El Nuevo Jerome

Sunday

• August 30, 2015

www.magicvalley.com •

$3.00

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS PHOTOS

Horizon Elementary School first-grade teacher Erin Heileman talks to the parents of Emily Zelaya, who will attend first grade, on parent-teacher night Aug. 20 in Jerome. Last year, the number of Hispanic students in the Jerome school system surpassed non-Hispanic whites for the first time.

THE NEW JEROME

As Jerome Lifestyle Draws Hispanic Immigrants, City Government, Schools Scramble to Adjust About this Project

Jerome City Planner Esmeralda Chavez speaks on the radio program ‘En Vivo y en Directo con el Chupacabras’ with Water Operations Supervisor Larry Bybee on July 1 at La Perrona radio station in Jerome.

JEROME • Marta Abalos didn’t think she’d be in Jerome this long.  Coming 11 years ago from Guadalajara, Abalos arrived at night. She expected a big city and was shocked when she woke up in the morning. Her first impression of Jerome: “Muy feo!” (Very ugly!).  Abalos intended to save money, then return to Mexico to resume studying for a college degree in tourism.  Josefina Cervantes came to the U.S. 12 years ago from Tecoman, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, to save money for building a house in Mexico. She, too, didn’t expect to stay.

Today, both women are still here, living with their families — and dozens of other Hispanic families — in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision. And the Latino population is growing faster in Jerome than anywhere else in south-central Idaho.

The U.S. Census recorded Jerome’s population as 7 percent Hispanic in 1990.

Twenty years later, that number had shot up to 34 percent.

Along Main Street and Lincoln Avenue, businesses and professional offices display “Se Habla Espanol” signs in the windows. Downtown meat markets, Mexican

Inside Meet the people of Jerome’s Stoney Ridge neighborhood, Pages A8-9 bakeries and salons cater to a Hispanic clientele. In June, thousands of people crowded onto the Jerome County Fairgrounds to celebrate a Spanish-language radio station’s first year in business.

It’s a new Jerome.

In the 1990s, the draw for many

Hispanics was employment in the Jerome area’s dairy and agriculture industries.

But as a Hispanic community became established, people started to come because they have family or friends here, or because Jerome is the kind of place they want to live.

Mike Williams, from Jerome High School’s class of 1999, still remembers Socorro Gomez, the first non-Englishspeaking girl in his elementary class in the 1980s.

Please see JEROME, A7

NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com  JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com If You Do One Thing: The Music from Stanley concert series will feature the Lounge on Fire band from 5-7 p.m. at Redfish Lake Lodge, south of Stanley. Free.

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Today’s stories are the first installment in “El Nuevo Jerome,” a four-part series exploring Jerome’s cultural, political and economic shifts as the city attracts a rapidly growing Hispanic population.

Times-News government reporter Nathan Brown and education reporter Julie Wootton are devoting six months to the special reporting project, led by Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins.

And you’ll see the work of photographers Drew Nash and Stephen Reiss illustrating Jerome’s big changes.

SEE MORE: A special Nathan webpage launches today to Brown showcase the project. Visit Magicvalley.com/jerome to delve deeper with more photos and interactives.

TUNE IN: From 11:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Sept. 1, tune in to Benjamin Reed’s talk and news show, “En Vivo y en Directo con el Julie Chupacabras,” on SpanishWootton language FM radio station 99.1 La Perrona. Wootton and Brown will be guests on the show, talking about today’s special coverage and taking questions from listeners. They’ll speak in English, and Reed will interpret for Spanish listeners.

INTERACT: At the same time as Tuesday’s radio show, Magicvalley.com will host a live chat, where you can watch a video feed of the radio show, ask questions for Brown and Wootton to answer on the radio and chat with other readers about the project. Anyone can participate in the chat for free at the top of the Magicvalley.com homepage.

UP NEXT: Watch for the second installment of “El Nuevo Jerome” on Oct. 4 in the Times-News and Magicvalley.com.

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Sunday, August 30, 2015 • A7

The Youth Boom Hispanic students outnumbered non-Hispanic whites in the Jerome School District’s youngest grades in June 2015. Jerome leaders and residents say they see an influx of young Hispanic families moving into the area.

White Hispanic/Latino

200 150 100 50

Kindergarten

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

Grade 10

Grade 11

Grade 12

Source: Jerome School District. Other ethnicities not shown.

Jerome

Language and Origin

Continued from A1

Each percentage compares a specific group with the area’s total population.

“By the time I graduated high school, the Hispanic population was pretty influential and predominant,” Williams said.

To d ay, W i l l i a m s i s Jerome’s city administrator, running a government that’s figuring out how to serve a large Spanishspeaking population. The city and school district have increased outreach to the Hispanic community, translated documents and recruited bilingual employees.

Some Hispanic residents say they have a long way to go.

Languages other than English Spoken at Home

Jerome 27.7%

Burley 20.7% Twin Falls 16.4%

Idaho - 10.4%

vvv

vvv Other Jerome youth are already part of the solution.

Members of Jerome High’s Latinos in Action help by interpreting at parent-teacher conferences.

The Utah-based national organization, launched in 2000, has more than 90 groups, but Jerome High is the only participating school in Idaho. More than 40 kids here were involved last school year.

Before Latinos in Action teens began helping five years ago, teachers had a tough time communicating with

Foreign-born Population Jerome 18%

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Santiago Garcia, center, owner of a new Mexican restaurant in Jerome, prepares food Aug. 5 with his mother, Rosa, and father, Santiago Sr. The restaurateur is studying to become a bilingual teacher.

Spanish-speaking parents.

Census numbers show 28 percent of Jerome’s population speaks a language other than English at home, and 15 percent is both foreignborn and speaks English less than “very well.”

“We had a lot of parents struggling to understand what’s going on,” Jerome Middle School Principal Ryan Ellsworth said.

One afternoon in October, Jerome High student Jenny Magallon waited in the Jerome Middle School foyer with a portable radio, listening for the front office to alert her to the arrival of Spanish-speaking families.

Just after 4 p.m., dozens of parents and students started filing in for student-led conferences. It was Magallon’s fourth year to interpret for parents and teachers.

“At first, I was a bit scared,” she said. But she found the work wasn’t hard.

vvv Latinos in Action activity is visible elsewhere in Jerome High and the community, too, as members volunteer at soup kitchens or tutor younger students.

But Latino representation lags in other school activities.

While half of Jerome students are Hispanic, “the football program is not representative of that number at all,” coach Gambles said.

“There’s a lot of room for improvement. I feel like there’s a lot of kids who don’t play anymore,” said Jerome High football player Lucio Carrillo, 17, preparing for his senior year. In the six years he’s played, he’s watched Hispanic teammates leave football because they don’t have many friends on the team, or because they’re worried about injuries interfering with their basketball or cross country involvement.

Sometimes, they regain interest in football when the team is doing well, Carrillo said. “That happens a lot.”

Jerome’s soccer team has a lot of Latino players, but all the other Jerome sports need better Latino representation, Carrillo said. Not just the football team.

G a m b l e s c o m p a re d Jerome High’s Latino student numbers with Minico High School in Rupert. But, he said, “they seem to have more who are involved in athletics.”

Jerome has students who would be great for athletic teams but aren’t participating, Gambles said. “We might as well tap into the resources.”

Gambles doesn’t speak

Twin Falls 9.6%

Burley 7.7%

Idaho - 5.9%

Foreign-born and Speak English less than ‘Very Well’ Jerome 15.1%

Burley 7.4%

Twin Falls 3.7% Idaho - 3.1%

Source: 2013 U.S. Census data

Customers fill up their gas tanks at Tiger Stop on Aug. 5 in Jerome. City regulations call for buildings to be painted in ‘warm earth tones’ in this district on Lincoln Avenue.

Jerome’s Rapid Hispanic Growth While the entire Magic Valley’s Hispanic population has grown, over the past decade the Hispanic population percentage grew fastest in Jerome. Between 2000 and 2010, the percentages in Jerome city and county outstripped Burley and Cassia County, which previously were more Hispanic than Jerome.

Locally, only Minidoka County is slightly more Hispanic than Jerome County, but the percentages show faster growth in Jerome since 2000.

35 2010 Total 10,890 Hispanic 3,739

Jerome (city) Burley (city) Jerome County

30

25

Percentage

Last year, the number of Hispanic students in the Jerome school system surpassed non-Hispanic whites for the first time.

Santiago Garcia, a 2013 Jerome High graduate who came from Guadalajara in 2009, observed Jerome’s rapidly growing Latino population — from the window of the taco truck he operated beside an auto parts store on Lincoln Avenue South.

Much of the growth, he said, is from migration within the United States.

While serving from the taco truck — or from the restaurant he opened in mid-July on Main Street East — Garcia talks to people of Mexican descent who are coming from Arizona, California and New Mexico. Some of his relatives plan to move here from Utah.

One of Jerome’s draws, he said, is that you can find what you need: nearby shopping, gas stations, a variety of restaurants. It’s also generally safe, he said, with few problems with violence or drugs.

“It’s a pretty nice town,” Garcia said.

Many of Garcia’s customers work at dairies. Others, though, have jobs with banks, the school district and the city.

“Those families are working all kinds of jobs now,” Jerome school Superintendent Dale Layne said.

Latino parents tend to be highly involved in their children’s education, Layne said. To communicate with parents, his district’s schools often send home information in English and Spanish.

“I think those little things like that have done a lot to break down some of those barriers,” head football coach Sid Gambles said.

But it requires employee time and skill. The district has more bilingual workers than in past years, Layne said, but it doesn’t track the number.

Seeing people struggle to communicate in English helped Garcia decide on a career. While earning money in the food business, he’s studying at the College of Southern Idaho to become a bilingual teacher.

Cassia County

20

2000 Total 8,100 Hispanic 1,374

15

Twin Falls County Twin Falls (city)

10 1990 Total 6,529 Hispanic 476

5 1980 Total 6,891 Hispanic 274 1980

1990

2000

2010

Source: U.S. Census; respondents identify themselves as Hispanic or non-Hispanic

Spanish but wishes he did.

A few new coaching hires do, but that’s coincidental rather than a result of targeted hiring.

The language barrier can be problematic in the football program, where parental involvement is key.

“Parents need to know everything we’re trying to do,” Gambles said. Coaches need to talk with parents about practice and game schedules, off-season weightlifting and conditioning, concussion information, the importance of

hydration and fundraising.

Without parents’ support, teenagers can’t play football.

vvv City government, too, has had to adjust to serving a substantial Spanishspeaking population.

Police Chief Dan Hall said his officers frequently encounter people who don’t speak much English. The department has a couple of officers who speak Spanish, and a few more with limited knowledge of the language.

The department’s records specialist, Sylvia Rosales, often translates when people stop in or call the police station, or when a Spanishspeaking victim, witness or suspect is being interviewed at the station.

“She’s fantastic for helping us with our normal daily tasks, as far as being able to help with the language barrier,” Hall said.

Hall wants to hire more bilingual officers, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. “As you can imagine, the few Spanish-speaking officers there are around the Magic Valley are pretty hot commodities.”

Here, too, the children of immigrants are a big help.

At times, police are called to a residence and the children are the only ones there who can help officers communicate with the adults.

“A lot of these folks have kids who speak English fairly well,” Hall said.

The bigger problem, he said, is that people who don’t speak English well are sometimes reluctant to go to the police.

“It’s my assumption there are probably crimes that go unreported,” he said. “There’s information that may be useful in solving crimes or helping

the community; things go unsaid because of the lack of communication.”

At City Hall, the face of outreach to Spanish speakers is Esmeralda Chavez, hired as city planner a year and a half ago.

Chavez, a Jerome native who is of Mexican descent, said one of her goals when she started the job was to increase communication with Spanish speakers.

“I just feel like it’s an underserved population,” she said.

Now, the city has reference planning and zoning applications available in Spanish, which people can follow along while putting their answers on the official, English one. Chavez also translates the city’s codes for people who need help. Making sure people are aware of the rules they need to follow, especially for commercial construction projects, can be an issue, Chavez said.

An example is Tiger Stop, a Mexican restaurant, gas station and convenience store on Lincoln Avenue North.

When the owner painted the building its current blue-turquoise, Chavez said, he violated a city regulation that calls for commercial buildings on Main Street and Lincoln Avenue to have approval for exterior modifications.

City guidelines encourage “warm earth tones” within that district.

T iger Stop’s owner was not aware he needed approval, she said, but has been notified and agreed to comply.

vvv On the first Wednesday of every month, Chavez appears on Benjamin Reed’s talk and news show, “En Please see JEROME, A8

Acknowledgement The Times-News thanks volunteer interpreters Raquel Arenz, Deyanira Escalona and Cesar Perez, who assisted reporters with this project.

A8 • Sunday, August 30, 2015

‌The new face of Jerome is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the city’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, where many of the freshly built houses are occupied by Jerome’s first-generation immigrants.

Along 21st and 22nd Avenues East, between Tiger Drive and Fillmore Street in northeast Jerome, most — but not all — of the residents are Hispanic. When men work on a Ford in someone’s driveway or

children play in front yard pools, they’re likely to speak

Spanish.

But what’s new is also old.

This neighborhood, its residents say, is a safe, peaceful place where they know their neighbors. And that’s a lifestyle that drew other

populations to Magic Valley’s towns for the past century.

You’ll meet the people of Stoney Ridge in four special stories this year, by TimesNews reporters Julie Wootton and Nathan Brown.

Neighborhood Seeks Justice after Toddler’s Death JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌J EROME • In the year since Guadalupe Eudabe’s 2-year-old son was hit and killed by a pickup, frustration has lingered in her Jerome neighborhood.‌ The tragedy rocked her family and many others in the Stoney Ridge subdivision west of Tiger Drive.

Eudabe leaned against her front entryway one morning in early July as her children finished eating breakfast. Tears welled in her eyes as she talked about her son.

Law enforcement officials haven’t sought justice, she said through an interpreter, and she thinks it’s because her family is Hispanic.

After her son’s death, a counselor suggested Eudabe find an outlet to work through her grief.

She started a party planning business.

“This helps a lot,” she said.

An evening later in July, decorations from the 2013 Disney movie “Frozen” covered the kitchen counter and living room at her 21st Avenue East home. If she’s not busy, she thinks about her lost son — Damian Garcia Eudabe — and feels depressed. If that happens, she said, “the whole family suffers.”

Her two youngest sons played in their rooms, their feet thumping against the wood floor.

Since Damian’s death, Eudabe said, her sons are hesitant to play outside because they’re afraid.

Neighbors have been supportive, but she’d feel better if there were speed bumps or speed limit signs.

Eudabe worries someone else could be the victim of an accident.

vvv On the evening of Sept. 12, 2014, Damian was crossing 21st Avenue East by himself when he was struck by a black Dodge Ram pickup whose driver left the scene.

There was “very minor” damage to the vehicle, Idaho State Police noted in a vehicle collision report.

The Dodge continued east, then turned south onto Tiger Drive.

The speed limit in the subdivision is 25 mph. The report doesn’t say how fast the Dodge was traveling.

Po l i ce a r r ive d a t 6:22 p.m., two minutes after they were dispatched.

But it took 21 minutes for emergency medical services to arrive. Responders

MATTHEW GOOCH ILLUSTRATION, TIMES-NEWS‌

Meet David Avila DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Sergio Garcia listens to his wife, Guadalupe Eudabe, while she talks July 14 about losing their son.

The 2-year-old was hit and killed by a pickup in their Jerome neighborhood in 2014.

Read the Idaho State Police report about the Sept. 12, 2014, crash that killed Damian Garcia Eudabe, at Magicvalley. com/jerome.

vvv Mark Maxa — who lives down the street — arrived home from work shortly after the collision.

He went to console the Garcia family, but there wasn’t much he could say.

Since then, Maxa hasn’t heard anything about the investigation.

“My personal opinion is that justice was not served,”

The Jerome School District records each student in only one category, such as Hispanic/Latino or non-Hispanic white. Here, each year’s total also includes categories such as black, Asian, American Indian and Pacific Islander.

Enrollment is measured in October of each year.

4000

Other

Hispanic/Latino

White

3000

2000

1000

2006

2008

What He Said‌

cleared the scene at 8 p.m.

Driver Bernave Avila — a Wendell man who was 24 at the time — turned himself in the next day, police told the Times-News in September. Officers interviewed and released him.

“Charges are pending completion of investigation,” ISP’s September report said.

Ten months later, on July 31, the Jerome County Prosecutor’s Office filed a case. Avila is charged with a felony: leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death.

A n a r ra i g n m e n t i s scheduled at 9:15 a.m. Aug. 31 before Magistrate Judge Thomas Borresen.

Co u n ty P rose c u to r John Horgan responded to repeated inquiries by the Times-News simply by directing a reporter to the case filing. Efforts to reach Avila were unsuccessful.

Jerome School District Enrollment

2010

2012

2014

Source: Jerome School District

‌ avid Avila, originally D from Michoacan, moved to Jerome four years ago from North Carolina.

Avila, who works at a dairy near Wendell, has lived on Jerome’s 21st Avenue East for a Avila year and a half. He doesn’t have children but lives with cousins.

Avila’s truck was parked in the driveway in late June with the windows rolled down. Music in Spanish blasted from the speakers.

He sat inside the garage, with the door partially open.

Avila doesn’t know his neighbors. Some people need their space and aren’t talkative, he said through an interpreter.

John Garcia, 8, tries on his dad’s vest at home July 14 in Jerome. Since John’s 2-year-old brother was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 2014, John has been hesitant to play outside. he said.

When an accident happens in your own neighborhood, it leaves more of an impact, said Maxa, who works in commercial trucking.

Jerome police officers have stepped up patrolling in the neighborhood, and they’re doing their best, Maxa said, standing on his porch one July afternoon.

“We see them here quite a bit,” he said. Less than half an hour later, a Jerome police car drove slowly down 21st Avenue East.

Some 21st Avenue residents have signs in their yard telling drivers to slow down. And the homeowners’ association tried to take action.

But Maxa, its president, said city employees told

him the association would have to pay to install speed bumps. It’s not feasible for homeowners to pick up that cost, he said.

Another hurdle is a lack of participation in the homeowners’ association. “We have a meeting once a year, which is poorly attended.”

Maxa moved into Stoney Ridge about five years ago.

He lives near the west end of 21st Avenue East, close to the intersection with North Fillmore Street.

The two streets didn’t connect until about a year ago. Now, Maxa said, people from other neighborhoods use the intersection to travel between Fillmore and Tiger Drive.

“The problem we have is not with the residents in

Jerome Continued from A7

Vivo y en Directo con el Chupacabras,” on Spanish-language radio station 99.1 La Perrona. Each month, she brings along a different city official or department head to talk about what the city government is up to and take calls.

