Secretary Chertoff, Call Off These Raids

Driven by the most savage talk radio and cable news anti-immigrant propaganda campaign in our nation's history, the Department of Homeland Security has unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on undocumented workers. In an effort not seen since the panic unleashed by the Great Depression, federal law enforcement has been targeting technically illegal workers who have been long tolerated in industries like meat packing, poultry processing and agriculture. In the terror created, fruit trees are being cut down and fields lie fallow, for want of traditional workers.

Many hundreds of otherwise law abiding, hard working, family men and women have been arrested in recent weeks under circumstances more appropriate to operations targeting al Qaeda. With noise and fury, these heavily armed and armored SWAT teams from ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are surrounding a particular plant, then with great quasi-military flourish sweeping in to arrest and handcuff the 'aliens', bring them en masse to a hearing, conviction and sentencing, all pending deportation. These completely overdone costume dramas are targeting cowering economic refugees just trying to feed their families. They would be ridiculed as overkill and posturing by any real soldier or cop.

And aside from every humanitarian concern, they violate ICE's own 2007 guidelines regarding the need to consult local social services and church officials, and negotiate a less violent surrender before raids of this magnitude are contemplated; given the tremendously unsettling effect the invasions have on the migrants, their millions of often U.S. citizen spouses and children, and the larger Latino community, which is the nation's largest minority and the victims of twice the hate crime this year from last.

The obscene spectacle is as pathetic and unnecessary as the raid on the Michael Bianco leather goods factory in New Bedford Massachusetts that separated nursing mothers from their children in March 2007, or the Pilgrims Pride Poultry plant raids this year incredibly staged during the pope's recent visit. Bizarrely, those raids were happening at the same moment the pope and president were emphasizing the need for immigration reform in a face-to-face Rose Garden meeting. And why the heavy hand? These are non-violent people. Their crime is almost invariably that they are here, their presence, not that they did anything wrong while they were here. Even minimal physical resistance to authority is rare. The federal government could have as easily sent in a couple of civilian garbed immigration officials and handed out summonses to report to a certain gathering spot to await detention and deportation following a hearing. The vast majority of those honest workers would have shown up without the pathetic show and without the terror gratuitously inflicted on these poor working families.

And what exactly did our heroes under the direction of Secretary Michael Chertoff accomplish? They shut down or severely crippled production at the food plants and fields and orchids, so the nation's food supply has been aversely affected. (The New Bedford plant was sewing knapsacks for our GI's). DHS/ICE has expended millions in executing these operations. They have denied the Social Security trust fund of the millions of dollars these workers were paying into accounts that they have no dream of ever redeeming, because they did not really exist. They have separated working parents from their children, many of whom are citizens. And they have denied the workers' commerce to their communities, many of which have been resurrected by the immigrant's presence in recent years.

I have previously written in His Panic, Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. that, "any Latino who votes for a Republican or a Democrat who opposes rational immigration reform is an Uncle Tom." In view of the pending Puerto Rico Democratic primary and the island commonwealth's rare opportunity to explain itself and amplify the growing importance in the larger nation's future of the Latino vote; it is time to say to all three candidates that our votes will go to the presidential aspirant who has the courage to defy the mob and call for an immediate cessation of ICE's draconian workplace campaign. Leaving a trail of broken hearts and disrupted communities is not the way to fix America's broken immigration system.

Comments

[scooperss]

I watched Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., hard at work recently on C-Span, showing on his charts how ******seven million U.S. citizens are presently unemployed. He also showed how presently there are only four million jobs available in the United States.***­**********­***
How can Democrats push for the amnesty of 20 million illegal immigrants, while providing us with the best evidence against it?
Illegal immigrants are the biggest contributors to unemployment in the United States, and they are forcing many U.S. citizens into early retirement. Two illegal immigrants are working for the price of one American and with no employee benefits. They help the employer in the present and future.
My school taxes have doubled because of the illegal immigrants’ many, many children in our public schools.
While our troops are bravely fighting for freedom in the Middle East, at home it appears freedom is free for illegal immigrants as they invade our nation.
The Democrats advocating for amnesty are saying that citizenship for illegal immigrants will cost them each a $5,000 fee.
In Pennsylvania we have veterans living underneath bridges and employed illegal immigrants living in the rental properties.
How can our government propose to give amnesty to 20 million low-wage-earning illegal immigrants, all of whom will then be eligible for free government welfare programs, when it cannot help just a few hundred thousand veterans, many of whom just need proper medical care or are truly homeless or unemployed?

