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By Danielle Ameden, Daily News staff
GHS
Sun Feb 10, 2008, 12:13 AM EST

MILFORD - Everywhere from Boston to "Mexifornia," the story of Milford's illegal immigrant roofer has become a hot topic, and reportedly, a reason for Ecuadoreans to run from town.

Daniel Tacuri's criminal case has everyone - cops, legislators, immigration activists - buzzing about the 38 charges against him for harboring and employing illegal immigrants at his Same Day Roofing business.

"He becomes a bit of a poster child for illegal immigration," Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin said.

"This is a case of immigrants who were working to make ends meet who were exploited by an unscrupulous employer," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "I think it has been a stark reminder of how easily exploited immigrants are."

Tacuri, 32, was arrested on a criminal warrant, along with 14 other immigrants, during a December pre-dawn raid of his Jefferson Street home by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He recently pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail at a Rhode Island prison.

Since the story hit, many in the Ecuadorean community here have picked up and left Milford, officials say.

"They are very scared," said Beatriz Almeida Stein, Boston's Ecuadorean Consulate, describing how illegal Ecuadoreans here realize the danger of being picked up is real now, "not a fantasy."

"I think the number of vans have diminished some," O'Loughlin said of the vehicles of the trade for many illegal immigrants. "I think there's a clear sense of caution on the part of people in the Ecuadorean community."

In court, Tacuri's lawyers have painted the picture of a hard-working man reaching for the American dream, a churchgoer and father who is respected in his community.

"He came here as a refugee ... as did many of our founding Americans who came to this land in 1620," said Attorney Jeff Ross of Boston's Ross & Associates. "He came here to flee persecution in Ecuador and he got entangled in a series of bad advice."

People across the country have been following Tacuri's story through Web sites and message boards including alipac.us (Americans for Legal Immigration), immigrationwatchdog.com and El Mundo Boston.

"This guy was a slime ball," said North Carolina's William Gheen, president of ALIPAC. The site has chronicled Tacuri's legal fight as told through the media.

Posters from places like Valencia, California; Joliet, Illinois; Florida and "Mexifornia" mocked the plight of Tacuri's illegal immigrant wife Maria and their 4-year-old son Jonathan, who with other tenants, were booted from their unheated home that had no electricity or hot water.

"I am a roofer and I am sickened by the illegal aliens in my industry and it seems like everybody always wants to feel sorry for them," one ALIPAC poster wrote. "What about all the Americans that these people have displaced from their jobs and businesses?"

State Rep. John Fernandes, D-Milford, praises ICE's work to arrest Tacuri and the other illegal immigrants.

He compares the case and its attraction of attention to last year's New Bedford factory raid, when ICE agents captured 361 illegal immigrants.

"High profile enforcement actions always send a message, and that was the good part that came out of the New Bedford raid and that will be the good part that comes out of the Milford raid," Fernandes said. "I'm pleased that the federal government is taking the initiative to seek to enforce the law."

What makes this case interesting, Gheen said, is that this kind of enforcement "should be so common - what's going on here with this story."

Between Tacuri and his brother, Luis, who has reportedly gone home to Ecuador, "they become the poster boys of what immigration in the United States is - it's an open door," O'Loughlin said.

"I find it very interesting that these two young guys established such a business and ran it where they made a lot of money, a lot of money."

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