“Ben has been very helpful in trying to get information out to the Spanishspeaking community,” Chavez said.

Reed, a familiar voice on the southern Idaho airwaves for years, goes by “el Chupacabras” but is not Hispanic. His wife, who also works at the radio station, is Mexican, and he lived in Mexico for several years when she couldn’t re-enter the U.S. due to a problem with her visa.

In July, Chavez appeared on Reed’s show with water supervisor Larry Bybee.

After Reed read the day’s local news in Spanish, Chavez and Reed translated as Bybee talked about news of the city’s public works department — the roadwork on North Lincoln, the new bathrooms going into North Park, Sen. Mike Crapo’s plan to visit Jerome the next day.

When they went to commercial, the three chatted about the monthly segment and its benefits. Reed said it both demonstrates the availability of the city’s officials and makes people understand that they’re only human and have limited powers. The segment he did with the police chief was the most successful, Reed said, with many people calling in

this area.”

vvv Jerome City Administrator Mike Williams lives a few streets from the collision site. He remembers residents talking about how safety could be improved.

“I heard rumblings of talk of speed bumps,” he said, but the conversation dwindled after a while.

City officials are willing to work with residents, Williams said. “I know that is certainly a really tragic situation and event that occurred with the young boy being killed.”

He said he hasn’t been approached by homeowners about traffic in the neighborhood but thinks Please see EUDABE, A9

for that one.

Chavez often has messages in Spanish waiting on her office phone when she returns from the studio.

vvv Not everyone believes the government’s outreach has made a difference.

In the Stoney Ridge subdivision in June, as Abalos sat in her garage and watched her children play in a splash pool in the driveway, a couple of reporters asked her what she’s heard from her local government.

“Nada,” she replied.

So what do Hispanic residents want from their government?

In Stoney Ridge, many say they want increased traffic safety and speed limit enforcement — and for tragic reasons.

A 2-year-old boy was struck by a truck and killed on 21st Avenue in September.

Abalos also wants to see more recreational opportunities for her children — especially in the winter, when there isn’t much to do — and more contact with the English-speaking community so people know what’s going on around town.

Garcia wants to see more downtown parking and better road maintenance. He told a story about his brother, recently pulled over by a policeman after swerving to avoid a pothole.

One June afternoon, Teresa Rodriguez sat at a picnic table in the otherwise deserted Jerome City Park, eating a meal from a plastic grocery bag.

For 17 years, Rodriguez has come from

But he says “hi” and acknowledges neighbors when they see each other. “It doesn’t go beyond that.”

Avila works in Wendell and enjoys living in Jerome because “it’s pretty calm” and there’s not much traffic.

But drivers need to pay more attention to children playing in the neighborhood, he said.

Another complaint: Jerome law enforcement targets Hispanic residents based on the way they dress or how they’re perceived, Avila said. “I feel that the relational piece could be very improved.”

Immigrants come to Jerome to work hard, he said, not to make trouble.

—Julie Wootton

Mexico to Jerome for three months each year to clean Jerome houses and see her granddaughter in Boise. Rodriguez hears among Jerome residents that their pay is “very low,” and she said city administrators could be more strategic about the types of jobs they attract.

“I don’t really see any economic progress within the city. One or two restaurants is not enough,” she said through an interpreter.

She’s worn out and her bones hurt.

Rodriguez knows people who make $7 per hour doing agricultural work, she said, and they’re tired too.

vvv The subdivision around 21st and 22nd Avenues East, west of Tiger Drive, is called Stoney Ridge on planning maps, although few people call it that conversationally. In June and July, Times-News reporters interviewed a dozen Stoney Ridge residents with the help of interpreters. Most said they generally like Jerome and are glad to live here.

Cervantes worked in California’s grape industry before moving six years ago to Jerome. She lives on 21st Avenue East, where an Aztec symbol of the sun decorates the front of her house, with her husband and her youngest son, 6.

Her husband commutes to Sun Valley for landscaping work, and her grown children live in Mexico and Wendell.

Cervantes doesn’t feel connected Please see JEROME, A9

Sunday, August 30, 2015 • A9

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Marta Abalos of Jerome prepares dinner with her son, Diego Gonzalez, 7, on Aug. 10.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Julia Rivas talks about the Stoney Ridge neighborhood July 14.

Meet Julia Rivas

J‌ ulia Rivas and her husband live on 22nd Avenue East with their two daughters, ages 2 and 6. They’ve lived in Jerome for nearly five years.

Rivas is a stay-at-home mom, and her husband is a truck driver for Glanbia, working 12-hour shifts around the Magic Valley.

What She Said‌ On a rainy evening in mid-July, Rivas and her daughters stayed indoors. Some of their neighbors congregated in garages with the doors open. Nearby, two dogs on opposite sides of the road barked nonstop at each other, as if in competition.

Rivas knows many of her neighbors and likes living in Jerome. And construction noise isn’t a big deal, she said, even as the Stoney Ridge subdivision grows.

But before the subdivision was this developed, there weren’t as many traffic issues, Rivas said. “The only cars that came through this street were people who lived here.”

The family enjoys riding bikes and going to parks — especially Gayle Forsyth Memorial Park. Before Damian Garcia Eudabe was hit by a car in September, Rivas let her girls play outside without much supervision; she doesn’t do that anymore.

Meet Marta Abalos

‌ arta Abalos lives with M her husband and their 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son, who attend Horizon and Summit elementary schools.

Valentia Rivas, 2, stands in her doorway with mother Julia Rivas on July 14 in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision.

At a homeowners’ association meeting a few months ago, the president said it was up to residents to push for speed limit signs, Rivas said. “It’s quite a process to get them.”

—Julie Wootton

Abalos moved to Jerome 11 years ago from Guadalajara, Mexico, with a friend.

She was studying tourism in college and planned to earn enough money to move back to Mexico.

But Abalos met her husband and got married, and she stopped working — feeding baby cows — when she became pregnant. The stay-at-home mother said she doesn’t focus on herself anymore, but on helping her children achieve their goals.

What She Said‌ Abalos sat inside a friend’s garage two houses away from hers on 21st Avenue East in early June.

Temperatures climbed into the mid-90s that evening.

Victoria Rivas, 6, runs around in her Jerome neighborhood. Before a pickup hit a toddler in September, mother Julia Rivas let her girls play outside without much supervision — but not anymore.

Eudabe

thing to do because the

—Julie Wootton

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Antonia Rico chops lettuce while daughter Guadalupe Eudabe’s party decorations fill the counters July 14 in Eudabe’s Jerome home.

vvv One July evening, Eudabe prepared for a few upcoming parties, including a wedding and a baptism.

Her mother helped with cooking and cleaning and chopped vegetables in the kitchen. Eudabe’s husband, Sergio Garcia, sat on a sofa nearby. Cheekies — a tiny dog that’s part Chihuahua — scurried around the living room and tried to climb Garcia’s leg. He picked up the dog with one hand, placing it on a pillow in his lap.

Eudabe has lived in Jerome for more than 20 years but is originally from Colima — the same Mexican state as some of her

Abalos likes her neighborhood because it’s peaceful and she knows other Hispanic families who live nearby. But she’d like to see better traffic enforcement.

“They should put up signs, you know,

Continued from A8

the association contacted another city department.

A challenge to improving neighborhood safety would be figuring out how to pay for it, Williams said. Perhaps a cost-sharing arrangement could be worked out, “but that’s probably up for debate.”

The city’s staff tracks where accidents or excessive speeding happen on Jerome’s major roads, Williams said. “Typically in those situations, we’ll be proactive.”

But it’s unusual for Jerome subdivisions to have traffic-calming devices such as speed bumps. No matter who pays for speed bumps, Williams said, they become the city’s responsibility.

“At the end of the day, the infrastructure is ours to maintain.”

The two families watched as three laughing children played in splashy pools on the front lawn. Occasionally, the children climbed out to wave at passing cars.

Two older children sat inside the garage with their parents, who handed out popsicles from a cooler.

Marta Abalos with her daughter, Dana Gonzalez, 10, and son, Diego Gonzalez, 7, Aug. 10 at her Jerome home. to mark the speed majority of the people the cars should go,” here are Hispanic.” she said through an And better jobs are interpreter. needed for women, When a 2-year-old was Abalos said. Working hit and killed by a car long hours in physiin September on her cally demanding jobs street, many children in is difficult, especially the neighborhood saw for mothers. it happen, Abalos said.

For fun, the family Safety hasn’t improved swims at the Jerome since then, she said, Recreation District and drivers don’t slow in the summer. And down even when they they go to Walmart see children. “Some — mostly because it’s people are still driving air-conditioned. fast, even with that, because there’s nothing “There are a lot of kids, especially in the to reinforce it.” summer, who are doing Abalos doesn’t hear nothing,” Abalos said. much about upcoming Jerome has some events or civic news, places to go, she said, and she’d like to see but it can get expensive the Hispanic commufor families. And there nity be more included isn’t a YMCA branch in what’s happening in in town. “In the winter, Jerome. there’s nothing.”

“It would be a good

Sergio Garcia’s dog, Cheekies, hangs out July 14. neighbors. Hers was one of the first families to move into the Stoney Ridge subdivision about five years ago.

Compared with Mexico, Eudabe said, she likes that Jerome is a small, peaceful city where youth aren’t getting into trouble and doing drugs. She enjoys taking her children swimming and fishing.

G a rc i a wo rk s w i t h machinery at a dairy and says his pay has improved

because he has worked there for years. The downside is the job’s long hours — 5 a.m.-5 p.m. six days a week. He wants to spend more time with his family.

And Eudabe is busy with her business — preparing for as many as three parties per week during summer.

On a typical weekday night, the family cooks dinner and eats together. They play games if the children want to.

Son Brayan Garcia — who graduated from Jerome High School in May — plans to study business administration at the College of Southern Idaho. He wanted to leave the area for college but will live at home because it’s more economical.

Brayan said he feels connected with what’s happening in Jerome and shares a bond with his non-Hispanic peers. And his neighborhood’s houses are nice.

But there’s one thing he wants to change: Drivers need to slow down.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Horizon Elementary School first-grade teacher Erin Heileman photographs parents Manuel and Diana Juarez and their children Andre, Victor and Alek, who will attend first grade, Aug. 20 in Jerome. Heileman puts photographs of students’ families above their cubbyholes.

Jerome Continued from A8

with the city. And she doesn’t keep up with news because she finds it depressing, she said in June, in a living room decorated with family photos. But she likes Stoney Ridge.

“The neighborhood is very peaceful,” she said through an interpreter.

Abalos stayed in America when she got married. Now, she has two young children in school,

Santiago Garcia, owner of a new Mexican restaurant in Jerome, answers the phone during the Aug. 5 dinner rush. and she has grown to like Jerome for the same reason

as Cervantes: “Es muy tranquilo.”

Sunday

Sunday, October 4, 2015 • A1 www.magicvalley.com • $3.00

• October 4, 2015

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS

Deacon Marino Perea performs a baptism at St. Jerome Catholic Church on Aug. 30. The church has a dwindling number of non-Latino members — primarily elderly — and a growing Hispanic congregation that includes many young families.

Young Jerome Influx of Young Hispanic Families Shapes Community Change

JULIE WOOTTON AND NATHAN BROWN



jwootton@magicvalley.com nbrown@magicvalley.com

JEROME • Sandra Love is trying to reach elderly Latinos in Jerome.

Pushing to get them involved in the College of Southern Idaho’s “Over 60 and Getting Fit” program, Love makes English and Spanish banners to display on Lincoln Avenue. She takes flyers to businesses, health clinics and pharmacies.

But few Latinos come to the classes.

“It has been difficult to get any of them there,” Love said.

That’s unfortunate, she said, because conditions such as joint disease and diabetes can be helped by exercise. And when people from different backgrounds participate, they get to know each other and find commonalities.

“Barriers start to go down.”

That matters in Jerome, where 18 percent of the population is foreign-born, 28 percent speaks a language other than English at home and Hispanic schoolchildren now outnumber their nonHispanic white classmates.

It’s also a surprisingly young city, thanks to an influx of young Hispanic families. Jerome’s median age is 28 — seven years younger than the state’s median — and a third of the city’s population is younger than 18.

As Love sees it, Jerome’s young immigrants and natives

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS

Quintin Avila, 6, moves the ball during a Jerome Recreation District youth soccer match Sept. 19 at Gayle Forsyth Memorial Park. are adapting to each other better than each culture’s older generations.

And across the city, Jerome’s youth is driving the shape of the rapidly changing community.

The city’s strategic plan emphasizes park development and better educational

opportunities. A growing number of young Hispanic families are in the congregation at St. Jerome Catholic Church. More children are taking swim lessons and playing sports at the Jerome Recreation District.

It’s the kids who knock down the barriers.

St. Jerome Catholic Church sees an average of 1,400 people attend four weekend Masses: two in English and two in Spanish. A trend has emerged: a dwindling number of non-Latino members, who are primarily elderly, and a growing Hispanic congregation filled with young families.

Many regular attendees are younger than 30 and fluent in English and Spanish. About 180 teenagers are involved in St. Jerome’s youth group, and at least 350 younger children attend religious classes. The church performs about 350 infant baptisms per year.

For many Latino families, church is the primary way to plug into the community, said Janey Miller, St. Jerome’s business manager. It’s the social center.

The parish hall is usually booked six months to a year in advance for wedding receptions, anniversaries, baptism celebrations and quinceaneras — Spanish coming-of-age parties for girls’ 15th birthdays.

“One beautiful thing about the Hispanic culture is their ability to come together and celebrate life,” said the Rev. Robert Irwin, known as “Father Rob.” At St. Jerome, a big part of the church’s vision is “trying to be a model to integrate the cultures without assimilating,” Miller said. That means striving to preserve aspects of each culture.

Please see JEROME, A7

More inside Hispanic Events at Fairgrounds Spur Noise Complaints. See A8 Spanish Mass Shows Thriving Parish. See A8 New Jerome Neighborhood Is Model of Integration. See A9 Jerome’s Cross-cultural Business Equation Is Imbalanced. See A10

Watch videos of Garibaldi’s Mexican Restaurant mounted riders in the Jerome County Fair parade, and of the crowd at La Michoacana Bakery after Sunday Mass.

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About this Project

Today’s stories are the second installment in “El Nuevo Jerome,” a four-part series exploring Jerome’s cultural, political and economic shifts as the city attracts a rapidly growing Hispanic population.

Times-News education reporter Julie Wootton and government reporter Nathan Brown are devotWootton ing six months to the special reporting project, led by Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins.

SEE MORE: A special webpage showcases the project. Visit Brown Magicvalley. com/jerome to delve deeper into today’s coverage and to see the first installment, which published Aug. 30.

TUNE IN: From 11:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Oct. 6, tune in to Benjamin Reed’s talk and news show, “En Vivo y en Directo con el Chupacabras,” on Spanishlanguage FM radio station 99.1 La Perrona. Wootton and Brown will be guests on the show, talking about today’s special coverage and taking questions from listeners. They’ll speak in English, and Reed will interpret for Spanish listeners. Call in at 208-324-9910.

INTERACT: During Tuesday’s radio show, Magicvalley.com will host a live chat, where you can watch a video feed of the radio show, ask questions for Brown and Wootton to answer on the radio and chat with other readers about the project.

Anyone can participate in the 11:30 a.m. chat for free at the top of the Magicvalley.com homepage.

UP NEXT: Watch for the third installment of “El Nuevo Jerome” on Nov. 8 in the TimesNews and Magicvalley.com.

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Sunday, October 4, 2015 • A7

Jerome

the library, and the library’s afterschool programs for children are in English. The library provides English storytime four times a week at Jerome’s Head Start center, and many Spanish-speaking children attend.

Jerome residents with library cards have free access to an online program through Mango Languages that teaches 60 languages, as well as English as a Second Language classes. The library also provides in-house use of Rosetta Stone’s language-learning software.

The library tracks how many people use online languagelearning software and has seen a dramatic increase in the use of Mango’s ESL courses.

Continued from A1

The church uses a “Best Practices for Shared Parishes” document which outlines six stages of accommodating people of different cultures. It starts with denial and gradually moves toward acceptance and adaptation. The last stage is integration, where people from different cultures are on the church’s leadership teams and make decisions collectively.

“Here, everyone is welcome,” Irwin said, and a Catholic parish as mixed as this one is unusual.

The congregation includes immigrants from places such as Mexico, Portugal and the Philippines.

The Mexican influence is apparent, though, from the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe put on the altar during the Spanish Mass to the cross on a hallway wall decorated with Mexican folk art of angels.

Irwin spent some time in Mexico, and he delivers both the Spanish and English Masses. When a reporter stopped by one weekday afternoon, Irwin was talking to the office staff in both languages with equal ease and wearing a cross tucked into his pocket with a red, white and green band around his neck.

Attendees at Sunday Mass come from as far as the Wood River Valley, where Catholic churches don’t have Spanish Mass on Sundays.

Ten or 15 years ago, the church’s annual October feast with traditional German food expanded into an October fiesta serving German, Spanish and Portuguese food; each community prepares food to share with the congregation. And the church now holds a yearly fundraiser near Valentine’s Day. The name: Noche Romantica.

One of the church’s biggest days of the year is the celebration of its patron saint, St. Jerome, on Sept.

13. This is marked with an outdoor Mass at noon, followed by a carnival that lasts for several hours and brings thousands of people to Gayle Forsyth Memorial Park.

Many of the younger men played soccer that day, while a smaller group played volleyball.

The bouncy house was full of children. Thousands more people socialized in the park, listening to local folk bands or enjoying tacos, aguas frescas (usually a fruit-flavored drink; it translates to “fresh water” literally) and other Mexican snacks served by families from the parish.



JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

Riders carry Mexican and U.S. flags in the Jerome County Fair parade Aug. 4.

Population Age Groups 15%

Idaho

Median age 34.9

Jerome

12%

Median age 27.8

 Church member Kathy Burgess, 66, moved to Jerome when she was 11 months old. She has attended St. Jerome for more than 50 years.

“Growing up as a child, we were an Anglo church,” Burgess said.

But now, “having two cultures is really invigorating our parish. It adds a whole new dimension.”

She grew up near a labor camp, and Hispanic children came to the camp in spring and fall with their parents. Occasionally, a few migrant workers came to Sunday Mass.

In time, the church’s demographics evolved. Burgess moved away from Jerome for nine years; when she came back in 1976, the city was beginning to have a yearround population of Latinos. And as dairies came into the area, more Latino residents started coming to church.

“We simply outgrew our old church,” Burgess said, adding it used to have just two Masses. At the Spanish service, the church was so crowded that people stood outside, even in rain or snow, listening through loudspeakers.

