**Note: This story is embargoed until 12:01 a.m.
CT, Sunday, July 11, 2010.**
Immigrant dairy workers transform rural
Wisconsin community
How a Spanish-speaking sergeant helped ease tensions in Darlington
By Jacob Kushner
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
jkushner@wisconsinwatch.org
DARLINGTON -- Before Sgt. Antonio Ruesga arrived in this southwestern
Wisconsin community a decade ago, the police could barely communicate
with the few Spanish-speaking immigrants who had come to work at local
dairies.
Today, while tensions mount in Arizona and elsewhere over how to curb
illegal immigration, Ruesga, who is Hispanic and fluent in Spanish, has
created an atmosphere of trust among police and local immigrants. Latinos - once fearful of the police -- now help solve crimes in this city of 2,400
located 60 miles southwest of Madison.
A Hispanic grocery store owner recently called Ruesga about a suspicious
group of men attempting to cash checks from a business where they didn't
work. Ruesga -- who was hired by Darlington Police Chief Jason King to
make connections with Spanish-speaking residents -- later arrested three
men for alleged check fraud against local banks.
“They choose to take the next step which was to report a crime — to actually
call us even though they weren’t victims themselves," Ruesga said. "That
means that they care about Darlington, they want to see it safe."
It is, after all, their community too.
On weekends, Christian music blares in Spanish from inside a church on
Louisa Street. There are now two Mexican grocery stores in Darlington and
similar markets in other small communities across the state. And each May,
residents turn out to celebrate Mexican culture through food, dance, music
and conversation at Fiesta Latina.
A decade ago, Darlington was home to 27 Hispanics, according to the
census. Today police say there are about 300 Spanish-speaking immigrants
from Mexico and elsewhere living here. An unknown number are in the U.S.
illegally; others have earned legal residency.
Most of the foreign newcomers are lured by jobs in the region's growing
dairy industry. Dairies now employ about 5,300 immigrants in Wisconsin,
making up roughly 40 percent of the industry's workforce, up sharply from
about 5 percent a decade earlier, according to the UW-Madison Program on
Agricultural Technology Studies.
“Immigrant workers are bringing new diversity to rural communities that
hasn’t existed for decades and contributing to the local economy throughout
dairy Wisconsin,” said Wilda Nilsestuen, executive director of the nonprofit
Council of Rural Initiatives, which organizes summits to improve
relationships between immigrants and local residents.
Darlington is an example of how a rural Wisconsin community overcame its
hesitation toward an unfamiliar culture. These days, most of the grumbling
about undocumented immigrants in Darlington stems from their lack of
driver's licenses.
Lafayette County District Attorney Charlotte Doherty said about 5 percent of
all prosecutions involve Hispanic residents, and the costs associated with
processing the cases, most for operating without a license, are
minimal. Obtaining a Wisconsin drivers license became impossible for
undocumented immigrants since a 2005 state law passed to comply with the
federal Real ID Act required applicants to have proof of citizenship or legal
residency.
“They can’t get drivers' licenses, and they work on farms," she said. "The
farms are out of town, and they live in town, and they drive back and forth
to work.”
Volunteer firefighter Mark Nelson of Darlington said he takes issue with
illegal immigrants who break the law by driving without a license. He's seen
the problem play out at accident scenes involving undocumented residents.
"I've seen seven or eight licenses come out of their billfold," Nelson said.
One barrier to integrating into the community is language. Immigrants say
they don't have a lot of free time to get deeply involved in local programs
and organizations -- including English classes at the Johnson Public Library.
“The problem is that when we came here, we were thinking about working to
earn money,” said Alfredo Dorantes, a Darlington resident and dairy worker
who's been in the U.S. for eight years. “We put school off to the side; we
didn’t have time to study English.”
“I feel bad when I can’t communicate with anyone," he added in Spanish.
Dorantes' three children, on the other hand, are all fluent in English.
A decade ago, the Darlington district reported having no Hispanic students,
but now 38 of its 752 students, or 5 percent, are Latino, according to the
state Department of Public Instruction.
Nelson, who ran unsuccessfully for Darlington mayor this spring, said illegal
immigrants also may be suppressing wages in Darlington.
“If they’ve got these illegals coming in, and these companies can hire them
seven, eight bucks cheaper, that’s not helping the unemployment rate at
all,” he said.
Local businessman Diego Camacho insisted that even immigrants who are
here illegally aren't a drain on the community. Camacho, who is of Puerto
Rican descent, is an interpreter whose family owns the Steil Camacho
Funeral Home in Darlington. He said many immigrants strive to improve
themselves and their communities through hard work.
“They all want to contribute — nobody wants to be a parasite,” he said.
“Very few people come to take advantage of the system.”
State Rep. Steve Hilgenberg, D-Dodgeville, whose district includes
Darlington, said the arrival of Hispanic immigrants is a boost to the
struggling economy of southwestern Wisconsin.
“It’s kept a lot of dairy farms running that would have had a difficult time
doing so,” he said.
Margarita Hernandez, who until recently owned Las Margaritas, a Mexican
grocery in Darlington, said she feels welcome here.
“In other places, racism is how Americans most frequently approach
Mexicans," Hernandez said. "But not here — it’s a very easygoing town.”
This is the sixth report for Dairyland Diversity, a project with The Country Today newspaper
and other news organizations examining how immigration is reshaping Wisconsin's dairy
industry -- and the state. The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
(www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with its partners -- Wisconsin Public Television,
Wisconsin Public Radio and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism &
Mass Communication -- and other news media.