Posted by
arandomguy on Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:52:35 PM
Federal officials raided meatpacking plants in six states this week that ended up discovering 1200 illegal aliens in this country, and was the largest crackdown on illegal immigration in history. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that the investigation uncovered "a disturbing front" in the war on illegal immigration. It was discovered that many of the illegal immigrants were using stolen identities of U.S. citizens to obtain their jobs.
The raids were at Swift & Co. plants all over the country, and brought 1282 people under arrest, 1217 for immigration charges, and 65 for identity theft and other criminal charges. Investigation is also continuing into several groups that may have sold false identities to illegal immigrants looking to enter this country and find a job. The raid took place after a 10 month investigation into the meatpacking plant.
Here's the interesting part of the story. The feds informed Swift & Co. that they would be raiding their plants for "unauthorized workers" on December 4th, but the company appealed, complaining that there would be "substantial and irreparable injury" to its business. Furthermore, the company estimated that a raid would remove 40% of its 13,000 workers.
Is it just me, or does this look like a cover up by the company? If they estimated prior to the raid that 40% of its workforce would be removed if an illegal immigration raid were to take place, then doesn't this mean they knew 40% of its workforce was here illegally? And isn't knowingly aiding illegal immigrants, and knowingly hiring illegal aliens a federal offense?
I don't like to see businesses go under, but the need to secure the border is far more important because of the inherent security risk that open borders bring. If a few businesses that knowingly hire illegals have to go down, then they deserve it because there is no excuse for hiring illegal labor. If businesses stop hiring illegals, then there will be no incentive for the illegals to stay here or even come here in the first place.
The aftermath of the raid is not without protests. People holding signs that say "Don't Take My Parents At Christmas" began protesting outside one of the meatpacking plants almost immediately after the raid took place. Opponents of harsher immigration measures say the raids are heavy-handed and are breaking apart families.
The unions of course hate this measure, and are asking federal judges for injunctions to stop the raids. This is because unions are designed to keep workers poor. You'd think they'd be out for the AMERICAN worker's best interest, but seemingly they care about illegal labor too (which seems a bit counterintuitive to me).
These raids shouldn't take place once every 6 months to a year. These raids should be taking place on a weekly basis until all the illegal laborers are sent home packing. Factories across the south must be riddled with illegal labor (and increasingly, factories in the north - one of the raids was right here in Minnesota). Our government needs to make illegal aliens fear to come here - fear that they might be deported should they be caught, and the fear that they WILL be caught.