[fu22yCWD]

"Illegal immigrants are the biggest contributors to unemployment in the United States" i disagree..­.OUTSOURCI­NG of jobs is the BIGGEST contirbutor to unemployment in the United States.

[alleycat5]

I don't think 20 million is the right figure. More like 12 million. Some reasonable fraction are children or stay-at-home moms.

How do you know that the Hispanics in any school are illegal? Many may have been born here. Property taxes pay for schools and this is part of the rent landlords charge tenants.

"In Pennsylvania we have veterans living underneath bridges and employed illegal immigrants living in the rental properties­."

Some have psyc. problems. I would think any strong American should be able to get a job an illegal gets because the boss then does not have to worry about being caught. In some TV documentaries, I've seen white farmers complain that whites don't last a day on the job - it is too strenuous in the hot sun

[moorfam]

What you would like to believe and what is actually going on is the problem. There is no benefit to hiring Americans, they expect a living wage. Given the choice they will hire cheap illegal immagrants every time. Bosses don't worry about being caught in a Republican administration. Our boyking doesn't care a lick about Americans.

[nexus1961]

ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!!
Any city official in a town that has homeless VETERANS, but is paying housing costs for
illegals should be arrested for dereliction of Duty....
WHEN, will people get pissed off enough to DEMAND care for OUR citizens, BEFORE
spending a DAMN DIME on illegals?

[melakfilms]

Geraldo, I've worked at an engineering company in Pacoima for 10 years and have seen the workforce slowly change from white to brown over the years. This company is a 50 million+ a year company. They have an engineering department and a giant metalworks plant. While those at the top of that company have reaped incredible benefits, most others there haven't seen a wage increase for the 10 years I've been there - including the engineers. I know and like most of the illegals that keep the metal shop running and I know for a fact that most of them NEVER see a raise unless mandated by the minimum wage laws. I know a man in the shop who's worked there for 17 years who makes $7.50 an hour. It's disgusting watching the four or five majors at the top become millionaires off the backs of those they employ illegally. Recently a new HR woman was hired and she immediately pointed out that most in the shop didn't have paperwork and were, in fact, illegal. After a meeting with the CFO, she was told if she didn't look the other way that SHE would be the one looking for work.

But the mindset that has prevailed in the shop is now infecting the engineering department as well with more and more mechanical engineers there who don't speak English. I know I'll be out soon and I'm hoping I can find work somewhere that actually obeys the laws of this country.

[fu22yCWD]

inform your HR friend that whistleblowers" are supposedly protected under the law. or, if you DO findn yourself on the wrong side of the switch to "brown workers", maybe you should ask her for her documentation and YOU present it to ICE.

[lastams]

The new “tough stance” on illegal workers appears to be less about reducing illegals as in making sure that these workers remain nice docile uncomplaining slaves. In a recent raid by ICE on a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa, 389 immigrants were arrested, yet not a single change was leveled against the employer, Agriprocessors, the nations largest processor of kosher beef.
An affidavit filed by an ICE agent cited unnamed sources who allege that some company supervisors employed 15-year-olds and regularly helped cash checks for workers with fake documents.
Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, charged that the immigration raid also disrupted a separate U.S. Labor Department investigation into alleged child labor law violations and other company abuses citing a case in which a supervisor allegedly blindfolded a Guatemalan worker and struck him with a meat hook.
“ICE may be deporting 390 witnesses to the labor investigation” Lauritsen added, which points out what may be the real reason behind the raid.
As a local grocer put it, “You take away a hundred people, a couple hundred more will come tomorrow.”
The next batch of illegals employed at Agriprocessors will have this fine example to remind them of what happens to troublemakers. Complain and you get deported. Unionize and you go to jail.

[jvarga]

I know it would be technically illegal for me to break into someones house and steal their tv. But mine is old and needs to be replaced, so would it be wrong for me to do that?

[alleycat5]

Yes. Thou shall not steal.

[nexus1961]

Unless you're an illegal.. then its OK, right?

