No More Raid; Roaches Reportedly Happy
Last month I wrote about the federal government’s raid on Swift & Company, a meatpacking business that knowingly hires illegal aliens in violation of the law. It was showy theatrics that made for good photo ops.
The raid was the result of an identity fraud investigation, a new strategy in the “fight†to curb illegal “immigration.†The feds have decided, apparently, since they can’t round up and deport illegal aliens and penalize companies that hire them, going after select illegal aliens for identity theft is the next best thing.
Well, I can’t argue with that. Even if I did, the effort would be pointless. The United States is not interested in expelling its cheap labor force, an underclass that commits a disproportionate share of crimes and dicatates who can come and go in certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles County.
Having your identity stolen is unpleasant, I’m sure, and getting illegal aliens for identity fraud is killing two birds with one stone.
This morning I found out about a new program called “ICE (which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers” (IMAGE) via an Associated Press story. (Pet peeve: It’s bad form to use abbreviations and acronyms without writing out the entire name first, which the AP neglected to do.)
It seems the feds are “quietly†trying to “persuade†businesses that hire illegal aliens in violation of the law to “spare†themselves from “embarrassing federal raids†by cooperating and voluntarily handing over employee documents, including employees authorized to work in the U.S. An excerpt from the AP:
One business, Smithfield Packing Co., which operates the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse, in Tar Heel, N.C., has participated since June, with dramatic results. Twenty-one workers at the plant were arrested last week after the government scrutinized forms submitted by the company…ICE alerted Smithfield by e-mail of discrepancies in employees’ records. A company spokesman said 541 workers in the plant’s workforce of 5,000 are facing termination because of discrepancies on their job applications. Nearly half of Smithfield’s labor pool is Latino.
“This is terrible for everyone, us, the employees, their families,” said Dennis Pittman, a company spokesman. “It’s heart-wrenching. These are our better people. These are folks who have been with us seven, eight, nine years. They are good people.
First of all, I’m willing to wager that mostly all of Smithfield’s “Latino” employees are illegal aliens. Second, it cracks me up to hear people talk about how “heart-wrenching†it is that people who break the law are arrested for it and how sad it is for their families. Even more heart-wrenching is having your identity stolen and being taxed until your back breaks to bear the burden of illegal “immigration.â€
I’m just guessing…
[By the way, is the woman pictured above upset because her illegal alien husband was arrested or because an illegal alien stole her identity? We know the answer, but it's fun to play photo caption. 
]
We heard King George (Bush) say there are some jobs Americans won’t do. Apparently, some Americans have no problem working at meat-processing plants. The recent raids benefited black workers in several ways. From the Wall Street Journal:
[F]or local African-Americans, the dramatic appearance of federal agents presented an unexpected opportunity. Crider suddenly raised pay at the plant. An advertisement in the weekly Forest-Blade newspaper blared “Increased Wages” at Crider, starting at $7 to $9 an hour – more than a dollar above what the company had paid many immigrant workers. The company began offering free transportation from nearby towns and free rooms in a company-owned dormitory near to the plant. For the first time in years, local officials say, Crider aggressively sought workers from the area’s state-funded employment office – a key avenue for low-skilled workers to find jobs. Of 400 candidates sent to Crider – most of them black – the plant hired about 200.
Not only did Crider, hirer of illegal aliens, raise wages, but it went through the state employment office to hire… legal workers. It’s revolutionary! You don’t have to be an economist to know that illegal aliens suppress wages, and the group most harmed by their presence are lower-income blacks.
But it’s not a race issue. It’s about respect for rule of law and the right to pursue opportunity in your own country. When cheap labor and deference to foreigners, especially the ones who have no respect for the rule of law, take precedence over the rights of citizens, we all suffer, regardless of skin color.
Illegal alien blogging: Lonewacko, Diggers Realm, Beyond Borders Blog…
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Caption the woman in the pic:
Aye Carrumba… My burrito was in that bag they just confiscated…
La Shawn, do you that woman might be upset because the illegal alien that just totaled her car doesn’t have car insurance?
LaShawn,
There are people who benefit from the low cost of labor from illegals. Do you think the CEOs of companies that hire these illegals don’t get a bonus for keeping labor costs down? In general, the poor suffer and the rich benefit. Go figure!
I couldn’t agree more with what you wrote. I’ll admit that our immigration system needs an overhaul but you still play by the system.
If I went and moved into my neighbors house, it would be wrong. Why is this different?
Two things kill me about this – 1) Jobs that American’s won’t do. I don’t buy that line. Pay a real wage (and yes, the price of the item does go up so the consumer pays too). I worked at Burger King for $5 dollars an hour.
