Following the raid on illegal workers employed by one of the world’s largest meat processing companies, the apologists are coming out of the woodwork. The United Food and Commercial International Workers are preparing legal briefs to halt the arrests and are working to protect the illegal workers from prosecution. Families of the workers were protesting the ‘cruelty’ of making the arrest right before Christmas.
Well, forgive me if I don’t cry openly for people who have been living and working illegally in the US (and according to DHS have been, in many cases, stealing the identity of legal Americans to do so). Despite your beliefs about immigration reform, the current law is the current law. If you are here illegally, and we catch you, you go to jail and then back home. I don’t care if it’s Christmas, your birthday, or your anniversary.
The clergy have come out to complain as well.
“They are taking mothers and fathers and we’re really concerned about the children,” said the Rev. Clarence Sandoval of St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church in Logan, Utah. “I’m getting calls from mothers saying they don’t know where their husband was taken,” he said.
Well, she and her husband should have considered that possibility when he snuck into the country, took a job illegally, and possibly boosted the social security number of a dead man in order to violate our nation’s laws.
The problem with your argument is that you ignore the impact that these raids have on the communities in which they took place. In Worthington, MN, a rural town of 12,000 people, 2% of the town’s entire population went to jail as a result of the raid.
What’s interesting is that estimates are that about 10% of Worthington’s population are illegal. What happens to the economy of that town if you lock up all 10%? Or even half of the 10%?
You can read about Worthington in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune at http://www.startribune.com/462/story/874641.html.
I think the immigration issue is much more nuanced than your post allows.
I agree that the immigration issue is incredibly problematic. Unfortunately, we have two worlds in which we have to operate – the one that we have, and the one we’d like to see. In the world we’d like to see, there is a solution to immigration that both secures our borders and protects the American Dream.
In the world we have, there are laws that exist, and have existed, and the people involved here are violating the laws. If you believe that Congress enacts laws based on the will of the people, then you have to accept that the will of the people is to make such acts criminal (until that law changes).
That is especially true if, as the article suggests, the raids were conducted at least partially because of identity theft perpetrated against law abiding citizens in furtherance of criminal violations of our immigration laws.
If 10% of a town is living in violation of the law, and that fact is well known, it is absolutely inexcusable that it was allowed to get to that point.
Surely you do not believe that those who have been the victims of identity theft by someone wanting to stay in the country illegally should simply accept the crime against them because someone in Minnesota might be financially impacted if we round the criminals up and deport them. Right?
These raids indicate two things – first, our immigration system is totally broken down (which we all know) and second, people are willing to tolerate crime if it is advantageous to them to do so.
That says a lot about the “nuance” of human nature.
The system is horribly broken. It has been for years. We’ve (The USA) put economic expediency above dealing with the immigration issue for as long as I can remember. It’s been much easier to fill the jobs with immigrants regardless of legal status than it has been to come up with a coherent immigration policy.
We ought to be arresting those who steal the identity of others. That ought to be a huge law enforcement priority in this country. I have no argument with you there.
But I also don’t believe that we are going to arrest our way out of the illegal immigration problem. And if we are going to try to arrest our way out of this problem then we ought to have at least thought through the consequences for our communities.
If you take identity theft off the table and just look at the issue of illegal immigration then I’d offer you this analogy.
I break the law every day. Every single day I leave my house, get in my mini-van and drive at speeds that are consistently 5 to 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. Why don’t I drive faster? Because I know that there are very few places in this country where the cops will bust you for going just a little above the posted speed limit. The funny thing is that I’ve passed cops on the highway who were driving the 65 mph speed limit while I had my cruise control set at 72. They didn’t bust me!
I think it is foolish to expect that mass arrests and deportations of those who came here illegally but are otherwise living lawfully will do anyone any good. For now, I’m content letting those individuals continue to live their lives here.
I think Bush is close to right on this issue. Let’s hope he can sit down with Nancy Pelosi and get something done soon.
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On a completely different topic, I’m having dinner in Santa Fe Tuesday night. Do you have any good restaurant recommendations?
If you’re looking for a really nice restaurant, try Geronimo. It’s very good and upscale.
There are also very nice restaurants at the Eldorado Hotel (The Old House – 505-995-4530 for reservations) and the Inn of the Anasazi (Anasazi – (800) 688-8100 for reservations).
If you’re looking for really good food, but want something casual, there is a great barbeque place in Santa Fe called The Whole Hog. I highly recommend it as well.