[jpshotwheels]

No offense, but when you go on Fox News and back Fox up with their own Political Propaganda in supporting a President that put NAFTA on steroids, I have a problem, first of all with you.

NAFTA is a supposedly Free Trade Agreement, there is nothing FREE about it. It is set up to make millions/billions of dollars in profits for American companies, while putting companies/farmers out of business in other Countries. This doesn't happen just in Mexico, it is other Countries also. HAITI is a prime example, they aren't allowed to grow anything, now they are starving. Mexicans have been put out of business in there own Countries, so they flee to America to get jobs, to support their families. Who can blame them? They are just trying to take care of there families.

I don't particularly like all the illegal aliens in this Country, but at the same time, I understand why they are here. Its called Survival. I don't agree with ICE, in raiding these companies and taking people to jail, They should go after the Corporations. These are the laws that are in place, THE COMPANIES SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, not the people that work there.

Its horrifying what is happening in this Country, a major division between different races, it produces hatred, when our Country was established on FREEDOM. The Propaganda that is reported on our News Media everyday in order to escalate this Hatred is a CRIME.

[Lisette]

Thanks Geraldo
I agree with you

[farlep99]

I'm shocked at how misguided this post is. First, I'm sure we all agree that the real criminals in this situation are the owners/operators of the businesses. And I agree they should be dragged out in cuffs. But the federal government can't simply arrest them & turn a blind eye to hundreds of illegally employed aliens. Aliens would would come here to work illegally need to know that there is a risk involved. We are a nation of laws. If the people don't like the laws or feel they're unjust, then change the laws. Geraldo is making it sound like the ICE agents are the criminals. These are people serving their country in law enforcement. I know many of them personally and they're not the villains. There was nothing SWAT like about the raid. Yes the agents were armed, as they always should be, but no assault rifles or shotguns were used. Geraldo, please get the facts striaght before you start making people think it was like a SWAT team breaking down doors with assault weapons and black military garb. The agents were wearing clearly marked blue windbreakers. Their weapons were concealed, or on a belt with a badge like a uniformed police officer. You accuse some in TV and radio of propaganda, but you're doing the same thing. How about an honest debate about changing laws? Use your voice for something more constructive.

[MacTheBlogger]

"Technically Illegal", LOL, that's a new one.

Let's just not have laws. They're too hard.

[GnitenGoodLk]

The methods in dealing with it are traumatic but it won't stop until the root causes sending them over the border in droves like this are addressed. It's going to get worse as local police departments slowly gain authority to locate and arrest illegal immigrants. The below article shows police are already receiving training from ICE and are authorized to arrest on sight..

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-29-illegal-immigration_N.htm

This train left the station. The businesses using illegal immigrant labor will go unscathed this way. They won't be arrested at work anymore. This will insure we're putting on enough "show" the problem is getting dealt with, while insuring businesses continue to employ them "as long as they aren't caught on the street or at home" and keep wages depressed. Suing employers will not work, not a single one of them will dare start a lawsuit with threats of arrest at home hanging over their heads. Demand will not dry up this way.

Mexico HAS to deal with this. Families are getting torn apart and they need to set up a safety net for those returning so they do not try to cross anymore and safe passage for families to be reunited in Mexico.

[apoyo]

Another Trail of Tears.

[MufsMom]

Excellent post, Geraldo. The suffering caused by the "family values" crowd that sees these raids and the separation of families (because our laws offer them no legal way to remain) is incalculable. The damage to these communities, many that were dying a few years ago and have been revitalized by the Latino immigrants, is also incalculable. They are doing the work that first generation immigrants have traditionally done, working in the slaughter houses, the fields. Your Uncle Tom comment is also spot on. Keep fighting the good fight!

[MARTYB]

And i say to that, so what ? They are here "illegally" the end of the conversation.

[Soule23]

Try putting yourself in their shoes for a moment.

[cheykutuo]

Thank you for writing a truly beautiful article, from your heart...an­d it seems you actually have one. Unlike so many who get on a band wagon and start shooting and forget there are real live people involved. It is a relief to know that someone is looking at the depth of the situation, at the suffering and struggle, and not just at the so called "problem" as spun by, oh, I don't know...say­, Lou Dobbs.

The problem lies within an horribly broken system that has forgotten its roots and its purpose and its people. It seems to have also lost its mind. I sincerely hope that change is really in the air, and that the future will be brighter for all. Citizens and immigrants alike.

