The Texas French Bread Bakery at 29th and Rio Grande is a hangout that epitomizes Austin cool. But Friday morning it was the heat of Homeland Security that came crashing in with “guns visible” hauling away five alleged illegal immigrants ranging in age from 28 to 59. Four were deported.
Owner Frederick Murph Willcott “said all of the arrested Austin workers have children and have worked at Texas French Bread for years, in one case about 10 years. He said the restaurant had checked the workers’ documents to make sure they were legal.”
“These people paid taxes. They worked like crazy,” Willcott said. “The people that they took away hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Talk about your wake-up call. Homeland Security is saying that the raid was initiated by the Texas Attorney General, who was busting up an alleged fake-document ring out of Dallas.
By the way, the Texas Attorney General was one of the first to know about militarization plans for the border. According to National Guard Chief General Steven H. Blum, the states’ Attorney Generals were involved in early legal assessments of the Guard deployment that is now official policy. How early is still unclear, but please stay tuned.
This might be a good time to point out that the Texas Attorney General is facing a Democratic opponent in November.
(See Austin American Statesman, “Five arrested on immigration charges after raid in Austin: Owner angry after Texas French Bread kitchen workers arrested, four deported,” By Steven Kreytak, Saturday, June 03, 2006)
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