So the parish built a new building, attached to the old one, that opened in 2005 and now seats about 1,200 people. On big occasions, Irwin said, it’s “filled with well over that number.”

“The Spanish Masses are usually pretty full,” Burgess said.

“We’ve been really working to build more bridges between us.”

Another goal: create Latino leaders in the church to join committees, organize events and lead classes.

“It’s really working, and there are a lot of people that are really stepping forward,” Burgess said.

The biggest obstacle: the language barrier.  City government, too, is embracing a younger population in its planning: more sidewalks, more bike paths, budgeting for park and playground upgrades.

“We’re trying to develop our parks a little bit better,” City Administrator Mike Williams

9%

6%

3%

<5

5 to 9

10 to 14 15 to 19 20 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 65 to 74 75 to 84

85+

Source: 2013 U.S. Census data

Percentage of Married Couples

Percentage of Population

Idaho

Idaho

Jerome

Jerome

Burley

Burley

Rupert

Rupert

Twin Falls

Twin Falls

with Children Younger than 18

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Younger than 18

35%

5%

Source: 2013 U.S. Census data

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Source: 2013 U.S. Census data

KAT WAGNER, LEE ENTERPRISES

said. “We’re trying to develop our partnerships with the school district and the College of Southern Idaho to develop better education opportunities. We want to be able to meet the demands of young families for housing arrangements, as well.”

For example, new playground equipment was recently installed at Camozzi Park. The tennis court there should be converted to a basketball court before the end of this construction season.

Williams has heard from some businesses and the school district that employees, particularly young ones, have a hard time finding the right kind of housing. He said

apartments and duplexes, typically affordable for young families or young professionals, are lacking in Jerome.

Jerome’s City Council approved an “Activity Connection Plan” this summer and put money to build sidewalks between Horizon and Summit elementary schools into the 2016 budget.

“We have a stronger emphasis on (that) because that demographic kind of demands it,” Williams said.  What else do young Hispanics want? Sometimes, it’s as

simple as asking.

The Jerome Public Library has a growing collection of Spanish materials, including books and movies. When Spanish speakers check out books, employees ask what items they’d like to see added.

“It’s a staff goal to make that area more inviting,” library director Linda Mecham said.

The library has one bilingual front desk employee, and a job application lists Spanish language skills as preferred.

“Is it a necessity? No, but we recognize the need,” Mecham said.

Often, children translate for their parents when they come into

While CSI’s senior exercise classes struggle to attract Latinos, the Jerome Recreation District is seeing its participant demographics become more reflective of the community: young and Hispanic.

At least 50 percent of Jerome Rec’s members are Latino. More children are taking swim lessons, and Latino women are participating in adult volleyball and fitness classes, said Director Gary Warr, who has been with the district since 2003. Jerome’s Latino residents also use parks frequently, for family picnics, group gatherings or playing sports.

One of the biggest challenges with youth recreation is the lack of Hispanic parents volunteering to coach teams.

A language barrier may be a factor, Warr said. “Sometimes, it creates a fearful situation.”

One evening in early September, about 25 cars were parked outside the recreation district.

The two-story facility includes group fitness rooms, gymnasiums, a swimming pool and exercise equipment.

Elementary-school children in a gymnastics class worked on roundups and cartwheels while parents and siblings watched from the bleachers. Upstairs, Rigo Zavala peddled a stationary exercise bike as he listened to music through headphones.

Zavala graduated from high school in Wendell and later moved to Boise. He returned to Jerome about three years ago to be closer to family. Now he comes to the rec district about four times a week.

One of the draws: playing basketball on Mondays and Wednesdays.

In the rec district’s lobby, Maria Martinez and Ofelia Ayala waited in their workout clothes.

They started coming to the gym together two years ago and try to come every day.

Martinez enjoys CrossFit classes and using the exercise equipment. There’s a good atmosphere at the gym, she said, and people are kind.

With interpretation help from Martinez, Ayala said she also enjoys running outdoors and playing tennis. She’d like to see a bigger pool and a shopping mall in Jerome.

The women don’t often go to Twin Falls for entertainment.

“We stay here in Jerome,” Martinez said.

Jerome Rec helps keep nonHispanics at home in Jerome, too.

Jenna Spencer, who arrived for a Zumba class that evening, used to drive to a Twin Falls gym but switched to the rec district because it’s closer, cheaper and has a variety of offerings.

In a park across from the Catholic church that day, Merrinda Hamilton sat on a bench in the shade of a tree rocking her infant in a front pack. Her two older children, 2 and 7, played on a swing set.

The non-Hispanic family moved from Brigham City, Utah, to Jerome a few months ago after Hamilton’s husband accepted a job with Union Pacific in Shoshone. They decided Shoshone is too small and opted for a larger nearby city.

So far, they enjoy living in Jerome, Hamilton said. “They have really good parks.”  Hamilton’s family also loved the Jerome County Fair parade, the longest parade she’d seen in years.

This parade is long, quite simply, because a lot of people are in it.

More than any other Jerome institution, the annual parade reflects the city’s demographic mixture. It suggests an integration that has yet to develop in daily life.

Please see JEROME, A8

A8 • Sunday, October 4, 2015

Spanish Mass Shows Thriving Parish Nathan Brown Reporter

‌F

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Allie Avila, 3, hangs out while her older brother plays in a youth soccer match Sept. 19 in Jerome.

Jerome Continued from A7

Before the evening parade in early August, men on horseback gathered in a dirt parking lot near El Parralito Salon, many wearing chaps over their jeans and carrying Mexican and U.S. flags. They were among about 30 people in a parade entry from Garibaldi’s Mexican Restaurant.

They’ve been in the parade for about four years, said Fernando Alvarez. “It’s to show people that we still ride horses.”

Gabriella Ascencio and her 7-year-old daughter wore pinkand-red dresses with white ribbons intricately sewn in. They planned to walk beside the Garibaldi’s float and toss candy to children in the crowd.

Hundreds of Jerome residents — including many young families — lined the streets, sitting in front yards and along curbs or watching from the balcony of the Holiday Motel on West Main Street.

Before the parade started rolling, riders on horseback headed up the street toward Jerome High School as they shared the road with cars. Parade entrants lined up in a staging area on 100 East near Tiger Drive.

D.L. Evans Bank employees — a mixture of Hispanic and nonHispanic colleagues — waited near their covered wagon float, representing the fair theme: “Let’s get a little Western!”

Financial services representative Veronica Pimentel has been in the parade for three years. She didn’t grow up in Jerome, but some of her co-workers did. Being in the parade was a chance to see customers, she said, and get out into the community.

Nearby, Spanish music played on a float for La Campesina Restaurant. In the distance, Jerome High’s drum line warmed up for “Tiger Rag” and “Louie, Louie.”

On one float, in particular, the parade’s apparent integration reflected the real Jerome of 2015.

For the Jerome Rec District, dozens of children from many demographic groups sat on a flatbed trailer. The float looked a little like the deliberately diverse images popular in advertisements across America. But this was the real thing: the same cultural mix that populates the rec district’s soccer fields and swimming pool.

The new youth of Jerome.

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

Acolyte Luis Ruiz blesses a child during communion at St. Jerome Catholic Church on Aug. 30.

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

The Jerome High School band plays in the Jerome County Fair parade Aug. 4.

“We’re trying to develop our parks a little bit better. We’re trying to develop our partnerships with the school district and the College of Southern Idaho to develop better education opportunities. We want to be able to meet the demands of young families for housing arrangements, as well.”

Mike Williams, city administrator

or this series, I’ve spent a good deal of the past few months reporting on the growing Hispanic community in Jerome. So, one Sunday in August, I went to the Spanish Mass at St. Jerome Catholic Church. ‌I got there early, when many of the pews were still empty, but the church filled quickly. Soon, several hundred people were there — just for a regular Sunday Mass, not any particular holy day. And people of all ages, too — plenty of young families and even some single people who appeared to be in their 20s.

You don’t see this everywhere.

Many Catholic and mainline Protestant congregations in this country have been getting smaller and grayer for decades, as young Americans either become secular or move toward evangelical churches.

One of the first things that struck me was the space itself.

The churches I grew up with are imposing stone or brick structures, with huge stained-glass windows, ornate carvings and stonework, statues on the walls and a stronger sense of physical separation between the parishioners and the altar. St. Jerome has a more open and somehow more inviting feel. Maybe the semicircle layout of the pews around the altar has something to do with it.

At the points in the service where I expected the organ to play, a group of guitarists played instead, and everyone clapped in rhythm. Apparently, both the guitars and the clapping are common in Mexican churches.

Between my on-again, off-again attempts to learn Spanish and a couple of years studying Latin, I understood about half of Father Rob Irwin’s homily. Father Rob is an English-speaking American, but he has been to Mexico and his Spanish sounds pretty fluent.

He has a more conversational and audience-engaging style than some priests I’ve seen. As he spoke, he stepped down from the platform and walked around, and he pointed to people and asked them questions. At one point, I could tell he was talking about helping the poor and promoting the church’s soup kitchen.

He also spent a minute or two introducing our freelance photographer, Joy Pruitt, pointing her out and explaining what she was doing. She got a round of applause from the congregation, which was nice — not an everyday experience for people in our line of work.

The basic structure of Mass is the same everywhere you go, apparently no matter what language you’re speaking. When everyone held hands and started praying, I knew it was the Our Father, even if I didn’t recognize most of the words.

When it came to the sign of peace, and everyone shook hands with the people next to them and said “Paz de Cristo,” I didn’t need help with either the translation of the words or the meaning behind them.

Hispanic Events at Fairgrounds Spur Noise Complaints JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌JEROME • The Jerome County Fa i rg ro u n d s n eve r ge n e rated noise complaints from neighbors — until Hispanics started renting the facilities for weddings, quinceaneras and horse racing.‌ Complaints peaked a year ago, so fair manager Kathleen Hite tightened regulations for everyone.

“We’ve made a lot of changes to try to be good neighbors,” she said.

Acknowledgement

Decibel readings from Latino events are much lower than the Jerome County Fair, Hite said, but she rarely hears complaints about the fair.

Fairground officials want and need events, she said; non-fair events account for more than half of the fairgrounds’ income.

Latino groups are big customers for renting the fairgrounds, Jerome County Commissioner Cathy Roemer said, but the same rules apply to everyone.

Ten years ago, groups renting the facilities did whatever they

wanted. Today, Hite said, there’s a night-and-day difference.

One recent change: Groups must stop playing music by 8 p.m., not midnight as in past years. The maximum noise level was lowered by 10 decibels.

“We’re trying our hardest,” Hite said.

Fairgrounds employees pull the cord on music events if they go too late. “It’s not a popular thing to do,” Hite said.

Recently, a group played until 8:15 p.m. and lost its $750 deposit because it broke the

contract agreement.

One Sunday afternoon in midJune, Spanish music — particularly the bass line — could be heard in surrounding neighborhoods.

That day, thousands of people attended a party to celebrate La Perrona’s first year in business.

The Spanish radio station, 99.1 FM, has broadcast from Jerome since February 2014.

Vivian Peterson, who has lived on First Avenue for about 50 years, was home during the La Perrona party.

“You do notice the noise quite a

bit,” she said, but it doesn’t bother her because she knows events won’t last too long. And though people sometimes park on her street, they leave the opening to her driveway clear.

Peterson used to hear loud events on Sundays that didn’t end until 11 p.m. or midnight. But it hasn’t been a problem this year, she said.

Second Avenue resident Janice Beadz said the noise used to bother her but doesn’t anymore — except when it gets “really loud.”

The Times-News thanks volunteer interpreters Raquel Arenz, Deyanira Escalona, Eduardo Maciel, Cesar Perez and Melyssa Perez, who assisted reporters with this project.

Sunday, October 4, 2015 • A9

New Neighborhood Is Model of Integration

‌T

he new face of Jerome is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the city’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, where many of the freshly built houses are occupied

by Jerome’s first-generation immigrants.

Along 21st and 22nd Avenues East, between Tiger Drive and Fillmore Street in northeast Jerome, most — but not all — of the residents are Hispanic.

When men work on a Ford in someone’s driveway or children play in front yard pools, they’re likely to speak Spanish.

You’ll meet the people of Stoney Ridge in four special stories this year. If you missed the first installment on Aug. 30, catch up at Magicvalley.com/ jerome.

Meet Ana Hurtado

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Monica Reyes, 7, right, and Alidia Hagen, 9, jump on a small trampoline while Danner Hagen, 4, and Lulu Reyes, 6, play in the background in the Hagens’ backyard Aug. 28 in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge neighborhood.

JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

J‌ EROME • Brant Hagen watches soccer games on television at a neighbor’s house. He speaks English and his neighbor speaks Spanish, but they recognize enough words to communicate.‌ Another neighbor gives Hagen homemade tamales and expects nothing in return.

One street over in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, Tyson Barkes’ 4 1/2-year-old son bicycles and skateboards with other neighborhood children. The boy, Barkes said, knows “every kid in every house.”

With its mixture of Latino and non-Latino residents, Stoney Ridge reflects the changing face of Jerome. And here, the neighbors’ interactions suggest a future of friendly integration in the city if the rest of Jerome can follow Stoney Ridge’s example.

The neighborhood — along 21st and 22nd Avenues East in northeast Jerome — attracts many young families who say they enjoy the peaceful setting.

And it’s affordable, with home prices typically hovering between $110,000 and $140,000.

The subdivision’s first phase was recorded in 2006, followed by another in 2010. Some neighborhood lots are still bare. On others, the houses are in various stages of construction or sport “for sale” signs.

As construction continues in Stoney Ridge, it gives Barkes’ son more friends to play with. His house is a hub for his son’s friends from around the neighborhood.

Given Jerome’s population trends, many of Stoney Ridge’s newcomers are likely to be Hispanic.  But not all, of course.

A year ago, Hagen — a special education teacher at Jerome Middle School — moved his family into a house on 21st Avenue East. They came from Montana, where they were 110 miles away from Great Falls.

Jerome has a small-town feel, Hagen said, but it’s close to the amenities of Twin Falls. “I like it here. It’s quiet,” he said. “The people seem very polite.”

Hagen’s wife speaks Spanish — she learned it in school and was an exchange student in Toluca, Mexico — and they interact daily with their neighbors.

When 2-year-old Damian Garcia Eudabe was hit and killed by a car in September 2014, “I was the first one on the scene,” Hagen said.

The tragedy “kind of bought

‌ na Hurtado moved to A Jerome five years ago from Mexico. Her husband — who delivers milk for dairies — came first, and she followed.

One early June afternoon, Hurtado leaned against her home’s entry on 22nd Avenue East as her two boys, ages 7 and 1 1/2, played on the living room floor and a Spanishlanguage television show aired.

Outside, two strollers were pushed against a wall in a narrow entryway.

Hurtado said through an interpreter that she likes Jerome and wouldn’t change anything about it. She knows some of her Hispanic neighbors and feels connected.

—Julie Wootton

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Construction progresses on a new 21st Avenue East home in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision July 7.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Monica Reyes, 7, whispers to Danner Hagen, 4, while they play a game of telephone in the Hagens’ Jerome backyard Aug. 28. us all together,” said Hagen, father of a 4-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl.

Now, Hagen yells at speeding drivers. This summer, he called Jerome police after someone drove about 80 mph on his street.

Neighbors watch each other’s children while they’re outside.

And they invite each other’s families to birthday parties.

Hagen was pleasantly surprised by those interactions with his Latino neighbors. He didn’t have a good experience while living in San Diego, he said, but living in Stoney Ridge has altered his perspective. Hagen discovered his neighbors are loving people, and that’s the environment he wants his children to grow up in.

As a teacher, however, he sees a

different environment at school, where he worries about bullying, drugs and gangs.  The Stoney Ridge subdivision has newcomers like Hagen, but some residents have been in Jerome for years.

Among the residents from Mexico, a cluster came from the same region along the country’s western Pacific coast — some a decade or two ago.

Josefina Cervantes and Guadalupe Eudabe, for instance, both came from Colima. Other neighbors — such as David Avila, Avelino Salinas and Marta Abalos — moved from bordering states such as Michoacan or Jalisco.

Despite similar geographic

backgrounds, some residents don’t interact much with their neighbors. Cervantes said through an interpreter that she knows a few neighbors — and a few church goers elsewhere in town — but not many.

On the other hand, Vanessa Diaz — a Jerome High School alumna — has lived in Jerome since she was 4 or 5 and knows many of her neighbors. She and her family moved into a house on 21st Avenue East in December, and they like the neighborhood.

“It’s quiet,” Diaz said in midAugust. “It’s clean.”

Diaz’s husband works 12-hour shifts, six days a week, as a feeder at a dairy. The couple has two sons, ages 1 and 4. The family occasionally goes to neighbors’ houses to sit outside and let their children play together.

Esmeralda Gonzalez and her husband live with their three young children on 22nd Avenue.

Gonzalez has been in Jerome for about 15 years, while her husband moved eight years ago.

In Stoney Ridge, where many of their neighbors are young parents, they’ve found plenty of friends.  Homes with neatly manicured lawns and newly planted trees line 21st and 22nd Avenues in Stoney Ridge. Again and again, the people who live here told reporters they love the quiet.

But the quietness they relish isn’t always literal.

Please see STONEY RIDGE, A10

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

Tyson Barkes in his Stoney Ridge home Aug. 20 in Jerome.

Meet Tyson Barkes ‌ yson Barkes has lived in T Stoney Ridge since 2008, after moving from Burley.

When his family moved in on 22nd Avenue East, there weren’t many other houses in the subdivision.

Leaning against his open doorway one June afternoon, he didn’t have any complaints about life in Jerome. Barkes, who works as a veterinarian at a dairy and speaks a little Spanish, notices the city and his neighborhood are growing quickly.

How’s the relationship between Latino and non-Latino residents in Stoney Ridge? Fine, Barkes said. Some of his best neighbors are Hispanic.

—Julie Wootton

A10 • Sunday, October 4, 2015

Meet Avelino Salinas

Stoney Ridge Continued from A9

‌ velino Salinas’ move to A the U.S. from a small town in Michoacan was a bit of a culture shock. The pace of life here was more hectic than he was used to.

“Here, you live by the clock,” he said in Spanish, tapping his wrist for emphasis, as if pointing to a watch.

He lived in Wendell for years, although he came to Jerome a lot even then because his brother lives in rural Jerome County. After the Wendell dairy where he worked was sold, he moved in with his brother for a year and a half before moving to Jerome’s 21st Avenue East about two years ago.

Salinas feeds cows at dairies.

While he used to like the work, he has been doing it for a long time and is getting bored. He wants to get a commercial driver’s license so he can drive trucks for companies like Glanbia.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Alidia Hagen, 9, left, and Lulu Reyes, 6, hug the Hagens’ dog Dana on Aug. 28.