[Utopia]

Ahh yes very poetic and moving, yet it missed something here people advocating a free pass for illegals do not want to answer. What about those that came legally who waited their turn, or are still waiting like a coworker's sister who has been on the list for 20 years. Next year she will be eligable to be processed for legal entry from the Phillipines. My wife gained here citizenship after 5 yrs and countless fees and expenses we paid. She and I had to await almost 2 years to get her sons here, but that's ok reward those who come in, insist on changing a culture of diversity, by insisting their own language replaces the native language. As children, did any of you get to attend a movie or fair line after everyone looked at you and cut in front of you? Do you tolerate this if it happens to your child? Why is it so easy to devalue the sacrifices made by legal immigrants for a group that sacrifices nothing but does sponge the resources from citizens.

The difference here is that those "first generation immigrants" came legally and fought to intigrate themselves into their new lives and homes. The immigrants you all paint as victims isolate because they know they are illegal, hence there is no motivation to "join" the culture/country they are emmigrating to. Ahh yes that's the American way.

[dadw5boys]

It Can't Happen Here is a semi-satirical political novel by Sinclair Lewis published in 1935 . It features newspaperman Doremus Jessup struggling against the fascist regime of President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, who resembles (to some extent) the flamboyantly dictatorial Huey Long of Louisiana and Gerald B. Winrod, the Kansas evangelist whose far-right views earned him the nickname "The Jayhawk Nazi". It serves as a warning that political movements akin to Nazism can come to power in countries such as the United States when people blindly support their leaders.

[dadw5boys]

The Native Americans have been telling White Immigrants and all other to leave for years.

Why is it only the White immigrants get to decide who stays???

Oh yeah they wrote a constitution. What id the Illegal write a constitution and make themselves citizens?

New Country = Freedomland. lol

[NABNYC]

As for the shortage of labor argument -- just another lie. I just read an article saying that agricultural workers' wages had been frozen at around $6.50/hour for 10 years now because of the glut of labor -- glut of labor created by unrestricted immigration from Mexico. Has anyone noticed fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields? No. That's because it's not happening. It is a lie right out of the Republican play-book to try to ram through a new immigration law allowing agri-business to bring in slave labor, organized by labor contractors, and force wages down even further. I'll bet a few of the boys at Fox News might have mentioned that.

And the other push is to get unlimited freedom for business to bring in workers from other countries regardless of the field. Teachers, cab drivers, lawyers, doctors, nurses -- business wants to bring in all imported labor on 6-12 year visas, throw Americans out of work, force wages down even more, boost profits for the CEOs.

Want to help the poor people of Mexico or any other country? Throwing Americans out of work, setting up slave-labor routes similar to the rum/slave/spices routes of old, turning third world people into widgets to be bought and sold on e-bay, letting the wealthiest take more and more while the rest get nothing, is not the way to accomplish this.

[GnitenGoodLk]

NABNYC, you're absolutely right.

Geraldo, I'm Latina, and I'm of the Cesar Chavez argument that illegal immigration needs to be stopped. I wouldn't be surprised if this results in Mexico losing it's border towns to the U.S. Would explain Blackwaters presence.

As for the hatemongering, the fascist tactics, all horrible. Cubans, Puerto Ricans, South Americans, all on the receiving end of ignorant hate comments and attacks, legal, hard working Latinos, Latinos with family in the military serving and dying for their country. We need to build alliances, open communication and sustainable markets so we do not end up any more isolated than we are. Russia, China, Europe, ALL building alliances with each other to weather the coming storms. They really don't like us right now, so it's in our best interests to help each other rise up and work together. Racism needs to stop. Dobbs et al are being irresponsible and are harming our nation by inciting animosity. Anyone who takes the word of a poor, uneducated migrant wanting to "get their lands back from the U.S." as a sentiment held by all Mexicans really needs to get better sources of information.

Something very big is happening, and it's causing governments all over the world to close ranks and guard resources. This is disastrous for open markets. If we're going to get through this, we have to work together. I wish I knew what was in store, because it looks very bad.

[dadw5boys]

Yeah all the copper, gold and other mineral the Amerrican business took out of Mexico years ago would have given these people good jobs if they had protected their natural resources back then.