Reaching out to new arrivals

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, October, 2006 | by Paul Nussbaum

The Guatemalans started arriving here in 1993 and 1994. They came to work in southern Delaware's poultry-processing plants, and soon they were living 10 and 20 to a house in the rundown Kimmeytown section, wandering the quaint downtown streets after dark, and drinking in the woods. They began to enroll their Spanish-speaking children in local schools, take their uninsured sick to the local hospital, and drive their unlicensed vehicles into locals' cars.

"People were upset and angry," said Mike Wyatt, the current mayor of Georgetown. "They were saying, 'How could this happen to our town?' " The influx of Guatemalans hasn't stopped, but much of the animosity has waned. A dozen years of living on the front lines of America's immigration battle have brought wary acceptance, even...