Posted on 05/18/2008 2:45:11 AM PDT by BunnySlippers
POSTVILLE, Iowa -- Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife Monday when he saw a helicopter circling overhead and immigration agents approaching the meatpacking plant where they both work. The couple hid for hours inside the plant before obtaining refuge in the pews and hall at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, where hundreds of other Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered, hoping to avoid arrest.
"I like my job. I like my work. I like it here in Iowa," said Escobedo, 38, an illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, who has raised his three children for 11 years in Postville. "Are they mad because I'm working?"
Monday's raid on the Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 immigrants were arrested and many held at a cattle exhibit hall, was the Bush administration's largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself "Hometown to the World." Half of the school system's 600 students were absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of Hispanic children, because their parents were arrested or in hiding.
According to an affidavit filed by an ICE agent in conjunction with this week's arrests, 76 percent of the 968 employees on the company's payroll over the last three months of 2007 used false or suspect Social Security numbers. The affidavit cited unnamed sources who alleged that some company supervisors employed 15-year-olds, helped cash checks for workers with fake documents, and pressured workers without documents to purchase vehicles and register them in other names.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The strategy is to cudgel business interests who aren't supporting the President's amnesty/open-borders plan, into falling into line by making present law an expensive concern.
Business is the "audience" the Administration works to please. Right now, the immigrant-importing, wage-breaking interests are disciplining the rest of the business community to get on board with The Program and help b*tch-slap the citizenry into accepting (effectively) unlimited immigration.
As Seven of Nine once said, "You will comply."
So then the majority were no arrested because they committed a crime by coming here without papers, our govt is more interested because these criminals dealt with the I.R.S. in an illegal manner.
The I.R.S. got Caopnne too.
Funny, Mexicans, the new WOPs.
Without papers.
Actually, in this case, over 90 percent were Guatemalans.
Well, it was a "meat packing plant."
Mark
Small wonder why that happened. Between hiring illegals and no doubt paying them less than the going wage, child labor law violations, and environmental violations detailed in the article, it is small wonder that this firm has been able to outperform its competitors. What of their rights?
Maybe the Bush administration has no political iron in this fire except a general directive from the president to finally enforce our laws and the ICE is understandably focusing on an egregious violator.
The political objective, however, is to raise a cry of pain in the business community for alley-in-free amnesty.
And last month, the company lost a federal appellate court battle over whether it could ignore a vote by workers at its Brooklyn distribution center to unionize, on grounds that those in favor were illegal immigrants and not entitled to federal labor protections.
Now, ain't that brazen?
The affidavit cited unnamed sources who alleged that some company supervisors employed 15-year-olds, helped cash checks for workers with fake documents, and pressured workers without documents to purchase vehicles and register them in other names.In addition, the affidavit alleged that company supervisors ignored a report of a methamphetamine drug lab operating in the plant. It also cited a case in which a supervisor blindfolded a Guatemalan worker and allegedly struck him with a meat hook, without serious injury.
If this doesn't call for a major investigation of the company, what would?
The union organizer did raise a valid point - with the illegals deported so are the witnesses against the supervisors.
Boy, I missed that ... about the unions.
Six year too late. The damage has been done. There is now marching in the streets. Anchor babies are everywhere.
I can only come to the conclusion that Bush's objective of a "new America" is well on its way and these raids will not hamper the goal.
.....<
| We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture. Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende. For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America. Our future cannot be separated from the future of Latin America. As I speak, we are celebrating the success of democracy in Mexico. George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000. |
Here is an excerpt of a good critique of that speech:
In equating our intimate historic bonds to our mother country and to Canada with our ties to Mexico, W. shows a staggering ignorance of the civilizational facts of life. The reason we are so close to Britain and Canada is that we share with them a common historical culture, language, literature, and legal system, as well as similar standards of behavior, expectations of public officials, and so on. My Bush Epiphany By Lawrence Auster
An illegal said: “Are they mad because I’m working?”
No, we’re mad that YOU’RE HERE ILLEGALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!
bttt
An accurate headline would have been:
"Illegal Aliens' Criminal Activities Jar Small Town"
No emotional BS, just the facts.
I live about an hour north and west of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Many small agricultural towns dot the map and each one is teaming with Guatemalans, Hondurans, Mexicans tec. If Ice were to show up in Indiantown, pahokee, Belle Glade, or any one of a dozen other little places they could gather the majority of folks living there and deport their illegal rear ends.
But hey ya can’t go against big agriculture business, citrus and sugar. And the politically connected Fanjul family.
Good Deal !
“So then the majority were no arrested because they committed a crime by coming here without papers, our govt is more interested because these criminals dealt with the I.R.S. in an illegal manner.”
There’s the key to dealing with the problem. A very simple tool to address illegal aliens would be to remove any tax deduction for wages paid to illegal workers. No company is going to risk losing their ability to deduct the wages for their workers on their taxes.
Illegal aliens aren’t here for the fine cuisine or to see the sights. They’re here for jobs. It’s an economic issue that needs to be addressed using economic tools.
Boo-friggin-hoo.
“”The problem is, who is going to do the work?” said Stephen G. Bloom, a University of Iowa journalism professor who wrote a 2000 book on the clash of cultures in Postville as Agriprocessors’ Lubavitch Jewish leaders gained influence in the mostly Lutheran town. “This is a no-win situation.””
Americans who wont let the company get away with violating the law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.