Salinas’ Stoney Ridge neighborhood has gotten more hectic since he built his house. He remembers when many of its houses hadn’t been built yet, and there wasn’t as much traffic or as many little kids playing outside.

Sometimes now, he said in mid-August, teenagers drive by with their music blasting in the early morning and he can’t fall back to sleep. Salinas would prefer to live outside of town, with less noise. In the country, he said, you can keep cows and chickens, and you’re far enough from the road that you don’t hear people passing by.

—Nathan Brown

MATTHEW GOOCH, TIMES-NEWS‌

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Jonathan Lopez, 14, gives his thoughts on the Stoney Ridge neighborhood while hanging out in his garage July 14.

One hot evening in early June, an ice cream truck drove slowly around the neighborhood. Children ran to ask their parents for money as a high-pitched song played continuously.

Three men worked on a black Ford F-150 beside the curb on 22nd Avenue East, wiping sweat off their foreheads. Their toolbox sat in the flatbed of another truck nearby.

Across the street, sisters Victoria Rivas, 6, and Valentia Rivas, 2, played in the grass.

One July morning, dark clouds gathered — a brief respite from the previous two weeks’ threedigit heat. A few people came and went, but drapes were closed at many houses. On 22nd Avenue, music blared from a car stereo as a construction crew framed walls for a new home.

At several houses in late morning, sleepy-eyed children answered the door wearing pajamas and rubbing their eyes.

Their parents were sleeping.

On a rainy evening in early July, a Stoney Ridge family sat inside its garage, the overhead door open invitingly. The adults didn’t speak English, but Jonathan Lopez, a 14-year-old with a gelled tuft of hair on the top of his head, talked with a reporter.

The Jerome High School freshman has lived in Stoney Ridge since he was in second grade. He likes the neighborhood and lives next door to one of his friends. “I guess I can’t really complain.”

The open garage door is a hallmark of Stoney Ridge.

It shows someone is home and available to spend time with neighbors. Like many others here, Eduardo Maciel keeps chairs in his garage — in case anyone wants to come over and chat.

Welcome, the garage says.

Come on in.

Cross-cultural Business Equation Is Imbalanced that question.

What is known: Most Latinoowned businesses aren’t members of the Jerome Chamber of Commerce. And increasing membership is one of the chamber’s goals, executive director Brandon Redmond said.

Redmond speaks “enough Spanish to be dangerous,” as he put it. Esmerelda Chavez, the city planner who leads the city’s outreach to the Hispanic community, helps translate flyers for chamber events. Rosa Paiz, owner of El Sombrero Restaurant, is on the chamber’s board of directors and helps with translation and outreach.

The chamber hopes to increase Hispanic participation in community events such as the Christmas lights parade and tree-lighting ceremony.

“We’ve definitely really started trying to capture both cultures,” he said.

NATHAN BROWN AND JULIE WOOTTON nbrown@magicvalley.com jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌J EROME • On a late-August Sunday afternoon, a steady stream of customers stocked up on rolls and pastries at La Michoacana Bakery.‌ Sundays are busy at the downtown bakery. Customers come after Spanish Mass at St. Jerome Catholic Church — some from as far away as Hailey and Sun Valley.

Owner Efrain Tellez came to the U.S. from Michoacan, Mexico. He worked on ranches and farms, then cleaned racks in a bakery, before opening the first La Michoacana bakery in Rupert about two decades ago.

His daughter, Chayo Tellez, said her father used to bring his bread to Jerome to sell at another bakery, but he opened his own shop on South Lincoln Avenue in 2010.

While their Rupert store draws a mixed clientele, in Jerome they have struggled to expand beyond the Mexican community.

“It’s hard to get them in here,” Chayo Tellez said.

It’s an imbalance apparent elsewhere around Jerome, too: The city’s longstanding businesses cater more successfully to Spanish-speaking customers than many immigrants’ businesses do to non-Hispanics.

So far, at least.

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

Patrons shop at La Michoacana Bakery on Aug. 30. Sundays are busy at the Jerome bakery after Spanish mass at St. Jerome Catholic Church.

 Many downtown stores are run by Mexican immigrants and sell primarily to fellow immigrants. Jerome’s changing population, meanwhile, prompted some of the city’s more established business to learn how to serve people who don’t speak English.

“We get a lot of Hispanic customers,” said Buzz Miller, owner of Buzz’s Antique Mall. “We’re getting more and more all the time.”

At his antique store, he has employees who speak Spanish, and often the children or spouse of a Spanish-speaking customer can translate. His Hispanic customers, he said, are good people like anyone else.

“I have a little trouble understanding them sometimes, but between the two of us, we figure

JOY PRUITT, FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

Victoria Gonzalez serves customers at Jerome’s La Michoacana Bakery on Aug. 30. out what we want,” said Miller, moved to Jerome in 1968 and has operated businesses in the Magic Valley for decades.

A handful of downtown businesses display banners in their windows welcoming Spanishspeaking customers. In the window of Canyon Financial: “Hablamos Espanol.” Nearby, a sign at Cheverria’s Traditional Mexican Food & Meat Market has an open sign with both English and Spanish words.

About half of the employees at

Valley Country Store can help with translating, said store manager Jason Pollard, who learned Spanish as a second language.

He doesn’t require Spanish skills when he hires, but they’re a plus because many Hispanic farm and dairy workers come into the store.

The store encourages employees to learn the basics of Spanish so they can help customers, assistant manager Mary Slim said, and Spanish-speaking employees try to be available by phone if they’re

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Signs in Spanish and English hang in the break room at Valley Country Store in Jerome.

not at work.

Valley Country Store occasionally puts up signs in Spanish. “It’s been effective,” Pollard said.  Do Jerome’s Mexicanthemed stores feel inviting and accessible to English-only shoppers? A handful of Jerome residents declined to answer

 In a city of immigrants, Hispanic entrepreneurs enjoy a large potential clientele. One Guadalajara native who graduated from Jerome High School is making a go of introducing the rest of the city, too, to the tastes of his hometown.

Santiago Garcia grew up in the restaurant business; his parents owned one before the family came to the U.S. a few years ago. This summer, he opened his new restaurant on Main Street.

When Garcia came to America as a teenager, he worked in a Mexican bakery for a couple of years, and then at the Tiger Stop restaurant. He ventured out on his own by opening a taco truck in 2013. He opened the new restaurant July 18, just in time for the Jerome County Fair. People from as far away as Boise and Pocatello were in town for the fair, and many stopped by.

Garcia’s family works at the restaurant with him, and they serve a number of Guadalajara-style dishes. One of the most iconic is the torta ahogada — a sandwich made with the thick birote bread that is popular in the region and drowned (“ahogada” is Spanish for “drowned”) in a spicy red sauce. Another popular dish is his Please see BUSINESS, A11

Sunday, October 4, 2015 • A11

Business

“We get a lot of Hispanic customers.

We’re getting more and more all the time. ... I have a little trouble understanding them sometimes, but between the two of us, we figure out what we want.”

Continued from A10

tacos al pastor— meat that’s marinated in a combination of spices and pineapple.

“Our customers love it,” he said.

Garcia wants to introduce people to a different kind of food than, say, the tacos or Tex-Mex cuisine Americans generally associate with Mexico.

“I think we’re trying to make a revolution in food,” he said.  Another entrepreneur is capitalizing on Jerome businesses’ need to connect with Hispanics — and with immigrants’ need to learn about the town they’re living in.

Ecuador native Maria Bucklew — who was introduced to the Mexican culture after moving to Jerome 12 years ago — started a Spanish-language magazine called NCulturas three years ago with a goal to provide low-cost advertising. It

Cashier Lorena Perez helps customers Sept. 9 at Valley Country Store in Jerome. helps Latino residents know where to find churches, dentists and attorneys, for instance.

The free publication reaches 11 Magic Valley cities and is distributed in Latino stores.

In early August, NCulturas was among the Latino businesses participating in the Jerome County Fair parade, where Bucklew tagged along with a folkloric ballet group.

It’s beneficial for Latinos to get involved in local events, she said, to “show we participate and are part

of the community.”

That’s exactly what El Tigre Restaurant was doing at the parade.

Chantal Licano, 16, grew up in Jerome and always wanted to be in the parade.

This summer, she got her chance with El Tigre, which her family has run for 3 1/2 years. From a float bearing a “Home of the Big Burrito” sign, restaurant employees handed out tacos along the parade route — to Spanish and English alike.

Business outreach in a language everyone can understand.

Buzz Miller, owner of Buzz’s Antique Mall

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Cashier Angel Ramirez speaks Spanish to a customer Sept. 9 at Valley Country Store in Jerome.

Overcoming Obstacles Idaho native struggles with longtime porn addiction KIRSTEN JOHNSON kjohnson@postregister.com‌

‌Editor’s note: The Post Register has given anonymity to the source identified as Brett in this article. The article’s content may not be suitable for young readers.

It’s been more than 20 years since a young Jerome boy — who enjoyed Lincoln Logs and playing with plastic toy soldiers — first stumbled across pornography.

The boy was about 8 or 9 years old. It was a nondescript afternoon and he was horsing around in a buddy’s tree fort. One of the boys gleefully pulled out a magazine — a naked woman brazenly posing on the cover.

The boy, Brett, thumbed the pages and photographs of nude women flooded his young eyes.

The experience aroused feelings of shock, perhaps disgust — and yet curiosity.

“I can still see some of the images in my head,” said the now 30-year-old Brett.

“It was interesting and yet this forbidden awe — I was confused, because in the moment it was enjoyable, but I knew it was bad. I felt like I couldn’t talk to anybody about it.”

That moment — coupled with a second exposure to a sexual video soon after — lured Brett into the world of pornography. Those experiences eventually fueled what he believes was an addiction to pornography.

For more than 15 years, Brett struggled unsuccessfully to abstain from viewing porn, even as it adversely affected his relationship with his wife and sharply contradicted his religious beliefs. Today, Brett says he hasn’t viewed porn in more than five years. But he still has to practice restraint, and warns others to not take porn addiction lightly.

Breaking it down Statistics show a lot of Americans do, in fact, view porn. Each day there are at least 68 million searches in the United States for online porn, stats show, and Pornhub.com — arguably the largest pornography site on the Internet — recorded 78.9 billion video views in 2014, translating to about 5,800 views per second.

Skeptics say porn addiction doesn’t exist. Milton Diamond, a faculty member at the University of Hawaii, has researched issues surrounding porn use and its availability, extensively.

He said in a March 2010 article that scientists have “investigated the link between pornography … and sex crimes and attitudes toward women” and found in every region that “as pornography has increased in availability, sex crimes have either decreased or not increased.”

“I don’t think there’s any such thing as porn addiction,” Diamond told the Post Register. “I think there are people who like a lot of it — but (porn addiction) does not exist. Drugs can really harm you, there’s no evidence that porn can harm you.”

Others, including leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, say otherwise.

The Mormon church provides detailed information online warning adults and children of the dangers of viewing porn.

The church also offers an addiction recovery program for porn in addition to its other addiction-recovery programs.

The program is modeled after the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step alcohol recovery program, said Claigh Jensen, who oversees the church’s addiction programs in the region.

The program is open to all — not just members — and has been offered for at least 13 years, Jensen estimates.

He said there are about 22 different support meetings in Idaho Falls and Rexburg alone. Since attendees are anonymous, the church only tracks seats filled each meeting. Jensen estimates at least 8,000 porn-addiction support group seats are filled locally each year. “ We a re t r y i n g to strengthen marriages and strengthen families,” Jensen said.

The porn-addiction debate exists in part because addiction isn’t a term used in clinical psychology, said Steven Lawyer, a psychology professor at Idaho State University.

Rather, addiction is a popular word often used to describe “a pattern of behavior or activity that has really taken over someone’s life.” The other issue, Lawyer said, is the fuzzy definition of what constitutes “problematic” pornography use.

“Someone who spends an inordinate amount of time looking at porn may have behavior that looks a lot like other addictionrelated disorders,” he said.

“But it’s really not special in the sense that it’s just one kind of reinforcer that frankly a lot of people use without any problem — just like the vast majority of people use alcohol without problem while some have a

Each day there are at least 68 million searches in the United States for online porn, stats show, and Pornhub.com recorded 78.9 billion video views in 2014.

preoccupation with it.”

Growing secrets

Brett began viewing porn on his own around age 11.

At least a couple times per week, he’d catch glimpses of sexual images on television late at night while family members were sleeping. Or, he’d surf the web for adult-content sites, bypassing what his parents thought were stringent computer filters.

In high school, his porn viewing increased as he struggled to date women in his personal life. He also began visiting strip clubs.

“I didn’t classify it as an issue in my head at the time,” he said. “I just knew it was this behavior I shouldn’t be doing.”

Upon high school graduation he left for a twoyear church mission and abstained from porn entirely — in his words, “whiteknuckled it.” Immediately upon returning, however, his porn use also returned.

He sought counsel from religious leaders and began binges — abstaining for an extended period of time, and then viewing for several hours straight.

“I had a pattern,” he said.

“I’d sit down to do homework, get bored and then start surfing the Internet.

First, it’d be ESPN.com, then NFL cheerleaders, then swimsuit models. It was this progressive step toward worse pornography.”

His preferred subject matter also became gradually more extreme — as he became more desensitized, he began viewing porn of transgender people, gay porn — eventually incest.

“I was trying to quit and make it work,” he said. “But in my addictive mind at the time, I’d think, if I don’t act out today I’ll reward myself and act out tomorrow, and somehow that totally made sense.

Starting fresh

Brett met his wife in college and disclosed his porn problems.

“He told me, ‘I feel like I should tell you I used to have this problem, but it’s not an issue anymore.’ ” his wife said.

They married and Brett began viewing porn in secret. He’d drive to the public library, slink into a computer facing the wall and log in as a “guest.” Or, he’d view at home while his wife was away.

At one point, his wife congratulated him on his sobriety. At that, he broke down and told her the truth.

“I remember it just felt extra hurtful that he was reaching for something I’m supposed to be fulfilling for him,” his wife said. “It

(COURTESY PHOTO)‌

made me feel like less than the porn. He still wanted to have sex with me, but it made me feel like, ‘that’s the woman he really wants,’ and I didn’t look like that.”

Brett enlisted support from the church’s 12-step program in Idaho Falls in which he met other locals struggling with

porn addiction.

He said he hasn’t viewed porn since. But he and his wife have set boundaries.

He does not own a smart phone, nor does he have a library membership. He does not use Internet at home unless his wife is in the room.

While Brett acknowledges

some folks are able to look at porn casually, he views mainstream society’s normalization of the industry as “sad.”

“I think it’s unfair to (people who view porn) and women as well,” he said. “I don’t think porn should be a part of any marriage — I think that’s a huge lie and a huge injustice.”

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STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS PHOTOS

Herdsman Manuel Vega inspects cows at Si-Ellen Farms on Oct. 27 in Jerome. Jerome County employment in dairy cattle and milk production shot up from an annual average of 268 people in 1991 to 1,423 people in the first quarter of 2015.

Jerome Jobs Immigration Laws Big Deal for Jerome’s Dairies

NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com

JEROME • One midday in late October, Filiberto Fregoso checked on the cows as they ate, as he has for the past 19 years.

He is a herdsman, working at Si-Ellen Farms alongside his uncle Juan to take care of breeding and sick cows, monitor their health and keep track of when they’re in heat.

“The more you stay and do the job, you get the more experience,” he said.

The uncle and nephew are from Nayarit, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, and came to the U.S. in the mid-1990s.

“The thing (is) in Mexico, we don’t have anything (for) work, not too many jobs,” said Juan Fregoso. “The United States has a lot of jobs.”

“Lot of cows to take care of here,” Filiberto added.

Working at Si-Ellen for almost two decades — the two have “devoted their whole lives to us,” owner Mike Roth said — the Fregosos have witnessed the growth of the family’s Jerome-area operation from 1,200 milk cows in 1995 to today’s 12,500, producing a million pounds of milk a day.

That expansion is a microcosm of growth in south-central Idaho’s dairy industry. Dairies helped fuel the boom in Jerome’s Hispanic population from 7 percent of the city’s population in 1990 to 34 percent in 2010. While Jerome’s Hispanics work in many sectors, they still dominate the work force on the dairies that are one of the Magic Valley’s biggest economic drivers.

Now, the immigrant labor

Herdsman Juan Fregoso with a few of the cows he monitors at Si-Ellen Farms in Jerome.

Fregoso came to the U.S. in the mid-1990s from Nayarit, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

MORE INSIDE Banks Work to Gain Immigrants’ Trust A8 Wootton: I’m the Reporter Wandering Stoney Ridge A8 Language, Legal Status Keep Immigrants in Demanding Jobs A9 Brown: Irish or Mexican, Immigrants Cluster with People from Same Towns A9

supply that enabled the Magic Valley’s dairy expansion has constricted, making it tougher for some dairies to find workers. And the children of some Mexican immigrants who fed calves and milked cows are going to college and finding white-collar jobs.

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and more cows, said Bob Naerebout, executive director of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association. The U.S. had 225,000 dairies in 1980 but just 46,000 today, and the industry in Idaho is no exception to that pattern.

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About this Project

Today’s stories are the third installment in “El Nuevo Jerome,” a four-part series exploring Jerome’s Brown cultural, political and economic shifts as the city attracts a rapidly growing Hispanic population.

Wootton Times-News education reporter Julie Wootton and government reporter Nathan Brown are devoting six months to the special reporting project, led

by Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins.

SEE MORE: A special webpage showcases the project. Visit Magicvalley.com/ jerome to delve deeper into today’s coverage and to see the first two installments, which published Aug. 30 and Oct. 4.

INTERACT: From 11:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Nov. 10, Magicvalley.com will host a live chat, where you can ask questions for Brown and Wootton to answer, give your feedback and chat with other readers about the project. Participate in the 11:30 a.m. chat for free at the top of the Magicvalley.com homepage.

UP NEXT: Watch for the last installment of “El Nuevo Jerome” on Dec. 13 in the Times-News and Magicvalley.com.

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Sunday, November 8, 2015 • A7

Jobs Continued from A1

“As dairies get larger, they’ve gone from primarily using family labor to using family labor and hired labor,” he said.

In Idaho, Naerebout said, most of those hired workers are Hispanic and foreign-born.

Seventy-three percent of the state’s almost 562,000 milk cows are in south-central Idaho, according to an IDA report. The dairy cattle and milk production industry employs a little more than 5,000 people in the area, said Jan Roeser, regional economist with the Idaho Department of Labor.

The Roth family was in the dairy business before coming to this country; Mike Roth’s grandfather milked cows in the Swiss Alps before moving to the U.S. in the 1920s and opening a dairy in Vancouver, Wash.

