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But since April 16, when 100 workers, including Ms. del Cid, got arrested for being in the country illegally, she has had to depend on what Chattanooga-area organizations can give her, whether it's Wal-Mart gift cards, food, diapers or money to help pay her $450 monthly rent.
"For me, it meant a lot, losing my job," said Ms. del Cid, who was released from jail wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet as an alternative to detention. "I haven't been able to send any money back to Guatemala for my three children" -- an 11-year-old, a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old who live with her ex-husband, she said.
After she was detained, Ms. del Cid started making Guatemalan tamales she sells to friends and former co-workers. She said sometimes she makes about $200 a week that she splits with another woman who helps make them.
"Whatever money I make from selling tamales is for Kemberly and Ashley," her 3-month-old baby and 2-year-old toddler, she said.
In order to meet the growing needs of more than 100 families affected by the Pilgrim's Pride arrests and subsequent immigration operations, social service organizations recently formed the Hispanic Displacement Relief Coalition here.
"We had been meeting for weeks just to make sure who was doing what in terms of the response to the raids," said Stacy Johnson, chairwoman of La Paz de Dios, a nonprofit organization that works to integrate Hispanics into the local community. "Last week we decided to create a name to be more official ... to go to different organizations as a group as opposed to just (one organization)."
Nine faith-based and nonprofit organizations -- the core of the Displacement Relief Coalition -- are meeting every week to decide what needs must be met and who can do what, Mrs. Johnson said.
"The (coalition) formed so that churches and agencies can work together by pooling what each agency was best at providing and to ask for donations from our congregations to assist those in true need within our city," Becky Witt, administrator of language ministries at the Hamilton County Baptist Association, said in an e-mail.
COALITION MEMBERS
-- La Paz de Dios
-- Holston Methodist Federal Credit Union
-- St. Andrews Center
-- Episcopal Metropolitan Ministry
-- Hamilton County Baptist Association
-- Salvation Army
-- Chattanooga Deanery Hispanic Ministry
-- Partnership for Families, Children and Adults
-- Catholic Charities
Among other things, they are using their funds to help the families pay rent and utilities, distributing food boxes and diapers and using their bilingual personnel to assist agencies that don't have any, such as the East Lake Salvation Army.
The coalition also has coordinated Sunday dinners at the St. Andrews Center where those affected by the recent immigration raid are joined by legal professionals available for consultation and support, Mrs. Johnson said.
Ms. del Cid said she can't thank the organizations enough for all they have done for her and many others in her situation.
"I don't know what we would have done without them," she said.
Ms. Witt said the situation left behind by the Pilgrim's Pride raids is unlike any other.
"We have never faced a situation like the one currently burdening faith-based services," she said. "Only persons with legal identification can be served in many agencies. This leaves so many without help."
To see more of the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesfreepress.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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