no less than 10 years.

“Todos los dias,” many repeated. “Every day.”

In July, agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a raid outside St. Anne Church in Detroit while prayer services were taking place inside. One Hispanic man was hand-cuffed and detained but later released when it was determined he was living in the U.S. legally.

Further compounding immigrants’ fears are the more than 40 Georgia counties currently participating in the federal “Secure Communities” program.

The program involves local law enforcement checking the fingerprints of those booked into jail against a U.S. Department of Homeland Security database. If matches are found, federal immigration officials could seek to deport inmates after they have completed sentences for any crimes committed in the U.S.

Federal statistics reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution in August show that more than a third of the 2,670 people deported from Georgia through the program between October 2008 and April 2011 had committed no crimes other than being in the country illegally.

The largest share – 1,271 – had committed property crimes or misdemeanors.

Many in Migone’s parish have turned to him for moral and practical support as they faced the deportation of family members.

“You could really sense that people came to the church looking for help. They almost expected the church to do something, not necessarily go change the law but to help explain it, help guide them in what to do and what not to do,” Migone said.

Some were legal citizens themselves, but they’re parents were not.

“A girl, 14-years-old, told me she lives in fear on a daily basis that she’ll come home from school and her parents won’t come home from work, that they would have been stopped,” Migone said.

Another woman cried in his office as she described her family’s forced return to Mexico and her grandchildren’s poor adjustment to life in what, to them, was a foreign land.

Not everyone in his parish supports the presence of illegal immigrants, said Migone, who immigrated legally with his family to Augusta, Ga. from Peru as a teenager.

Some parishioners point to Hispanic names and faces in arrest reports and news stories on local crime.
It’s true. It happens, Migone said. But it doesn’t represent the majority of people in the pews.

“Those with less roots, the single, young guys, they’ll always keep moving, not just because of the law, but because they go where ever there’s work. But now there are so many families that are rooted in the community,” Migone said. “Where are they going to go? ‘Might as well stay here,’ is their attitude.”
“They want a better future for their kids. They don’t want hand outs. They’re not here to take advantage of welfare. They’re here to work.”

Dana Clark Felty is a freelance writer in Savannah and former award-winning religion reporter for the Savannah Morning News.