In 1995, after seven decades of operating in Washington and Oregon, the Roths moved to Jerome. At the time, feed costs were lower in Idaho — a cow eats 55 to 60 Roth pounds a day, and feed is about half of the expense of running a dairy, Roth said. The many large cheese and milk processors in the Magic Valley that would take everything they could produce made it a good place to do business. Also, many Idaho lawmakers are farmers, and the state’s friendly political climate makes it easier to run a dairy here, he said.

The Roths — Mike’s siblings and some of his nieces and nephews are involved in the business, too — own three dairies. Si-Ellen is east of U.S. 93, a little north of Interstate 84, and is named after his parents, Simon and Mary Ellen.

The Roths also own the White Clover and Red Clover dairies, farther north on U.S. 93.

Roth said Si-Ellen Farms has grown from 25 hired workers 20 years ago to 175-200 workers at the peak during the harvest season; like many other dairy producers, the Roths grow some of their feed to keep costs down.

Most of the workers are Hispanic, although some Burmese refugees work there, and a few refugees from Sudan and Iraq.

“All in all, we have really devoted, family-oriented employees,” Roth said.

The average wage for farm, ranch and aquaculture workers in south-central Idaho in 2014 was $20,150 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, this classification includes trout hatchery workers and seasonal ranch hands, who generally make less than dairy workers, Roeser said. Also, she said, many dairies offer housing and other benefits, which aren’t reflected in the wages.

Some of Roth’s employees, for example, live in housing on the dairy, and they all have health insurance; with more than 50 employees, he falls under the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate.

Naerebout said $11 an hour or a bit more would be a typical starting wage, and some dairies average $17 an hour or more. It’s specialized, skilled work, he said, and many employees work with computers in some form.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS

Lilia Torres of Jerome pushes feed for cows at Jerome’s Si-Ellen Farms on Oct. 27. ‘All in all, we have really devoted, familyoriented employees,’ dairy owner Mike Roth said. get back in, and would ensure a labor supply for Dairy and other agricultural jobs – in which many of Jerome’s immigrants find work – pay lower the future. than average wages for south-central Idaho. Here are average local wages for selected farm “They’re a categories and for all south-central Idaho occupations. (A caveat: Many dairies provide housing – well-developed, and sometimes other living expenses such as groceries or cable television – so the wage doesn’t reflect we l l - t ra i n e d the full value of employee compensation.) labor force, and 2012 2014 they contribFarmworkers: farm, ranch and aquaculture animals $18,620 $20,150 ute to society,” he said.

Hand packers and packagers $23,770 $20,660 The dairy Graders and sorters: agricultural products $24,690 $25,710 industry in Idaho has lobFarming, fishing, and forestry occupations $26,700 $25,880 bied on federal i m m i g ra t i o n Agricultural equipment operators $27,380 $26,800 issues, includFarmworkers and laborers: crops, nursery and greenhouse $28,130 $26,890 ing backing the i m m i g ra t i o n All occupations $35,460 $36,370 reform bill that Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics passed the U.S. Senate in 2013 “It takes people (with knowl- he conceded that some of the esti- but never moved in the House. edge) to work with animals that mated 12 million undocumented In Boise, the industry and its weigh 1,400, 1,500 pounds,” immigrants living in this country supporters successfully fought he said. probably work at dairies. against a 2010 bill that would have Roeser said local dairies try to required employers to use the fed verify people’s identities, but they eral E-Verify system, which helps How many of the immi- can’t always screen out people businesses determine someone’s grants working at local dairies are with fake credentials. eligibility to work in the U.S. undocumented?

“We have people that have the  There’s no definitive way to proper identification,” Roth said. answer that. There’s no official “That’s all I can say about that.”

While the dairies are a source to document how many Naerebout said a lack of labor major Jerome employer, undocumented immigrants live has prevented some dairies from plenty of people of Latino descent here, and it’s not something expanding, due to a combination work in other sectors, and their employers are eager to talk about. of low local unemployment, a numbers are on the rise. Younger But the anecdotal evidence sug- decrease in the number of people people or those who were born gests it’s not uncommon for immigrating from Latin America here, especially, are more likely undocumented immigrants to and tightened border security. to be educated and to seek whitework in the Jerome area. The “It’s been increasingly more dif- collar careers.

Times-News interviewed first- ficult to fill positions,” Roth said.

Santiago Garcia, a Guadalajara generation Hispanic immigrants One of the dairy industry’s native who graduated from Jerome with a mix of legal statuses — longstanding complaints has been High School and spent his work some U.S. citizens, some here on the lack of a year-round visa pro- days running a taco truck before green cards, some who admit to gram for agricultural workers. The opening a downtown restaurant being undocumented.

H-2A farmworker visa program this summer, said that while many The Pew Research Center is seasonal; according to federal of his customers work at dairies, estimated in 2012 that 43 per- statistics, only 96 people came to others have jobs with local banks, cent of farmworkers in Idaho are work on farms in Jerome County the school district or the city. undocumented immigrants, and on H-2A visas this year, mostly in According to the federal Bureau that a third of the undocumented alfalfa, corn and sugar beets. of Labor Statistics’ 2014 numbers, immigrants in the state work in Naerebout said a year-round Latinos make up 16 percent of the visa program and a path to legal U.S. labor force. Compared with agriculture.

Naerebout of the Idaho Dairy- status for undocumented workers their numbers in the work force, men’s Association said that “all who are here would allow people to Latinos are over-represented in of our workers, to the best of our go home and visit without fear of agriculture, construction and knowledge, are legal workers,” but losing their jobs or being unable to certain manufacturing sectors,

Low Wages

but they’re well represented elsewhere, too. They make up 15 percent of the work force in real estate, 11.5 percent in education and health services and 11 percent in finance.

“There are a lot of strides that we’ve made,” said Esteban Martinez, a First Federal loan officer who works with many of the bank’s Spanish-speaking customers. Martinez worked at the bank’s Jerome branch for six years and now works in Kimberly.

Martinez is representative of the trend. The children of a migrant farmworker from Michoacan with a grade-school education, Martinez and several of his siblings are University of Idaho graduates.

Martinez said many of his customers are eager to learn English and become U.S. citizens, and they seem more focused on making sure their kids go to college, which wasn’t a priority for past generations. He suspects smartphones and social media are allowing people to feel like they can integrate and become Americans while staying connected to their cultural identities.

Roy Villasenor, employment and training regional manager for the Community Council of Idaho, has also noticed changes in attitudes toward education — for women, especially — since the mid-1990s. He said education wasn’t viewed as important, but more young Hispanic women are going to college as they see their brothers doing it and becoming successful as a result.

“They’re following that lead,” he said. “They lead by example.”

The Community Council of Idaho — which was founded as the Idaho Migrant Council in 1971 and changed its name more than a decade ago to make it clear that it serves non-Hispanics as well — offers help with education and training programs that can benefit farmworkers who want to transition to jobs in other sectors.

Please see JOBS, A8

Exploding Dairy Employment

Seasonal Work Visas

Jerome County employment in dairy cattle and milk production shot up in the past 15 years, from an annual average of 268 people in 1991 to 1,423 people in the first quarter of 2015. Jerome County’s dairy work force surpassed Gooding County’s in 2014 to retake the lead.

H-2A visas, which allow foreign nationals into the U.S. for seasonal agricultural work, account for a small portion of Jerome’s immigrant agricultural workers. For the 2015 growing season, 18 farms had a total of 96 workers with H-2A visas for job locations in Jerome, with wages of $10.69 or $11.14 an hour.

2,000

Share of south-central Idaho total, 2015

Jerome County Gooding County

60

Twin Falls County

Q1-2015 1,423

1,500

50

Q1-2015 1,207

Gooding County 24.1% Jerome County 28.4% Twin Falls County 22.1% Other 25.4%

Q1-2015 1,108

Share of statewide total, 2015

1,000

By far the largest H-2A employer — with 47 — was corn grower Driscoll Brothers.

40

30

20

500

10

Gooding County 17.9% Jerome County 21.1% Twin Falls County 16.4% Other 44.6% 1995

2000

2005

2010

2015 Source: Idaho Department of Labor

Alfalfa, Hay, and Straw

Corn

Potatoes

Sugar Beets

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

A8 • Sunday, November 8, 2015

Julie Wootton Reporter

I’m the Reporter Wandering Stoney Ridge

A

fter five months of visiting Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision for the “El Nuevo Jerome” project, it’s starting to feel like a second home.

I see the same residents mowing their front lawns or watching as their children play outside. I’ve noticed two dogs just off 21st Avenue East get into frequent barking matches. Vehicles parked in driveways are starting to look familiar, too, such as a dark purple minivan and the yellow sports car propped up without wheels.

I’ve also seen just how quickly the subdivision is growing. Homes are under construction one month; when I next visit Stoney Ridge, they’re for sale or someone has moved in.

Interpreters and I have walked up and down 21st and 22nd Avenues East in scorching 99-degree heat and in rain. We often get sprayed with water from sprinklers or barked at by small dogs in fenced yards.

Several volunteer interpreters have come to the neighborhood with me. They’ve been incredibly helpful in helping me connect with residents. And they provide insights on the culture and traditions of Hispanic residents.

Sometimes when Spanish-only residents answer their doors, I see the tension ease once the interpreter greets them.

Going into this project, I expected to have a difficult time finding people willing to share details about their lives. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how open many are to talking about their backgrounds, families, job goals and what they’d like to see change in Jerome. A couple of immigrants have been remarkably open about their undocumented status and the challenges that creates for working and buying a home.

Many Stoney Ridge neighbors work incredibly long hours — sometimes, 12-hour shifts six days a week — and, often, in physically demanding jobs. Many juggle those responsibilities with raising young children.

During our visits to the neighborhood, I’ve noticed other trends, too. Many houses have “no solicitation” signs on their front doors.

One resident told me the neighborhood gets bombarded with salespeople and church missionaries.

As a result, many residents don’t answer their doors.

One house on 21st Avenue East has a particularly entertaining sign on the front door, written in both English and Spanish. The family doesn’t want to buy anything and is already committed to its religious beliefs, the sign says. It’s written in a sarcastic, humorous tone.

Sometimes, the interpreter and I know someone is home, but nobody answers the door. We can hear music or a television show blaring inside, people walking on hardwood floors or someone working inside the garage.

Once, volunteer interpreter Deyanira Escalona and I watched as a boy peered out the window at us. We tried to talk to him through the closed window and used hand motions to ask him to get his parents. It didn’t work.

Still, many neighbors invited us into their homes or their open garages.

Another interesting discovery: Morning isn’t a good time to ring doorbells. That’s because quite a few people work overnight shifts and sleep during the day. One summer morning, children at several houses answered the door wearing their pajamas and rubbing their eyes. Their parents were sleeping.

Late afternoon and early evening — from 4 p.m. onward — tends to be when we have the most success.

We’ve interrupted sit-down family dinners and outdoor gatherings of neighbors watching their children play.

Nobody betrayed annoyance.

Statistics and officials tell part of the story of Jerome’s new reality. But the time that Stoney Ridge neighbors spent talking with me gave insights on regular people’s everyday lives — an understanding our readers couldn’t have gained in any other way.

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS PHOTOS

Esteban Martinez, a First Federal loan officer, works in his Kimberly office Oct. 22. Martinez also works with Hispanic clients from the Jerome area.

Banks Work to Gain Immigrants’ Trust NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com

JEROME • Loan officer Esteban Martinez’s immigrant father is his biggest inspiration.

“He’s been able to conquer a lot of things I would probably never be able to conquer in my lifetime,” Esteban Martinez said.

A migrant worker with a grade-school education who left his home village in Michoacan to work in the cotton fields of Arizona, Martinez’s father came to Idaho on a whim with a friend and settled down in Murtaugh, marrying and raising six kids on a farmworker’s income.

Martinez and his siblings were the first generation of the family to go to college. Today, he is a loan officer at Twin Falls-based First Federal — in Jerome for six years, then in Kimberly for the past three.

Many first-generation immigrants have never had bank accounts, don’t have a credit history and don’t necessarily trust banks. In Jerome and the rest of Magic Valley, banks are working to capitalize on that market.

Martinez said his background makes him particularly suited to work with these customers and educate them about the American financial system and the benefits of opening a bank account. 

First Federal has several bilingual customer service employees and tries to have at least one Spanish-speaking employee on site at each branch. Martinez estimated that 50 to 60 percent of his customers are Hispanic, and many don’t speak English well.

Many are looking to buy their first house without a traditional credit history, or are opening a bank account for the first time.

“They don’t trust the banking system where they came from,” Martinez said.

That attitude, he said, is common among other immigrant groups, not just Hispanics; many people who came to Twin Falls through the College of Southern Idaho’s refugee program also prefer to keep their savings at home rather than in a bank.

Part of his job is to educate people on why their money is safer in a bank than under a mattress. He said he knows of a family who lost its life savings

Loan officer Esteban Martinez works with a loan document at First Federal. when its apartment burned in the downtown Jerome fire of May 2013.

How do you buy a house without a credit history? Martinez said First Federal helps people build one, such as having them bring in their rental history or utility bills for the past 12 months.

“We use those nontraditional methods to supplement that credit report,” he said.

This spring, First Federal joined many other banks with local branches that accept the Matricula Consular as identification to open a bank account.

The Matricula Consular is an ID card the Mexican government issues to Mexicans living outside the country, frequently used by undocumented immigrants who lack U.S.-issued paperwork.

This doesn’t change the requirements for a loan, though, Martinez said. Those requirements don’t include legal status in the U.S., but loan seekers using the Matricula Consular for ID still need to demonstrate the same credit history and ability to repay the loan as anyone else.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re following the same protocol with our loan products that we offer,” he said.

Bank President Alan Horner said First Federal decided to start accepting the Matricula Consular after the Mexican government “made some significant changes to it,” allowing the bank to “put a lot of confidence in that card.”

Specifically, Martinez said, Mexico added a chip that links to a Mexican security database, allowing the government to verify the bearer’s identity.

Jobs Continued from A7

The program is funded with federal grants and was designed to combat unemployment among migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Anyone who lives in a household where at least half the income comes from agriculture is eligible to benefit from the National Farmworker Jobs Program, even if he isn’t a farmworker himself, said Hugo Mendoza, employment and training counselor. People who work with agricultural products before they’re processed, such as some Lamb Weston and

Villasenor

Mendoza

Seneca Foods employees, are eligible too.

While participants come from many agricultural sectors, “lots of folks we help had been working in the dairies,” Mendoza said.

Villasenor estimated about 60 people in the Magic Valley benefit from the NFJP every year, half in the Twin Falls/Jerome

“It helped us change some of our policies and procedures that made it easier to transact business with the Hispanic community who had that card,” Horner said.

Canyon Financial, which opened an office on Jerome’s Lincoln Street South four years ago, is another financial company with many Spanish-speaking customers. “Se Habla Espanol” is written prominently on the office windows, and both employees in the Jerome office speak Spanish.

Canyon gives secured loans of $500 to $10,000 to people who have credit issues and struggle to get loans elsewhere.

“It’s been hard for a lot of people,” said Josefa Martinez, president of the Jerome branch, noting that a decline in the construction industry during the recession and higher interest rates led more people to seek the company’s loans.

Josefa Martinez, a Gooding native who has worked for Canyon for a decade and a half, estimated that about 90 percent of the branch’s customers can speak or at least understand English, although some prefer to do business in Spanish to make sure they understand everything completely. She said serving her Spanish-speaking customers isn’t any different than serving her English-speaking ones.

“Whoever comes in, we’ll help them,” she said.

to family back home. Data from Banco de Mexico, which tracks remittances by U.S. state of origin, shows $24.7 million in remittances sent from Idaho in the last quarter of 2014 and $40.6 million over the first half of 2015. This accounts for less than two-fifths of 1 percent of the total value of remittances sent from the U.S. to Mexico, according to Banco’s figures, with most of the remittances coming from big states with large Mexican-American populations such as California, New York and Texas.

A 2004 study by the research firm Benedixen and Amandi found Idaho residents sending $96 million a year, or $24 million a quarter, back to Latin American countries. The study also found that 65 percent of Idahoans who were born in Latin America send remittances home. Nationwide, 78 percent of remittances were sent via international money transfer companies and only 8 percent via banks or credit unions.

Horner said a lot of regulations surround international money transfers by banks, and a bank needs to be able to disclose to the sender all the fees that will be charged — which it can’t do because it doesn’t always know how much an intermediate financial institution in Mexico will charge before the transfer reaches its intended recipient.

“We don’t have a comfort level with that yet,” Horner said. 

Another financial service frequently used by some Mexican immigrants — although not one First Federal or Canyon Financial is involved in — is sending money

For loans, bank accounts and credit cards, First Federal tries to reach out to people by going to community events.

For example, First Federal had a booth with information in Spanish at radio station La Perrona’s anniversary party in Jerome in June. Esteban Martinez said the bank has a high share of the immigrant mortgage market, which he attributes, in part, to First Federal being local.

“They notice those things,” he said.

Esteban Martinez has been able to help his own family as well as his customers learn the ins and outs of the American banking system; he recently showed his father how to pay his bills online. The old man was amazed to see how to do it without a stamp or a check.

“A lot of it’s just education,” Esteban Martinez said.

area. The Council offers GED classes on-site, but everything else is outsourced. Many of the jobs program’s beneficiaries take vocational classes at the College of Southern Idaho. The Council’s task has gotten tougher, as college tuition costs have risen since the mid-1990s while the money it gets from the federal government has not.

Villasenor said many clients are the children of the young men who were migrant farmworkers working here illegally in the 1980s and brought their families after the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986 made them legal residents.

“That’s the people that we’re

really servicing,” he said.

Dairy farms, meanwhile, still need a labor supply.

Roth emphasized his commitment to his workers and said he has raised wages to keep up with the cost of supporting a family.

His employees, he said, seem better at saving money than native-born Americans.

“They come to this country and they’re hungry,” he said.

“They want a better life.”

Roth said year-round guest worker authorization would benefit not just dairies but all types of farming operations.

“It has to be Congress that can figure out some kind of a guest worker program.”



Sunday, November 8, 2015 • A9

T

he new face of Jerome is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the city’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, where many of the freshly built houses are occupied

by Jerome’s first-generation immigrants.

Along 21st and 22nd Avenues East, between Tiger Drive and Fillmore Street in northeast Jerome, most — but not all — of the residents are Hispanic.

When men work on a Ford in someone’s driveway or children play in front yard pools, they’re likely to speak Spanish.