2) Flagging the Mexican flag (Really any other flag but you see the Mexican flag at the rallies)/wanting everyone to speak spanish. First, if you love Mexico so much – go back there and fix that country. Second, I believe everyone should learn the language of the country you live in – which is english here. We don’t put Korean, Chinese, or Russian on signs here. Why is spanish different? If I move to France, do I expect them to cater to my language or do I have to learn theirs? America is great because we are a mix of alot of cultures with one unity. It just seems than not wanting to learn English means you don’t want to be in that unity (and yes, I have friends from other countries that struggled but learned English)
This issue isn’t a race issue to me. America is a country of laws. People breaking the laws shouldn’t be rewarded.
I totally agree, LaShawn. However, I read the full Wall Street Journal article and I believe a lot of emphasis was put on the fact that the Blacks were very poor workers compared to the Latinos and it was basically a sob story for Smithfield in a pro-business publication.
Smithfield is still short workers and has had to go to Minn. and Wisc. to recruit from the Hmong population to come down to Smithfield to work. I say, good, at least they’re legal immigrants.
If they raided the crab picking houses on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, they would meet up with the same thing.
Mostly Black women picked crabs for years. Now they can’t get the work but illegal(?) immigrants do get the work.
Maybe the woman in the picture is upset because, as a legal citizen, she just realized that not only does she have to find a way to pay for her kids to go to college, she has to find a way to do it with the money she has left over AFTER she has paid her ‘fair share’ towards the college education of illegal aliens.
La Shawn:
In Texas, Illegals do NOT work for less than $ 8/ hour; in CA, it is $ 12/hour.
It is strictly myth that they work for “below market”. This IS their “merket”, controlled by an underground “union” – they are justly afraid for working for less.
This is still “below market” because employers and employees don’t pay taxes.
Then only people working for “minimum wage” are American youth. Mexicans don’t work for such low pay.
Frank;
One of the biggest myths of all time is the notion that even most illegals work for minimum wage. I interviewed 27 teams of workers and contractors in Austin in the last two years. The lowest wage that I found was $9 an hour and most contractors say that they cannot even get someone in their trucks for less than $10 an hour. Naturally, this money is all “tax exempt” so the American taxpayers are getting the short end of the proverbial stick in a big way.
Slightly off topic, but important:
The illegal alien who drunkenly crashed into the car of the mayor of Tampa, killing her driver, is finally going on trial.
But I had to read all the way to the bottom of the article (continued on Page 6) before finding a quick reference to the bad guy as an illegal alien. I guess the Tribune doesn’t want to appear biased against DRUNKEN ILLEGAL ALIENS who KILL people.
I’ve got a caption for you: “Fu**ing hell. Now I have to go back to Mexico.”
Hey LaShawn,
I appreciate your willingness to tackle this controversy head on. I know here in the East (North Carolina) we are becoming inundated with immigrants, of course there is a lot of farming here and that is where a lot of them find employment.
I really want to say two things on the subject, I have never been opposed to “Legal Immigration” If you want to come to this country contribute work and pay taxes that is great. One grip I have is that they come illegally work and then send their money back to where they came from tax free. In the mean time the tax payers are footing the bill for their health care and sending their children to school.
The second thing I am all for whatever measures the government takes to stymie this growing problem. I have two sons one 9 the other 6 months, indigenous Americans are already on their way to being a minority what kind of future waits for my children?
If it takes raids like the one on Smithfield’s plant to tackle the problem, then I say lets have more raids. It is time Americans stop sitting on their hands thinking the problem is going to go away.
Nicholas @ #4 and James @ #13, I couldn’t agree with you more.
Do you think it would work if the govt posed more serious consequences on those employers who hire illegals? Like a hefty fine for each one they hired. Do you think it would stop the practice or a least slow it down?
Alexander,
I believe it could have an impact on the situation, but it really might not. Take for instance another huge problem, drugs. There are tremendous penalties for drug users and pushers, but the problem remains.
I think tougher consequences would make employers think twice about hiring illegal immigrants here, but it very well could lead to those same companies moving their businesses out of the country.
I don’t believe there are any easy answers, but the down side to doing nothing will be losing the United States as we know it.
As an employer, I would welcome any enforcement actions against workplace illegals. I run a clean shop, with all employees’ legality checked and documented.
It makes me ill to see other businesses flaunting the law while the federal government does next to nothing about it.
Wink and nudge, plus a few theatrical arrests for the evening news, and that’s it.
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