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A man has been decapitated in a horrific accident at a chicken processing factory in Melbourne, Australia. Mr Sarel Singh, 34, was killed instantly when he was sucked into a machine and decapitated in an incident that has now placed the entire poultry processing industry under review. The factory was already under investigation over claims of unlawful and unethical treatment of its majority migrant workforce, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Lateline programme reported. Mr Singh's brother, Harry, said that Sarel had migrated from India four years ago 'in the hope of finding a better life in Australia'. But Sarel had told...

Meg Whitman's former maid today was awarded $5,500 in back wages she claimed was owed to her from the former candidate for governor. Nicky Diaz Santillan and her celebrity attorney, Gloria Allred, met this morning at the California Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement in San Jose, seeking more than $10,000. She said she was owed the money for work she did beyond the 15 hours a week for which she was paid during the nine years she worked for Whitman. Santillan said she was asked to perform jobs, including running errands and grocery shopping, that fell outside of her...

An amateur cameraman claims he's got video proof that California Sen. Barbara Boxer's supporters enlisted day laborers to hold signs protesting her Republican opponent. Derek Broes, a supporter of GOP Senate nominee Carly Fiorina, has released a video he shot outside a Pasadena debate that showed two Spanish-speaking men holding a slapdash white sign accusing "corporate cash" of loving the Republican candidate. Though the audio is hard to hear, one of the men clearly says he did not make the sign -- another appears to say a "lady" was paying them to hold it.

For several years, Mexico has been solving their own unemployment problem by sending their jobless citizens to the United States. The result has been a low, steady rate of unemployment in Mexico since 2000. Of course, the unimpeded flow of cheap labor headed north, has had a disastrous effect on U.S. workers. Consider the following facts: -Between 1991-1999, Mexico had an average unemployment rate of 3.7 percent. Now, as economies around the world are falling apart and experiencing record joblessness, Mexico still has a relatively low unemployment rate of 5.5 percent (July 2010). -While the U.S. currently has an anemic...

Though some American firms are bringing overseas work back home, evidence is growing that companies are moving more jobs than ever to China and other countries — a trend that could exacerbate efforts to bring down the nation's stubbornly high unemployment rate. One sign of increased offshoring is the rising number of applications for federal Trade Adjustment Assistance, which usually goes to factory workers who lost their jobs because their work was sent overseas or was undercut by cheaper imports. For the six months that ended Sept. 30, workers at about 1,200 offices and plants nationwide were approved for federal...

The former housekeeper for Meg Whitman -- the Republican candidate for Governor of California -- is about to make "controversial and explosive allegations about her former employer," TMZ has learned. 092710_meg_whitman_getty We're told the housekeeper has lawyered up with none other than Gloria Allred. The housekeeper and Allred will hold a news conference today in Gloria's office at 11 AM PT, "to tell how she suffered as a long-time, Latina household employee in Meg Whitman's home. We're told the housekeeper will be filing a legal claim against Ms. Whitman. From what we're hearing, the disclosures could have a significant impact...

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says illegal immigrants do essential work in the U.S. and that he has firsthand knowledge of that — because they fix his house.A moderate Republican, Powell urged his party on Sunday to support immigration generally because those who come from abroad are, in his words, "what's keeping this country's lifeblood moving forward."Powell said a path to legal status should be offered to illegal immigrants because they do work that needs to get done.

WEST PALM BEACH — The national battle over the government's inability to stem the tide of illegal immigrants got personal Friday in a federal courtroom. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra bristled at the suggestion that the government's time would be better spent keeping illegal immigrants from entering the country than prosecuting a suburban West Palm Beach man for hiring them. Business people such as Mark David, Marra said, are a big part of the problem. "One of the reason they come is because people hire them," Marra said. "If people wouldn't hire them they wouldn't be coming in droves."...

WINNIE, TEXAS (WKZO) – Forty-two undocumented aliens, who had been working the oil spill clean up in Michigan, have been arrested after they were found inside a couple of buses parked behind a bank in Winnie Texas. The Buses had been chartered by Phillip Hallmark, the owner of Hallmark Industrial. About 40 others ran off and were not captured. Immigration agents took the 42 to holding cells for eventual deportation.

More than a week after a judge blocks parts of Arizona's immigration law, the executive director of a Georgia Latino group said if that law is passed in the peach state, the poultry industry would feel the fallout. Jerry Gonzalez with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials said anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of the workforce in the poultry industry is illegal. "If we were to remove 40 to 50 percent of the workforce, would our economy suffer," Gonzalez asked during WDUN's The Local Hour Friday morning. "The answer to that is yes." He said lawmakers need to...