You’ll meet the people of Stoney Ridge in four special stories this year. If you missed the first two installments on Aug. 30 and Oct. 4, catch up at Magicvalley.com/jerome.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS PHOTOS

MATTHEW GOOCH, TIMES-NEWS

Driver Ricardo Rivas, a resident of Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, talks to his supervisor before heading to a nearby dairy Oct. 27 at Glanbia’s dairy processing plant in Gooding. Rivas drives for 12-hour shifts around the Magic Valley.

Language, Legal Status Keep Immigrants in Demanding Jobs opened would be more family time,” Eudabe said.

That’s a typical sentiment in Stoney Ridge.

JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com

JEROME • Sergio Garcia leaves for his dairy job long before the sun comes up.

The undocumented immigrant living in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision has been a loader at a dairy near Shoshone more than 20 years. He works 12-hour shifts, starting at 5 a.m., six days a week.

S t i l l , G a rc i a s t r u g g l e s to pay the mortgage on his 1,408-square-foot home and sees no opportunity for higher pay or more family time. His future looks like his past: the dairy loading job.

“He’s been there his whole adult life,” his wife, Guadalupe Eudabe, said through an interpreter in late September.

Language barriers and legal status keep many of Stoney Ridge’s immigrants in dairy and agricultural jobs, where some employers are willing to hire undocumented workers. But long



Jerome driver Ricardo Rivas does the pre-check on his Glanbia truck before heading to a dairy. hours and low pay take a toll on family life.

Many residents in the neighborhood — along 21st and 22nd Avenues East — have young children and one-income households. That’s not unusual in Jerome, where a third of the city’s population is younger than

18 thanks to an influx of young Hispanic families.

Eudabe hardly sees her husband. If he had the chance to work at a different job, she said, his hours would improve. They’d go fishing as a family more often, a teen son said.

“The doors that would be

Around this neighborhood, you won’t meet many people working office hours.

Potato handler Jesus Ceballos was in his garage on 21st Avenue East with the overhead door open on a late-September afternoon. Ceballos — who’s originally from Michoacan, Mexico, but said he’s a U.S. citizen — moved to Jerome about seven years ago after living in Washington and Glenns Ferry.

He lives with his wife and his youngest son and works overnight shifts at Rite Stuff Foods in Jerome.

“We work too much, but they don’t pay much,” Ceballos said through an interpreter.

He didn’t want to name his wage. But in south-central Idaho, Please see IMMIGRANTS, A10

Irish or Mexican, Immigrants Cluster with People from Same Towns Nathan Brown Reporter

A

couple of years ago, I started to research my great-grandmother’s family. She never told my grandmother much, so I didn’t have much to go on other than that they were probably Scottish or ScotchIrish.

I traced her grandfather to Lisbon, N.Y., a tiny town across the St. Lawrence River from Canada that is named not after the Portuguese capital but after Lisburn, in Northern Ireland, where some of the early settlers were from. A while later, I found my great-great-greatgrandfather’s marriage certificate. He was from right outside Lisburn. Maybe he knew about Lisbon because other people from his town had moved there already. That explains why he might settle in a place in the middle of nowhere where your mustache freezes if you breathe on it.

I’d never thought about it before, but it makes perfect sense: Of course people move places where they already know someone, where they might have family who can give them a place to stay or help them get a job. Following that hunch, I

Neighbors Again This summer and fall, Times-News reporters interviewed many residents of Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, where Hispanics outnumber other neighbors. A trend emerged: Among those interviewed, all of the neighborhood’s first-generation Mexican immigrants came from a cluster of states along Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Jalisco

Marta Abalos

Michoacan

David Avila, Avelino Salinas, Faviola Jimenez, Jesus Cevallos

Colima

Josefina Cervantes, Guadalupe Eudabe

did a bit of Googling on another town where some of my father’s family had lived and quickly found a number of other families from the same area of County Down who settled there in the 1840s, too.

When colleague Julie Wootton and I started on the “El Nuevo Jerome” reporting project five months ago, I would ask the people we interviewed where in Mexico they were from.

I was curious if we would find a similar pattern, of people from the same area in their old country moving to the same place in their new one. As we talked to people in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, we quickly noticed that many were from Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Michoacan and Colima — the cluster of states west and northwest of Mexico City.

Having lunch with Father

Rob Irwin of St. Jerome Catholic Church, I mentioned we had met a lot of people from Michoacan. Irwin said that’s because Michoacan is a rural area, similar to Idaho in some ways, where many work in agriculture. People from Mexico City, he said, are more likely to go to big cities, while people from places like Michoacan are more likely to move to Idaho or places like it.

Esteban Martinez, a First Federal loan officer whose parents are from Michoacan, told me many of the people he knows are from Michoacan, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Zacatecas.

Martinez’s college roommate at the University of Idaho, who was from Washington state, turned out to have roots in the same small Michoacan town as his own father.

Martinez attributed much of the emigration from those areas to poverty, to violence by drug cartels and to people simply seeking more opportunities than they have in Mexico. Some of the people I’ve talked to in Jerome said their parents or husband or brother came here first. Others just said they came for work.

The details change with every generation and situation, but the overarching reason remains the same for this country’s immigrants: a better life than they could have had in their home countries.

Meet Lawrentino Garcia

L

awrentino Garcia was still wearing his Glanbia work shirt while mowing his front yard one mid-August evening.

Garcia, from Mexico, has lived in Jerome for seven years and shares his 22nd Avenue East home in Stoney Ridge with his wife and two children.

The family goes to Spanish dances at Radio Rondevoo in Twin Falls and enjoys spending time outside in Jerome.

“They put in a lot of parks here,” Garcia said through an interpreter.

Garcia said he feels connected with what’s happening in Jerome and talks with his neighbors often. The neighborhood is peaceful, and there aren’t any problems, he said. Police officers patrol the area at night.

It’s so safe, Garcia said, he sometimes leaves his keys in the car.

—Julie Wootton

Meet Esmeralda Gonzalez

I

n mid-August, stay-at-home mom Esmeralda Gonzalez and her husband, an insulation worker, were watering their front lawn on 22nd Avenue East as their young daughters played nearby.

The family moved into the neighborhood about seven years ago. At the time, many other homes in the Stoney Ridge subdivision hadn’t been constructed yet.

Gonzalez likes Stoney Ridge because it’s quiet. The family goes to neighbors’ houses for pool parties and for children to play. Most people they know in the neighborhood have children, ranging from newborns to 16-year-olds, Gonzalez said.

The family enjoys swimming and going to Jerome parks and to Skateland in Twin Falls.

—Julie Wootton

Meet Vanessa Diaz

S

tay-at-home mom Vanessa Diaz — a Jerome High School alumna — has lived in Jerome since she was 4 or 5.

Diaz’s husband works 12-hour shifts, six days a week, as a feeder at a dairy. The couple has two sons, ages 1 and 4.

Diaz and her family, who moved into the Stoney Ridge subdivision in December, enjoy spending time with neighbors, going to movies, traveling to Utah and spending time at their family members’ houses in Jerome.

One thing Diaz doesn’t like in her neighborhood: speeding drivers. She allows her children to play outside as long as she’s watching them. And despite a collision in September 2014 that killed a 2-year-old boy, she said, “I still see lots of little kids in the street.”

—Julie Wootton

A10 • Sunday, November 8, 2015

Immigrants Continued from A9

the typical entry wage for graders and sorters of agricultural products is $16,870 per year, and their average wage is $19,640, according to the Idaho Department of Labor’s 2014 Occupational Employment and Wage Survey.

Ceballos works five days a week, starting at 5 p.m. and getting off between 1 and 3 a.m. Around Stoney Ridge, work schedules like his explain why children answered reporters’ knocks on summer mornings while their parents slept.

A block away, onion packer Faviola Jimenez lives with her husband and two sons. The family came from Ucareo, a small town in Michoacan, two years ago and moved into its 21st Avenue East home in June.

All four were home one earlyOctober afternoon. In a living room displaying a statue of Mary, Jimenez sat next to her 8-yearold son, who helped translate and occasionally giggled nervously.

The door to his bedroom was open, displaying a Ninja Turtle poster and Spiderman curtains.

Jimenez’s shifts at Magic Valley Growers in Wendell are generally eight hours, but the schedule is unpredictable.

“Sometimes they call, sometimes they don’t,” she said through an interpreter. But she likes the flexibility.

Her husband, Raul Martinez, sat at the kitchen table. Nearby, his younger son played a game on an electronic tablet.

Martinez works at a dairy six days a week. His shifts are typically 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., he said, and he rises at 5 a.m. to get ready.

Another neighbor originally from Michoacan, David Avila, moved to Jerome four years ago from North Carolina. The undocumented immigrant works in the maternity area of a dairy, helping to deliver and feed calves. His 12-hour days start at 5 a.m., five days a week.

Other neighbors are also dairy or agricultural workers, including Ana Hurtado’s husband, who delivers milk.

Vanessa Diaz — a Jerome High School alumna — is a stay-athome mother whose husband works 12-hour shifts, six days a week, as a feeder at a dairy.

Neighbor Ricardo Rivas is a truck driver for Glanbia, driving for 12-hour shifts around the Magic Valley. He works for a few days and then has a couple off. 

For immigrants who are undocumented or don’t speak English, job options are limited.

And working conditions aren’t always ideal.

Ceballos — who’s in his 60s — works night shifts, but he’s running out of energy. And he says there’s no room for advancement.

Jimenez wants to see more ventilation in her workplace, and there are areas without heat.

The bathroom facilities aren’t adequate at Martinez’s dairy job, he said.

Garcia’s pay has improved because he has stayed at his job for years. But his wage is capped at $12 per hour, and he can’t work extra hours.

To supplement the family’s income, Eudabe runs a party planning business. During summer, she often has several events each weekend, such as birthday parties and weddings. But demand drops off in winter.

Their son Brayan Garcia, who started full-time at College of Southern Idaho this fall to study business administration, works at La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Twin Falls to pay for his tuition.

He’s managing to juggle work and classes.

“So far, the experience has been pretty good,” he said.

To save money, the 19-yearold lives with his parents in Stoney Ridge. His parents bought the home under a nephew’s name, which is on the mortgage documents.

“We send a check to him so he gets compensated for what he’s paid,” Eudabe said.

She and her husband are considering selling the house because the $1,200 monthly mortgage obligation is hard to pay. And they don’t have health insurance.

Eudabe had two surgeries, including one to remove her appendix at St. Luke’s Magic

FAR LEFT: Stoney Ridge resident Raul Martinez hugs son Raul Martinez Jimenez before leaving for work in early morning.

LEFT: Faviola Jimenez hands her husband, Raul Martinez, his lunch for the workday early Monday morning, Oct. 12, in Stoney Ridge. She’s an onion packer at Magic Valley Growers in Wendell, and he works at a dairy.

BELOW: Raul Martinez ties son Raul Martinez Jimenez’s shoes before leaving for work. Martinez works at a dairy six days a week, and he rises at 5 a.m. to get ready.

JOY PRUITT, PHOTOS FOR THE TIMES-NEWS‌

“The rule of thumb is we can’t seek medical services unless we can’t bear the pain.”

Guadalupe Eudabe, who has had two surgeries, including one to remove her appendix, at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

ABOVE: David Avila watches his niece (not shown) play at home Oct. 13 in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision. The undocumented immigrant starts his 12-hour shifts at a dairy at 5 a.m., five days a week.

LEFT: Avila watches niece Emily Hernandez, 5, draw in her notebook. Avila, a dairy worker, aspires to be a truck driver but lacks legal authorization to work in the U.S.

Valley Medical Center. She told the hospital she couldn’t pay more than $120 per month toward her bill.

“The rule of thumb is we can’t seek medical services unless we can’t bear the pain,” she said.

Eudabe said her husband is

doing what he must to put food on the table and provide for the family. So he stays at his dairy job.

“At the end of the day,” she said,

“he has no choice.”

Eudabe and her husband entered the U.S. undocumented two decades ago and haven’t gained legal standing. Sergio Garcia used networking to get his job, she said; his brother worked at the dairy. The couple wants to apply for citizenship, but Eudabe called it “impossible.”

The reason for her fear? The 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act imposes penalties on undocumented immigrants who want to re-enter the U.S. For those who stayed illegally from 180 days to a year, it bars re-entry for three years.

If they’ve been here longer than a year, they’re barred for 10 years.

Now, Eudabe and her husband hope to gain security through their children.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, established in 2012 through President Barack Obama’s executive order, defers prosecution for qualifying undocumented students, allowing them to remain in the U.S. while pursuing education. Deferred Action doesn’t provide a path to citizenship or give students legal immigration status.

Instead, it labels qualifying individuals as low-priority cases, preventing them from being deported for a period of two years. Students must apply for renewal.

In November 2014, Obama announced expansion of the DACA program, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Also, parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents can request deferred action and the ability to gain work authorization for three years. It’s open to those who have lived in the U.S. continuously since January 2010, and they must pass a background check.

Please see IMMIGRANTS, A11

Acknowledgement The Times-News thanks volunteer interpreters Raquel Arenz, Deyanira Escalona, Eduardo Maciel, Cesar Perez and Melyssa Perez, who assisted reporters with this project.

Sunday, November 8, 2015 • A11

“So far, the experience has been pretty good.”

Brayan Garcia, a full-time student at the College of Southern Idaho and employee at La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Twin Falls

Elko Weekend Flights Canceled over Missing Runway Markings ‌ L KO, N E V. ( A P ) E • Flights to and from Elko are on hold until Monday after an inspection found markings missing on about 1,000 feet of runway.‌ The FAA notified the Elko Regional Airport on Thursday that it had to close the runway. FAA Pacific division public affairs manager Ian Gregor said it’s a safety issue, and that regulations require airports to mark reconstructed runways, the Elko Daily Free Press reported.

Markings were obscured by a fog seal applied to the runway during reconstruction that Elko Regional Airport director Mark Gibbs said was approved and largely funded by the FAA. Gibbs said the FAA had ordered the airport

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌

College of Southern Idaho student Brayan Garcia, who works at La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant in Twin Falls to pay for his tuition, cleans and sets tables Oct. 17. His parents, both undocumented immigrants, bought their home in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision under a nephew’s name.

Immigrants Continued from A10

Eudabe wants more.

Idaho is home to a lot of undocumented workers who are doing milking and hard labor, she said, and those in power should create a pathway to permanent legalization. 

Some Stoney Ridge residents aspire to more comfortable jobs with better pay.

Dairies are “always hiring people,” Avila said

through an interpreter. He doesn’t like his job, but it’s a paycheck, and it’s a job he can get as an undocumented immigrant. But Avila wants to become a truck driver.

The problem? At Glanbia, for instance, potential hires — including applicants for truck driving jobs — are run through the federal government’s E-Verify system to make sure they have legal authorization to work in the United States.

Jimenez — who said she has a green card — isn’t dissatisfied with her onion job for now. But she wants

to learn English so she can get a better, less physical job eventually.

A Permanent Resident Card, also known as a green card, allows a noncitizen to live and work in the U.S. legally.

Some of Jimenez’s neighbors feel stuck in their jobs, but others have found better options.

Esmeralda Gonzalez — a stay-at-home mother and longtime Magic Valley resident who grew up in the U.S. — used to watch her husband work long hours at a dairy. Rigoberto Gonzalez, originally from

Michoacan, has been in Jerome for eight years after moving from California. He still speaks limited English but said he’s a U.S. citizen. So when a chance for shorter hours came, he could take it.

Now, he does insulation work in Twin Falls five days a week — a job he heard about through his wife’s brother. He helps his daughters with homework and spends holidays with his family — something he never could do before, Esmeralda Gonzalez said.

“He’s just here more.”

to inform airmen about irregular markings.

He said the airport plans to issue a formal complaint against the FAA. “We were not given an opportunity to provide any advanced warning (to passengers),” Gibbs said.

He said at no time during the three-day review did the inspector bring up the issue.

Gregor said the “inspector immediately informed the airport of his findings.”

SkyWest Airlines official Wes Horrocks says typically, two round trip flights run on weekdays and one is scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays.

“We’re working with Delta to make sure they’re contacting all those passengers to reschedule,” Horrocks said.

Man Takes Step in Vegas ‘Thunder From Down Under’ Plea Deal KEN RITTER Associated Press‌

‌ AS VEGAS • A man who L admitted firing a gun while trying to steal costumes and props from the “Thunder From Down Under” male revue on the Las Vegas Strip took another step Friday in a plea deal that is expected to get him up to 25 years in prison.‌ Joey Kadmiri waived a preliminary hearing in a separate felony domestic violence case and told a judge he’ll plead guilty Monday in state court to battery with use of a deadly weapon.

He had been accused of kidnapping, beating and confining a woman at gunpoint in a closet in November 2013.

Kadmiri, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday in Clark County District Court to felony weapon, battery and theft charges in the March 2014 backstage shooting at the Excalibur hotel-casino.

He admitted firing a .44-caliber handgun during a struggle with cast members of the Australian-themed men’s revue who found him backstage trying to steal items including thong underwear.

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Sunday, December 13, 2015 • A1 www.magicvalley.com • $3.00

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS PHOTOS

Student Ambrocio Perez writes down what’s on the board at his English as a Second Language class the evening of Nov. 24 in Jerome. Hispanic involvement is low in local politics, in the voting booth — and in free ESL classes.

Jerome Politics Hispanic Political Involvement Still Low Despite Growing Population NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com

JEROME Gabriella Gonzalez voted for the first time in her life last month, in a Jerome City Council election.

“I think, in my opinion, the people that are on the ballot are listeners,” she said.

Gonzalez, 25, who went to school in Jerome, started to pay more attention to the City Council after having a daughter.

She wants to see the city’s leaders make education a priority.

“I have a child,” she said. “Pretty much it’s the future ... that’s what I’m thinking of.”

Gonzalez was among just 12 percent of registered voters in Jerome who cast a ballot on a day when the city was picking two Council members and deciding whether to create a cemetery district.

Voter turnout in local elections is low among people from all backgrounds.

Turnout in Jerome County was just 14 percent in November. And even in state and national elections, turnout has been falling — staying below 50 percent in every gubernatorial race since 1994.

However, involvement is noticeably lower among Hispanics, and none of Jerome’s elected city or county officials come from Hispanic backgrounds.

Jerome isn’t unique in this — there are only a couple of Hispanic city council members in south-central Idaho. And most towns, including places like Rupert and Burley where the Hispanic share of the population is comparable to Jerome’s, don’t have any at the moment.

The Magic Valley has no stories like Wilder’s, the small rural-Idaho town that

First-time voter Gabriella Gonzalez talks about why she voted in Jerome’s municipal election Nov. 3.

