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. 
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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…
Visit the Minuteman Project web site.
Related posts:
- Illegal Ingrates
- This Christian Isn’t “Torn” Over Illegals
- Herndon Applies for Immigration Enforcement Training
- My Kingdom for a Movie Ticket
- Should George Bush Be Impeached?