SACRAMENTO, CA (KGO) -- A Sacramento woman says a tech support engineer in India managed to expose her secrets and make charges to her credit card after she called him with a desperate request. ... Shortly thereafter, 16 nude photographs appeared on a vulgar website created for the sole purpose of displaying her pictures. ... In conversations that became increasingly personal, the support technician offered to help Fitzgerald remove the offensive website and somehow convinced her to ship him a brand new Dell laptop so he could work on her case from his home in Mumbai.

PHOENIX (AP) - Sheriff's deputies raided two Sizzler steak house restaurants in Phoenix, arresting nine employees who are suspected of being illegal immigrants and using fraudulent documents to get jobs. The Saturday raids were part of an investigation into whether the operators of the two Sizzler locations broke a civil law by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

You have two families: “Joe Legal” and “Jose Illegal.” Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California. Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25 per hour with taxes deducted. Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15 cash “under the table.” Ready? Now pay attention…

Yes, we Jews unfortunately have our criminals. Yes, we Orthodox Jews unfortunately have our felons. We’re human, too. At middle age I have come to accept my limitations. Although I like to have an opinion on almost everything, I am conscious of the fact that I am not a legal scholar and do not understand all the complexities of the criminal case against Sholom Rubashkin, former CEO of America’s largest kosher meat plant, Agriprocessors of Postville, Iowa. But I am not a stupid man either. And I and a heck of a lot of other fairly intelligent and educated people...

One of the nation's biggest labor unions, a major backer of President Obama, is condemning his Department of Homeland Security's immigration enforcement practices, protesting the use of deportation quotas for agents and expanded workplace audits. Eliseo Medina, international executive vice president of Service Employees International Union, said SEIU members want DHS "to stop these crazy, irrational policies," while seeking to turn up pressure on Congress to take up overhaul legislation. SEIU is holding vigils and demonstrations Thursday in Oakland and Sacramento, Calif., and then in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Boston, New York City and Minneapolis Friday. Combined with...

19 Terrorists vs Millions of Illegal Aliens September 19, 2009 by DC Lee - A Woodward Report Columnist On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists murdered nearly three thousand in a quest to bring the United States to its knees. Today, however, million of illegal aliens are bringing American to its knees in a much different way. They are exploding spending in health care, welfare, education and if steps are not taken soon, they will bring the US economy to the brink of collapse. The United States was created with immigrants poured into a melting pot that made us the envy...

They're not just like the Irish--or the Italians or the Poles, for that matter. The large influx of Hispanic immigrants after 1965 represents a unique assimilation challenge for the United States. Many optimistic observers have assumed--incorrectly, it turns out--that Hispanic immigrants will follow the same economic trajectory European immigrants did in the early part of the last century. Many of those Europeans came to America with no money and few skills, but their status steadily improved. Their children outperformed them, and their children's children were often indistinguishable from the "founding stock." The speed of economic assimilation varied somewhat by ethnic...

('Cry me a river, illegals denied their RIGHTS!' alert!) For decades, Huffines Plaza in Lewisville (TX) has been an unofficial gathering spot for day laborers. The shopping center, along Interstate 35E near State Highway 121, provides quick and easy access for employers who need an extra hand willing to give a day's work for a day's pay. While this informal employment system seems to have worked for years with few problems, day laborers no longer feel welcome at the plaza, where "no trespassing" signs have been posted recently and police have been asked to start enforcing trespassing laws.

...unlike in 2006, when Democratic and Republican reformers agreed on what was needed in an immigration law overhaul, this year there's a new fault line. It surfaced when Obama called lawmakers to the White House to discuss immigration...Obama had said little about what he wants in a bill -- in fact, he has been studiously vague. But McCain knew enough about what has (and has not) been said recently by immigration experts close to the White House and those pushing Obama to take up reform that he felt it necessary to launch a preemptive strike. This year, organized labor and...

-snip- Day laborer Wayne Coldiron, 41, turned himself in to Escambia County authorities and Leonard P. Gonzalez Jr., 35, was arrested in neighboring Santa Rosa County, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. Earlier Sunday, authorities charged Gonzalez's father, Leonard P. Gonzalez Sr., with evidence tampering. Police said the 56-year-old tried to paint over and hide damage on a red van that was spotted on surveillance video leaving the home where Byrd and Melanie Billings were shot to death Thursday. Eight of the couple's children were asleep in the house when the shootings took place. -snip-