More inside Column: A Night on Patrol in Jerome. Page A8 Immigrants Pin Hopes on Children’s Futures. Page A9 Free ESL Class Enrollment Lags Jerome’s Immigrant Influx. Page A10 Regional Numbers Show Changing Immigration Enforcement Priorities. Page A10

If You Do One Thing: Gooding Community Chorale and Orchestra perform “The Silence and the Sound” Christmas cantata at 4 p.m. at the Walker Center, 605 11th Ave. E, Gooding. Free.

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broke political barriers last month by electing its first fully Latino city council.

What’s at stake? Not just council seats.

If Hispanic people voted more, some say it could force Idaho politicians to look at immigration-related issues differently.  Jerome Mayor Dave Davis has seen little Hispanic interest in local politics.

Part of this, he said, is because many of Jerome’s Hispanic residents are not U.S. citizens. But even some Hispanic friends of his who are citizens aren’t particularly interested.

“Personally, I feel it’s going to take a couple gen- Davis erations for their kids and their grandkids getting up to the point of, ‘Hey, we want to be involved,’” he said.

Part of it, Davis suggested, could be the general lack of interest in local politics among people from all backgrounds.

A statewide poll done by Dan Jones and Associates a little before Election Day showed that three-quarters of Idaho adults have never thought about running for office and wouldn’t do it even if they did stop to think about it.

Davis himself didn’t do more than vote until he ran for mayor in 2013, during a turbulent time in city government. A banker by profession, Davis campaigned on cutting spending and keeping taxes down and beat out the incumbent and two challengers in a four-way field.

“It took something for me to get involved, and here I am,” he said.

Please see POLITICS, A8

Bridge F6 Crossword F5

Dear Abby F2 Jumble F7

Obituaries C7 Opinion C1

About this Project

Today’s stories are the last installment in “El Nuevo Jerome,” a four-part series exploring Jerome’s cultural, political and economic shifts as the city attracts a rapidly growing Hispanic population.

Times-News government reporter Brown Nathan Brown and education reporter Julie Wootton devoted six months to the special reporting project, led Wootton

by Enterprise Editor Virginia Hutchins.

SEE MORE: A special webpage showcases the project. Visit Magicvalley.com/ jerome to delve deeper into today’s coverage and to see the first three installments, which published Aug. 30, Oct. 4 and Nov. 8.

INTERACT: From 11:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Dec. 15, Magicvalley.com will host a live chat, where you can ask questions for Brown and Wootton to answer, give your feedback and chat with other readers about the project.

Participate in the 11:30 a.m. chat for free at the top of Magicvalley.com.

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A8 • Sunday, December 13, 2015

A Night on Patrol in Jerome about as comfortable as it sounds. Facing me, stuck to the back of the passenger seat, was a yellow frowning-face sticker with tears dripping from its eyes.

At least I could stretch my arms, which is probably more than the seat’s usual occupants can say.

Sgt. Dennis Clark, who set up the ride-along, had predicted it would be a slow night.

The first call was a noise complaint at the Northside Court Apartments: someone calling about a neighbor’s loud music.

Nash and I hung back in the parking lot — close enough to see what was happening, far enough back to be out of the way — as Noriega talked first to the complainant, then to the people playing the music. They agreed to keep a lid on it, and we were back in the car.

As we drove, we talked about which areas of town and which times of year keep the police busy. Noriega said summers can be busier, as events at the Jerome County Fairgrounds and elsewhere can lead to noise complaints and drinking-related problems like fights and

Nathan Brown Reporter

‌I

t was a cold Monday night in November, and the streets of Jerome were almost deserted when Times-News photographer Drew Nash and I arrived at the Jerome police station a little before 8 p.m. There, we met Officer Marcos Noriega, a 28-year-old with a short undercut — sides and back buzzed to the skin, top just long enough to comb — and a No-Shave November beard. ‌As one of the reporters working on “El Nuevo Jerome,” a Times-News series about the Hispanic community in Jerome, I wanted to ride along with the city’s only officer to speak fluent Spanish.

Noriega grew up in Wendell and has worked for the city of Jerome for seven years, spending a year and a half in code enforcement before becoming a police officer.

Nash got into the front seat of the Dodge Charger, and I settled in on the hard-plastic back seat,

Idaho Hispanics at the Polls Statewide estimates of voter registration and turnout from November 2014.

Percent of citizen population registered to vote: All: 60.7%

White, nonHispanic: 65.8

Hispanic, any race: 24%

Percent of citizen population who voted: All: 41.8%

White, nonHispanic: 45.8

Hispanic, any race: 17.6%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Hispanics Eligible to Vote Hispanic populations are growing rapidly in Jerome County and its largest city. The percentage of the Hispanic population eligible to vote is on the rise, as well, according to these five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

2005-2009

2009-2013

Jerome County Total Hispanic population

5,245 7,145 Citizen Hispanic population

2,915 4,200 Citizen Hispanic population 18 and older

1,005 1,605

Jerome City Total Hispanic population

2,460 3,955 Citizen Hispanic population

1,545 2,445 Citizen Hispanic population 18 and older

485 890 Source: U.S. Census Bureau’s American Communities Survey SUSAN WEBB, LEE ENTERPRISES

For six months, TimesNews photographers have documented Jerome’s big changes for the “El Nuevo Jerome” project. See all of the photos — including many previously unpublished shots — at Magicvalley.com.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Police officer Marcos Noriega performs a routine traffic stop the night of Nov. 23 in Jerome. drunken driving. This year was quieter in that regard than some past ones. It can be hard to predict, Noreiga said — sometimes a Friday night will be slow

and a Tuesday unexpectedly busy.

“Which is good,” he said.

“It keeps you on your toes.”

The few hours we spent with Noriega were fairly

quiet, most of the time occupied by patrolling and traffic stops for offenses such as speeding or having a headlight out.

Between calls, Noriega

drives all over town, following a general pattern as he hits residential neighborhoods, enforces traffic laws on the main streets and checks on businesses.

As he drove, he explained why he made a point of checking on certain places: This pharmacy or this storage company has been burglarized before; this store got broken into recently so he checks the plaza several times a night.

Noriega tries to check on the city’s businesses every night — almost all of which are closed during the night shift, except for a handful of bars and gas stations and big operations like Jerome Cheese.

“It kind of gives the business owners a little bit of peace of mind, knowing that we’re out here,” he said.

As we drove around a subdivision of newer duplexes east of Tiger Drive, I asked Noriega about his role as the only officer to speak fluent Spanish. Noriega’s parents are from San Pedro de la Cueva, in Sonora, Mexico, and came to the U.S. in the late 1970s. They lived in California for a few years before his father, a logger, came to Idaho and settled down in Wendell. Noriega and his brothers were born in America, and Noriega spoke mostly Spanish at home when he was young.

Please see BROWN, A9

Politics Continued from A1

Jennifer Martinez, organizing director for the Idaho Community Action Network and a Wendell native, said there are a number of reasons Latinos are less politically involved, and ICAN has been working on increasing their engagement. One reason: The Hispanic community is younger — the median age of Hispanics in Idaho in 2010 was 22.5, a full 12 years younger than the state median. Another part of it, she said, is basic education on the American political process, and on how you can actually exert some influence on policies and on your elected officials here.

“A lot of people are coming from countries that run very differently,” Martinez said.

The lack of Latino officials perpetuates itself, she said. When you don’t see people running for office who look like you or talk about issues you care about, you’re less likely to vote or run fo r o f f i ce .

And elected officials and politi- Martinez cal parties often reach out only during elections.

“There isn’t an ongoing effort every year to build that relationship and trust with the Latino community,” she said.

Joe Skaug, one of the losing candidates for Jerome mayor in 2013, talked about the need to do more to bring Hispanics into city government. Some of the 2015 City Council candidates talked about this as well as reaching out to the Hispanic business community downtown. Chris Barber, a former councilman who won back a Council seat in November, even suggested creating a Hispanic-themed district downtown similar to Boise’s Basque block.

On a state level, the 2014 campaign season did see efforts by some candidates to reach out to the Hispanic community specifically. Richard Stallings, a Democrat and former congressman who lost to U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, talked about immigration reform frequently on the campaign trail and made boosting Latino turnout part of his strategy. Stallings held a

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Gabriella Gonzalez votes Nov. 3 in Jerome. She was among just 12 percent of registered voters in Jerome who cast a ballot.

“There isn’t an ongoing effort every year to build that relationship and trust with the Latino community.”

Jennifer Martinez, organizing director for the Idaho Community Action Network

pro-immigration reform rally in Twin Falls and cut a radio ad in Spanish.  How would Idaho politics look different if m o re H i s panics voted?

Martinez said elected officials would have to approach Simpson some issues differently or spend more time on them. For example, Martinez doubts Idaho would have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administration’s executive order to end deportation for undocumented immigrants who came here as children (commonly called DREAMers) and their parents. A federal appeals court has put the rules on hold, and the issue may go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also, she said, Idaho’s congressional delegation would have to make immigration reform a bigger priority.

Simpson, who represents the Magic Valley, opposes mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and supports a reform plan that would allow people who are here illegally to stay and work, and to apply for citizenship if they want it without having to leave the country to do so. However, new House Speaker Paul Ryan has said Congress won’t take up immigration reform during the Obama administration, which puts off any action until 2017 at

the earliest if he sticks by this stance.

“I still believe that it’s something that we’ve got to do,” Simpson told the Times-News editorial board in November. “We need to do it sooner rather than later. And there’s a path forward that, I think, can work and can satisfy most people.”

U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, who represents the northern and western parts of the state, was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to work out an immigration reform deal in 2013, but he walked away from the negotiations and has since been a strong opponent of Obama’s executive actions.

Martinez believes he might have kept working on the issue if more Hispanic people voted and there were a greater risk of political consequences for inaction.

At the state level, Martinez said, issues such as letting DREAMers pay in-state tuition at state colleges (they have to pay out-of-state rates now) and letting undocumented immigrants get driver’s licenses would get more attention if Hispanic people were more involved.

About a dozen states issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, including three of Idaho’s neighbors — Nevada, Utah and Washington. ICAN lobbied for such a bill in Idaho during the 2015 session, talking to lawmakers and holding rallies. Supporters of such laws say they benefit everyone: Undocumented immigrants are driving

anyway, so letting them get licenses would make sure they know the rules of the road and can get insurance.

Jeremy Pittard, a Burley lawyer who has practiced immigration law for six years, said allowing undocumented immigrants to get licenses would help people “tremendously” and relieve a backlog in the court system, because many undocumented immigrants get arrested for driving without a license.

ICAN is still trying to get more support for the measure from both sides of the aisle. In the 2016 legislative session, it hopes at least to get a bill introduced.

“I feel that we haven’t shown our strength in numbers as Latinos,” Martinez said.

Opponents, though, counter that issuing driver’s licenses to undocum e n t e d immigrants rewards people who break the law Bedke and opens the gates to more document fraud. The chances of such a law passing in Idaho look slim at the moment.

House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, said a driver’s license can be used as a “stepping-stone document,” and he has always opposed the idea when it came before the Legislature.

“I’m not supportive of giving or issuing … any state-based documents to illegal immigrants, period,” Bedke said.

Sunday, December 13, 2015 • A9

‌T

he new face of Jerome is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the city’s Stoney Ridge subdivision, where many of the freshly built houses are occupied by Jerome’s first-generation immigrants.

Along 21st and 22nd Avenues East, between Tiger Drive and Fillmore Street in northeast Jerome, most — but not all — of the residents are Hispanic.

When men work MATTHEW GOOCH, TIMES-NEWS‌ on a Ford in someone’s driveway or children play in front yard pools, they’re likely to speak Spanish.

Times-News readers met the people of Stoney Ridge in four special stories this year. If you missed the first three installments on Aug. 30, Oct. 4 and Nov. 8, catch up at Magicvalley. com/jerome.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Marta Abalos plays Jenga Math with daughter Dana Gonzalez, 10, during the annual math night Nov. 18 at Horizon Elementary School in Jerome. Abalos says her children’s education is her priority, but not speaking fluent English holds her back from volunteering in their classrooms.

Meet Josefina Cervantes

Immigrants Pin Hopes on Children’s ‌O Futures, not on Learning English JULIE WOOTTON jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌J EROME • Marta Abalos volunteers to chaperon school trips for her two children, but not speaking English fluently holds her back from volunteering in classrooms and joining parent groups.‌ Abalos, from Guadalajara, Mexico, arrived in Jerome 11 years ago and lives in the city’s Stoney Ridge subdivision. Her priority, she said through an interpreter, is to make sure her children receive a good education. Daughter Dana is in fifth grade, and son Diego is in second grade.

Her goal? “That they will be someone in life,” such as a doctor or attorney.

She didn’t finish her own college degree. In Mexico, Abalos was studying tourism, but she moved to the U.S. to make money and never returned to school.

After years in Jerome, Abalos and other adult immigrants in Stoney Ridge have a vision of a better future. But often that vision centers on ensuring their children go to college — not on investing much in their own efforts to learn English.

The barriers to signing up for an English class?

Lack of time, some Jerome immigrants say. Busy work schedules. Fear.

Abalos and some of her neighbors attended classes but didn’t become fluent.

Others haven’t tried.  On a mid-November afternoon, Abalos was at her 21st Avenue East home with her children and a girl she baby-sits. The girls were eating after-school snacks while Abalos’ son, wearing a Ninja Turtle T-shirt, slid around on the kitchen floor in his socks.

Like many of her neighbors, Abalos wants to give her children a better life.

Brown

Continued from A8

He said speaking Spanish has been a major asset, one that comes in handy frequently as a police officer in Jerome.

“It’s an almost everyday occurrence,” he said. He often gets called by fellow Jerome officers — and occasionally by other local agencies — to interpret, especially in cases of a serious crime. Occasionally, he has to stay late or take calls outside of his regular shifts.

Noriega said his

Dana Gonzalez, 10, left, and brother Diego, 7, work on tablets while their mother, Marta Abalos, watches during math night at Horizon Elementary School. The family lives in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge subdivision.

But she’s unhappy with the education they receive in Jerome because it doesn’t include enough emphasis on respect. “Schools don’t focus on good manners,” she said. Abalos puts a lot of effort into teaching her children those traits at home, but they’re not reinforced at school.

Abalos knows she has something to learn, too. She wants to get more plugged into Jerome activities, but that language barrier stands in her way.

Her daughter becomes frustrated when Abalos asks her to translate, and Abalos believes it’s the responsibility of parents to learn English. She learned some in Mexico and has picked up words by listening to her children. But it’s not enough to carry on a conversation.

Years ago, Abalos went to English classes through a Catholic charity, but time was spent mostly on worksheets, she said. “It didn’t help me.”

Abalos knows English letters but didn’t get help with pronunciation. At

times, the two-hour classes were so boring that some people fell asleep.

Other immigrant adults i n t h e S to n e y R i d ge neighborhood tell similar stories.

Seven years ago, Josefina Cervantes and her husband went to a few English classes. They stopped because she was having trouble picking it up.

Her husband knew a little English when they lived in Mexico. “He can express himself good,” Cervantes said through an interpreter.

Sometimes, her husband studies an English instructional book they received at the class.

Some other Stoney Ridge residents haven’t attempted to learn English. Brayan Garcia, 19, said he hasn’t heard his parents talk about taking English classes. His parents, undocumented immigrants, have been in Jerome more than 20 years.

Down the street, Faviola Jimenez said through an interpreter that she’s looking for English classes that run every day — not just

twice a week, like the College of Southern Idaho’s free classes in Jerome.

S o fa r, s h e h a s n ’ t found anything.  In language learning, children often lead the way.

Rigoberto Gonzalez lives with his wife, Esmeralda, and three children on 22nd Avenue East. He said he’s a U.S. citizen but speaks limited English. His wife speaks both languages fluently.

One late-October afternoon, Rigoberto sat on the sofa surrounded by his young son, wearing a fleece onesie, and two daughters, eating after-school snacks.

Toys covered the living room floor.

The daughters know both English and Spanish already.

On school forms, there was only one line to list their oldest daughter’s native language, so the Gonzalezes wrote “Spanish.” But school staff discovered the girl did extremely well on an English language test.

Esmeralda told her husband they should have entered “English” instead.

Spanish helps everybody — the victims and witnesses who want to be sure they’re understood, and the police and prosecutors, so there won’t be any question about something being misunderstood if a case goes to court.

We made a turn into the Stoney Ridge subdivision, an area with many Hispanic families where my fellow reporter Julie Wootton, especially, has spent many hours as we worked on this series. Noriega said the neighborhood, at the edge of the city, is the

usual northerly limit of his patrol area. He likes driving around when the weather is nicer, because kids are often out playing.

“Always carry police stickers,” he said, holding up a stack. “They will bombard you (for) police stickers.”

As we made a left onto North Hayes and then another left, cruising slowly down 21st Avenue East, we talked about the case of Damian Garcia Eudabe, a 2-year-old boy who was hit by a truck and killed as he played outside on his street. Noriega, who acted as the interpreter

when Idaho State Police interviewed driver Bernave Avila-Romero, pointed out the spot where the boy was killed in September 2014.

It was right in front of Marta Abalos’ house. Abalos was the first woman Wootton and I interviewed when we started to visit the neighborhood this spring, and she told us her young children saw the accident.

When it was time for me to head back and start writing, Noriega dropped me off in the police station parking lot.

We shook hands, and he drove back into the night.

ne blustery afternoon in late October, Josefina Cervantes sat in her living room on 21st Avenue East, in Jerome’s Stoney Ridge neighborhood. Her 7-year-old son, Luis Francisco Capilla, was in his room down the hallway listening to a high-pitched Sesame Street song on a tablet.

What’s her vision for the future? “No se,” Cervantes said through an interpreter. I don’t know. But she wishes her family’s financial situation was better.

During warmer months, Cervantes’ husband, Victor Manuel Capilla, installs irrigation systems and does landscaping work in Sun Valley. During winter, he doesn’t have a job.

His employer sends him to Twin Falls to remove snow occasionally, but it’s not every day. To survive during the off-season, the family gets a loan from a bank and receives financial help from a son.

Capilla receives $300 per month in unemployment benefits. He can’t work more hours, Cervantes said, or he’d lose those benefits.

And word would get back to his manager if he worked somewhere else. “If the boss knows, he will fire him,” she said.

Fall and winter are difficult, Cervantes said. They buy the bare essentials at the

grocery store.

And Cervantes hasn’t seen her family in Mexico since she left Tecoman, on the Pacific Coast, 12 years ago. That led to depression, she said.

“It’s hard when you don’t have family.”

But she has made friends in Jerome, including a woman she calls a sister. They’re from the same region in Mexico. God gave her another sister, she said, and made her happy that way.

Cervantes has five children — three sons and two daughters.

Her oldest son is married and lives in Wendell with his wife and two children.

And Cervantes has a nephew in Twin Falls.

