Under the old way of doing things, the workers, nearly all Guatemalans, would have been simply and swiftly deported. But in a twist of Dickensian cruelty, more than 260 were charged as serious criminals for using false Social Security numbers or residency papers, and most were sentenced to five months in prison.
What is worse, (court translator) Dr. Camayd-Freixas wrote, is that the system was clearly rigged for the wholesale imposition of mass guilt. He said the court-appointed lawyers had little time in the raids’ hectic aftermath to meet with the workers, many of whom ended up waiving their rights and seemed not to understand the complicated charges against them.
“Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10” [editorial, "The Shame of Postville, Iowa," New York Times, 2008.07.13
The Feds are making arrests of some low-level supervisors in the company as well. But wouldn't it be nice to see the owners of the corporation shackled together and paraded before a judge to take responsibility for their un-American business practices? Or maybe just treat the entire corporation as a person (just like the Supreme Court says it is) and put the entire corporation in jail... or at least revoke its charter.
I sure hope none of those stolen ITFNs (identity theft facilitation numbers) was mine.
ReplyDeleteIf so, I would be tempted to sue the corporation.
Perhaps there ought to be a law allowing for statutory damages for identity theft victims in such cases. Say, a hundred thousand dollars a pop, plus actual damages (identity repair costs, etc.)?
Did the corporation provide the false identities to these people??? The article didn't say that. Or did it? (it's been a long day..) If the company provided the documents so they could get cheap labor, then heck yes they should be paraded like they did with the illegals.
ReplyDeleteI had to sit on jury selection for a person that was an illegal. Personally I don't understand why we were even wasting tax payer dollars because either way, the guy was getting deported. The defense attorney told us not to worry about the outcome, but to focus on whether his client was guilty or innocent.
If someone wants to become a resident of the US, then do it the right way.
I can sympathize with illegal aliens. The desperate poverty they come from is enough to crush anyone.
ReplyDeleteHowever, companies that exploit these illegal aliens should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (and we should probably do a little law extending for good measure). The population they are exploiting has no legal recourse. Going to the authorities means automatic deportation. The true crime here lies with the exploiters, not the exploitees.
Deportation is fine, but why beat an already defenseless creature? Fine the exploiters into oblivion.
I agree, at the minimum the company should be forced to pay 10x the difference in pay between the illegals working there and what an American would have been getting (including the cost of health insurance and matching SS contributions etc) We could even make them pay it to their competitors in the area to compensate them for the unfair advantage.
ReplyDeleteThose involved in hiring them should be criminally prosecuted... and maybe deported for a year to the country of origin of some of the people they were taking advantage of. "You don't know how to speak Korean? That's too bad. Bye now!" That would be great.
The current system is so flawed that it needs a complete overhaul. I work for the Federal Government and I used to go into Agriprocessing plants that were filled with dozens of illegal immigrants and the group that I worked for within the federal government was powerless to do anything about it. These plants would run government supported contracts that required our inspection but the product was largely made by illegal immigrants. The managment thought it was funny that they kept getting by and never getting into any trouble. A rumor of a raid was put forth in the plant one day and the night shift consisting of 40 people 6 being natives 2 being legal spanish speaking workers and basically having the job of being a translators and the other 32 or so being illegals. Well I showed up to work the night shift that next night and 8 people were there. The raid never happened but out of the 32 who did not show up 20 of them never came back to work at the plant. I was away from the plant for a few weeks and when I returned those 20 open positions were filled with 4 natives and 16 questionable non english speaking workers. To this day I don't believe INS has ever raided the plant. This all took place in the State of Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteCloser to Madison my first job was for a local greenhouse company and they also employed illegals the owner actually brought in a trailer house for them to live in and even drove down to texas to hire 5 workers to come up and work. The going rate for them was 5 bucks per hour cash this was back in 1994 I learned what they were making after I had finished the season at the Green House. I being a high school student earned 4.25 per her hour when our paychecks did not bounce. So I can honestly say that I worked my first job for less what an Illegal Immigrant was making.
I don't the immigrants they are searching for a better life and most are very good workers and would make good honest citizens. I blame the companies and the management that knowingly break the law or simply accept false identification and look the other way. Until the fat cats are held responsible nothing will ever change.
They broke the law and stole identities from probably unknowing victims. They did commit crimes. The only thing is that we are biting off our nose to smite our face as we now have to pay for housing them for five months.
ReplyDeleteBuild a fence. Add border guards. Get rid of anchor baby law. Send all illegals back home immediately. Get rid of sanctuary cities. And yes, fine stiffly the employers. Make English the official language of the US (are you listening, Obama???)
But don't tell me that actually punishing lawbreakers is disgusting.
I have a relative in MN who works with ESL program. The kids have told my relative that they have known in advance of raids and the parents just don't show up at work that day, then go back the next. Wonderful! Doesn't seem like our gov't really wants to do anything about the problem.
ReplyDelete