But several of her children are in Mexico.

Cervantes used her phone to pull up her second son’s Facebook profile. He lives in Colima and is married with two children.

Cervantes’ daughters are also in Mexico.

Here in the Magic Valley, she said, she’s extremely stressed about her 7-year-old son, who has a developmental disability.

She wonders who will take care of him when she dies.

The only word he can say is “Papa,” Cervantes said, and he’s receiving extra help at Horizon Elementary School.

He’s learning slowly and loves going to school. “He comes back happy.”

—Julie Wootton

Acknowledgement

The Times-News thanks volunteer interpreters Raquel Arenz, Deyanira Escalona, Eduardo Maciel, Cesar Perez and Melyssa Perez, who assisted reporters with this project.

Police officer Marcos Noriega responds to a noise complaint at Northside Court Apartments on Nov. 23 in Jerome.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

A10 • Sunday, December 13, 2015

Numbers Show Changing Enforcement Priorities NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com‌

‌J EROME • An undocumented immigrant in Jerome is less likely to be deported now than a few years ago — unless he commits a serious crime.‌ Regional immigration arrest and deportation order numbers show that the number of people being picked up and deported has fallen over the past couple of years as national directives to focus enforcement efforts on more serious or dangerous offenders have taken effect.

Idaho is under the jurisdiction of the immigration court in Portland, Ore. Both the hearings held in Boise and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement records of “interior removals” show the numbers have generally been falling.

The number of deportations ordered in Boise peaked at 376 in the 2006 fiscal year (federal fiscal years run from Oct. 1 of the year before to Sept. 30 of the current), but was down to 181 in 2013. Just 114 were ordered in 2014 and 69 in 2015.

ICE tracks deportations by region, not by state. The Salt Lake City field office, which covers Idaho, Montana, Utah and Nevada, had 6,023 removals in the 2012 fiscal year, falling to 3,868 in 2013; 1,769 in 2014; and 530 in the period from Oct. 1, 2014, to March 7, 2015, the last date for which numbers were available.

The number of removals that happen after someone is apprehended at a border has been rising since 2010, while “interior removals” have fallen during that time.

“Removals” counts only immigrants who go through a formal court process ending in a court order expelling them.

Until about midway through President George W. Bush’s second term, people caught at the border were more likely to be simply turned around without going to court, but in 2007 the share who were put through the “removal” process started to go up, part of a strategy to deter illegal immigration. As this rose, the share of less formal “returns” started to fall.

Both trends continued into the Obama administration, with the economic downturn leading to fewer people

trying to cross the border anyway and helping to fuel a further drop in returns.

Interior removals started to rise during the second half of the Bush administration and into President Barack Obama’s first term, peaked at 188,422 in the 2011 fiscal year, and then started to fall, to 102,224 in the 2014 fiscal year. Taken together, the deportation numbers have provided simultaneous fodder for Democrats seeking to defend the administration’s policies, for right-wing critics who accuse Obama of manipulating the data to make his policies look tougher than they are, and for immigrant rights advocates who say his deportation policies have been too harsh, some of whom dubbed him the “deporterin-chief” a few years ago due to the rise in removals.

The share of deportees who have been convicted of a crime has been rising since 2010, reaching 85 percent in 2014.

Whether a particular crime will get you deported, though, depends on the policy at the moment.  Jeremy Pittard is a Burley lawyer who used to be a Jerome County public defender and has practiced immigration law for six years. When Pittard first started practicing, ICE would go after people wh o we re charged with domestic battery, DUIs or even fail- Pittard ure to purchase a driver’s license.

Pittard said in November that ICE seemed to have narrowed down whom it pursues, and some local sheriffs told the Times-News in August 2014 that ICE wasn’t putting immigration holds on as many offenders as before. Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Capt. Doug Hughes said in November that not all undocumented immigrants who go through the jail end up in ICE’s custody. He estimated that ICE detains someone at the jail every other month.

“It all depends on their status, and … if they meet the requirements for deportation or not,” Hughes said.

Pittard said, though, that starting around October he

Immigration Cases People from Mexico account for well more than half of the immigration-related cases heard by federal immigration judges in Boise, and many of the cases involving non-Mexicans are people from other Latin American countries. Idaho falls under the jurisdiction of the Portland Immigration Court, part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Number of Deportations Ordered 400

Total

350

Mexico

300 250 200 150 100 50 0

2005

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

2011 2012

2013

2014 2015

Number of People Allowed to Stay 200 150

Total Mexico

100 50 0

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Pending Cases 800 700 600

Total Mexico

500 400 300 200 100 0

2005

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

2011 2012

2013

2014 2015

Note: The years shown are federal fiscal years, so “2015” means from Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015. The numbers do not reflect every immigration-related arrest or case that may have originated in Idaho during that time.

Source: Court records held by the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, released to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse after a Freedom of Information Act request SUSAN WEBB, LEE ENTERPRISES

and other immigration lawyers here and in Utah started to notice ICE was picking up people who had been convicted of DUI but had already paid their fines and finished their probation.

Local authorities notify the feds if an undocumented immigrant is arrested on a felony charge. And Jerome and other Magic Valley

counties comply with federal immigration holds — written requests to hold someone for an extra 48 hours after their release date while federal authorities decide whether to take them into custody for removal.

Immigration authorities visit the Jerome County Jail frequently and have a good relationship with the

county, Sheriff Doug McFall said in June.

“A lot of times, if an undocumented (person) is arrested and in jail, if they’re ready to bond out, the immig ra t i o n officers will even talk to them on the McFall phone for a few minutes and advise us if there’s a hold for them under their protocols, or advise us if they’re good to be released after they bond out,” McFall said.

With the exception of a few high-profile and controversial state laws — such as ones in Arizona and Alabama that required police to check people’s immigration status — local police in America generally don’t enforce immigration laws or arrest people for being in the country illegally, and Jerome is no exception.

Police Chief Dan Hall said his department coordinates with federal authorities if they are investigating a suspect who is in the country illegally, but Jerome police don’t ask about some- Hall one’s status unless they’re a suspect.

There are undocumented immigrants who live in Jerome, he said, and the police department needs to be able to engage with them and strike a balance: apprehending criminals without alienating people who might need help.

“Essentially, our general policy is, if a person comes to us, especially if they’ve come here seeking help or they’re a victim to a crime or a witness to a crime, we do not want to discourage them from working with the police,” Hall said. “However, if we have reason to believe a person has committed a serious crime or they are wanted for a serious crime … and they are not documented, then we will notify the proper authorities and try to assist them in identifying that person.”  W h a t h ap p e n s t o people who get picked up

by ICE? The court process works similarly to a normal

criminal case in that the defense attorney and prosecutor try to work out a deal, but the defense doesn’t have as many plays, Pittard said.

In the case of an undocumented immigrant, Pittard said, cancellation of removal is possible for people who have been here for at least 10 years, are of good moral character, have a relative who is here legally, don’t have any aggravated felony convictions, and can demonstrate extreme hardship if they were to be deported.

He gave an example of a case of his: A mother of five children was an undocumented immigrant who had been abused by her husband, and the husband was deported. The court closed the case against her and decided to let her try to get legal status through her children.

Pittard said the lack of options for many of his clients can make it a difficult area of law. “Immigration court is a very, very tough court to practice in.”

Pittard’s clients range from people who have been here for decades to ones who have been here just a few months.

“There’s people that are here, a lot of people (who are) just undocumented that came a long time ago,” he said. “I deal with people that have their green card (and) got into some trouble. Other people that have family back home, that are trying to help out their family back home.”

After ICE picks people up, they generally are detained temporarily in Idaho — locally, Pittard said, the M ini-Cassia Criminal Justice Center is the usual holding location — before being shipped to an ICE detention facility.

For arrests around here, it’s usually the detention facility in Spanish Fork, Utah.

Many undocumented immigrants, Pittard said, end up on ICE’s radar when they get pulled over for traffic infractions. Something as simple as having too much ice on your windshield can lead to an arrest if you don’t have a license or insurance. Drinking can also lead to trouble, when people drink and drive or when it leads to domestic disputes or unruly behavior.

If you drink and if you drive, Pittard tells his clients, do those separately.

Free ESL Class Enrollment Lags Jerome’s Immigrant Influx JULIE WOOTTON

How to Register

jwootton@magicvalley.com‌

‌JEROME • They’re free.

They come with free child care. And, to appeal to working folks, they’re in the evening.‌ But the College of Southern Idaho’s adult English classes for Spanish speakers have a lot of empty chairs in Jerome.

Enrollment hasn’t kept pace with the city’s rapidly growing population of Hispanic immigrants.

But that population boom is part of the explanation. Some Spanishspeaking immigrants don’t see learning English as a priority when offices hire bilingual employees, Mexican stores populate Lincoln Avenue and Mass is celebrated in Spanish.

“They can function pretty well without knowing English,” said Jennifer Hall, CSI’s adult basic education director.

Other barriers include a lack of transportation or infant care, and conflicting work schedules.

Even those who take the plunge and sign up for a three-month course might not stick with it. Attendance dwindles as each semester progresses.

“It always starts out strong,” Hall said. Typically, about 15 people register for

The College of Southern Idaho offers free English as a Second Language classes 6-9 p.m.

Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Jerome School District administration building, 125 Fourth Ave. W., Jerome.

There’s also a children’s program for 5- to 12-year-olds.

The next semester-long classes start Jan. 19. ESL students must register and take a placement test in advance.

Information: Anna, 208-324-5101.

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

English as a Second Language student Raquel Fernandez Hidalgo, left, looks at her book while firstyear teacher Samantha Fletcher asks the class questions the evening of Nov. 24 at the Jerome School District offices. each of CSI’s two classes in Jerome. But one evening in late November, after the weather turned cold, only a total of eight showed up.

Among them was Fabiola Rodriguez, who wants to learn English to better communicate with her daughter’s school. The Jerome woman spends six

hours a week learning how to read, write and speak the language.

“It’s more hard to speak, for me,” she said.

Though not numerous, the students are dedicated and committed to learning, instructor Samantha Fletcher said. Many are up early — perhaps 5 a.m. — to

work at dairies or agricultural jobs, and they have children to care for.

Their motivation? A desire to help children with their homework, get a better job or communicate with doctors.

“They really have a personal investment,” Fletcher said.

 CSI has offered free English as a Second Language classes — for those 16 and older — for more than a decade in Jerome. After signing up, students must take a placement test.

At its Twin Falls campus, the college offers four levels of ESL classes, with both

day and night sessions. At outreach sites — Jerome, Wendell, Burley, Rupert and Hailey — it offers two levels of classes. CSI will also try to get ESL classes up and running in Buhl this spring.

With only two classes in Jerome, students have a wide range of abilities.

“It’s like a one-room schoolhouse,” Hall said.

This school year, the program has a new funding source. As of July 1, classes are paid for through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Please see ESL, A11

Sunday, December 13, 2015 • A11

ESL Continued from A10

The Jerome School District uses grant money to provide a children’s program for 5- to 12-year-olds during nights when ESL classes are in session and encourages children to bring their homework to get extra help.  Six adults in the level-two class gathered on a Tuesday night in late November in an upstairs classroom at the Jerome School District office.

Sitting in yellow and orange plastic chairs, they practiced interviewing each other in English and answering questions in complete sentences. Occasionally, students had side conversations in Spanish.

The mood was lighthearted, with students and their instructor laughing frequently.

Members of the leveltwo class are “not quite beginners,” Fletcher said.

“They can read in English pretty well.”

They’re also working

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Erica Rogers, an English as a Second Language teacher, waits for students to arrive for class Nov. 24 in Jerome. on writing and vocabulary. Students spend three hours in class, with only one 15-minute break, twice a week.

This night, students answered food-related questions: Do you have

a guilty pleasure? What dishes from your country do you recommend? What was the last meal you cooked? Is anyone in your family a vegetarian?

Fletcher filled in her answers on a grid on a

whiteboard. Under guilty pleasure, she wrote “chocolate.” A few students nodded in agreement. Then she asked each student to explain his answers in English.

Hugo Urrutia said he

cooked steak recently but struggled to find the English word for “grill.” His classmates helped him out.

Then he asked Fletcher: “Do you like carnitas, teacher?”

What’s in it? Fletcher asked. Students described the ingredients, such as pork, paprika and ground cumin.

“I think I would like it very much,” she said.

One class member enjoys eating fish. Fletcher asked her what type of fish. When she looked confused, her classmates prompted, “¿Que tipo de marisco?”

Another explained that his favorite dish from Mexico is pancita, a soup made with beef stomach.  D u r i n g t h e d a y, Fletcher teaches fourth grade at Summit Elementary School. It’s her first year teaching ESL classes for CSI. She was looking for something new and fun and wanted to better connect with parents in Jerome.

Fletcher took two years of Spanish in high school and two years in college. And she has picked up a lot working in Jerome, interacting with

parents and listening to Spanish conversations.

Fletcher made a deal with her ESL students on the first day of class: She’d help them learn English if they’d teach her Spanish.

“They laugh at my Spanish,” she said.

At first, students didn’t ask many questions or engage in conversation.

After a while, Fletcher said, “they’ve gotten to trust me enough to open up.”

Students in her class have been in Jerome from a few months to more than a decade.

Urrutia has lived in Jerome for about seven years and has two children, ages 3 and 11.

He wants to learn English so he can communicate at the hospital and at work.

Learning English is a long, slow process, said classmate Camelia Contreras. “It’s hard.” But she makes it a priority to come to every class.

Hall stresses with the instructors that students need to be given something valuable every class.

Their time is precious, she said. “The students who are here really want to be here.”

said Mala, who asked that her last name not be used.

Ken relieved her stress and helped her stay composed in the courtroom.

“I felt way happier. I didn’t even really think about the case anymore. I was just having fun with this dog. And he was so funny and adorable,” she said. “He was always there, and he was giving me kisses all the time, and I got to play fetch with him. It just made the whole experience lighter and better.”

O’Neill-Stephens of the foundation.

The organization has developed working standards to ensure the dogs do not make a witness more sympathetic to a jury or create prejudice against a defendant.

Advocates have won six appellate court decisions validating the use of courthouse dogs, and more than 90 of the dogs are working around the U.S. That includes Ada County in Idaho and Kitsap, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston and Clark counties in Washington.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was the first in the nation to use a courthouse dog. Ellie, who spent 11 years helping thousands of children and adults in King County, died three weeks ago.

“Over the course of her career she helped thousands of people in drug court, juvenile detention, mental health court, in trials and forensic interviews,” O’Neill-Stephens said.

Ellie helped save taxpayers the expense of many trials because she put victims and witnesses at ease, helping them give fuller statements to investigators and prosecutors, she said.

Courthouse Dog Puts Vulnerable at Ease SCOTT MABEN The Spokesman-Review‌

‌ POKANE, WASH. (AP) • S A young mother sat before a judge in Sandpoint and gave a heart-wrenching statement about the sexual abuse of her 21-monthold daughter.‌ “I’m here today to see that man is put away behind bars for what he did to my baby girl,” she said.

T wo a t to r n e ys s a t between her and her exboyfriend, who was about to be sentenced to prison for lewd conduct with a minor.

Scenes like this are all too common in courtrooms. But on this day, for this nervous and devastated mom, there was something new.

At her side all morning was the reassuring presence of Ken, a retriever mix with a sweet face and a serene disposition. Waiting for her turn to speak, the woman sat in the gallery with friends at her side and Ken’s head resting in her lap. Then he lay at her feet as she described the pain and shattered trust the abuse had wrought.

It was the first time Ken had accompanied a person appearing before a judge in a Bonner County courtroom, but the 2 1/2-year-old dog had been preparing for it his

entire life.

Ken was trained by Canine Companions for Independence to provide emotional support to victims, witnesses and others in a judicial setting. He wears a Canine Companions vest when he’s working. And for a young dog who loves to run and play catch, Ken transforms into an affectionate old soul when he’s on duty.

“His behavior and temperament are what make him great as a facility dog, because he’s obviously very chill. He’s pretty relaxed,” said Peggy Frye, a Victim Witness Unit coordinator in the Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Ken joined the staff in August and works full days Monday through Friday. Frye is his primary handler, and he slumbers on a large bed in the corner of her office. Ken also lives with Frye, her husband, their three teenagers and “one grumpy cat right now,” she said. “Turbo is not a Ken fan. He’s slowly coming around.”

But Ken is a popular addition in the prosecutor’s office. His presence has lifted morale, Frye said.

“We’ve had some upsetting cases recently here.

And probably the one

thing that really carries us through is Ken,” she said.

“When we take a hit and we come back feeling defeated, Ken just doesn’t care. He wants to play ball. And he gets you out of your funk.”

Comfort for victims Ken’s primary role is to comfort crime victims and witnesses as they meet with attorneys and prepare to go into court. Eventually he is expected to accompany witnesses on the stand, too.

Studies have shown dogs like Ken can lower a person’s blood pressure and keep hormone levels in check, said Ellen O’NeillStephens, a retired deputy p rose c u t i n g a t to r n ey who started the nonprofit Courthouse Dogs Foundation in Bellevue, Washington, to promote use of these dogs in the legal system.

“The other things that we hear from a lot of victims and witnesses is that the dog makes them feel safe,” O’Neill-Stephens said.

“When you have high emotions that take over your body—fear, anxiety, anger—you’re less articulate. It impairs your ability to speak,” she said.

A special emphasis of

Ken’s calming effect will be abused children who struggle through a legal process that has them tell strangers, over and over, the bad things that have happened to them.

“We would like to have Ken brought in so he can be that constant face through it all. As the kid is meeting all these different strangers, Ken could walk him or her through that whole process and try to make it a little more comfortable for them,” she said.

In the first case Ken worked, he spent time with a family that was terrorized in an attempted home invasion robbery in October 2014.

The assailant, a convicted killer, broke into their waterfront house and attacked the father with bear repellent.

The victim, his wife and their daughter barricaded themselves in a bedroom, and the attacker fled.

The daughter, who now is 20 and attending college, said she was more angry than fearful when she faced the defendant in court in his September trial for aggravated battery and burglary.

“When I actually saw him, I felt so much anger that I never felt before. I wanted to see this guy dead, really. I was so angry and so upset,”

Use of dogs is growing “He’s just here to hand out love,” Frye said. “He doesn’t care who you are. He doesn’t care if you’re a defendant, a victim, a witness. He doesn’t care if you’re rich, poor, what clothes you have on.

He’s neutral.”

In addition, representatives of the Courthouse Dogs Foundation spent two days in Sandpoint to instruct the prosecutor’s staff, judges and attorneys in how Ken works and how to use him in the criminal justice system.

“When I first started this it was extremely difficult to convince people this wasn’t just some gimmick,” said

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