Lip Service
Much has been said (around Minnesota) about the ICE raids at the Swift & Company meatpacking plant in Worthington. Leave it to our local papers of record though to focus their reporting on who the real victim is in all of this. Are the real victims the people whose identies were stolen? Or are they the workers who, after entering our country illegally, STOLE the identities of American citizens in order to stay here? You sure couldn't tell by reading the Pioneer Press.
"Federal officials say Tuesday's meatpacking plant raids in Minnesota and five other states highlight a growing problem of illegal workers buying or stealing identities to get jobs.
"This investigation has uncovered a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigrants," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Enforcement actions like this one protect the privacy rights of innocent Americans while striking a blow against illegal immigration."
But some immigration advocates said federal officials are using the identity theft issue as a scare tactic."
The reporting by both papers left one to ponder just who the bad guy in the drama were.
"Residents of this southwestern Minnesota community were coping Wednesday with the fear, uncertainty and anxiety created by a surprise raid the day before at Worthington's Swift & Co. pork-processing plant, where 230 people were detained for alleged immigration violations. Churches scrambled to find housing for children whose parents were swept up, a few businesses remained shuttered, and many people were too afraid to set foot outside their homes."
You would almost think that the ICE agents were the bad guys here.
"News of the raid, one of six carried out at Swift plants across the country, has rattled immigrant workers in food-processing plants across Minnesota. And nowhere is the impact more intense than along a 75-mile stretch of Hwy. 60.
That's where a half-dozen processing plants between Worthington and Madelia employ hundreds of immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic.
"They're afraid to go to the bank, to the stores," Amaya said. "They don't take their things. They just pick up and go, and it's hard, because they work really hard."
How difficult is it for our press to realize that the folks that ICE busted, BROKE THE LAW? The last time I looked, this was a nation of laws and if you broke the law you were supposed to go to jail.
At least the New York Times has the honesty to report the truth of the situation.
"The raids have led some people to heap scorn on Swift and, of course, on the illegal immigrants, particularly the dozens of detainees who have been charged with identity theft and other crimes. But doing so misses the bigger picture. Swift and its workers are merely Exhibit A in an immigration system that is failing in all of its parts.
It is a system that rewards illegality and pays lip service to lawfulness and order." (emphasis mine)
As I have stated in the past, I have worked with Mexican immigrants of legal and illegal status. My own ancestors are from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico so this whole story is very personal to me. What bothers me about the whole thing is how quickly certain factions (like the Star Tribune and the PiPress) gloss over the fact that the first act in this country that these immigrants took was to break our laws. I understand that for most of them, they did so under the most honorable of intentions (making a better life for themselves) but the law is the law and if we are to remain a nation of laws, then we must enforce the laws on the books, REGARDLESS OF HOW WE FEEL ABOUT THE LAW. If you feel that the law is wrong, then by all means, lobby your representative to get the law changed.
Until such time as our immigration laws are fixed (and I hope and pray that it comes soon) we can not complain when the federal government decides to make a show of enforcing it.
"Federal officials say Tuesday's meatpacking plant raids in Minnesota and five other states highlight a growing problem of illegal workers buying or stealing identities to get jobs.
"This investigation has uncovered a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigrants," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Enforcement actions like this one protect the privacy rights of innocent Americans while striking a blow against illegal immigration."
But some immigration advocates said federal officials are using the identity theft issue as a scare tactic."
The reporting by both papers left one to ponder just who the bad guy in the drama were.
"Residents of this southwestern Minnesota community were coping Wednesday with the fear, uncertainty and anxiety created by a surprise raid the day before at Worthington's Swift & Co. pork-processing plant, where 230 people were detained for alleged immigration violations. Churches scrambled to find housing for children whose parents were swept up, a few businesses remained shuttered, and many people were too afraid to set foot outside their homes."
You would almost think that the ICE agents were the bad guys here.
"News of the raid, one of six carried out at Swift plants across the country, has rattled immigrant workers in food-processing plants across Minnesota. And nowhere is the impact more intense than along a 75-mile stretch of Hwy. 60.
That's where a half-dozen processing plants between Worthington and Madelia employ hundreds of immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic.
"They're afraid to go to the bank, to the stores," Amaya said. "They don't take their things. They just pick up and go, and it's hard, because they work really hard."
How difficult is it for our press to realize that the folks that ICE busted, BROKE THE LAW? The last time I looked, this was a nation of laws and if you broke the law you were supposed to go to jail.
At least the New York Times has the honesty to report the truth of the situation.
"The raids have led some people to heap scorn on Swift and, of course, on the illegal immigrants, particularly the dozens of detainees who have been charged with identity theft and other crimes. But doing so misses the bigger picture. Swift and its workers are merely Exhibit A in an immigration system that is failing in all of its parts.
It is a system that rewards illegality and pays lip service to lawfulness and order." (emphasis mine)
As I have stated in the past, I have worked with Mexican immigrants of legal and illegal status. My own ancestors are from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico so this whole story is very personal to me. What bothers me about the whole thing is how quickly certain factions (like the Star Tribune and the PiPress) gloss over the fact that the first act in this country that these immigrants took was to break our laws. I understand that for most of them, they did so under the most honorable of intentions (making a better life for themselves) but the law is the law and if we are to remain a nation of laws, then we must enforce the laws on the books, REGARDLESS OF HOW WE FEEL ABOUT THE LAW. If you feel that the law is wrong, then by all means, lobby your representative to get the law changed.
Until such time as our immigration laws are fixed (and I hope and pray that it comes soon) we can not complain when the federal government decides to make a show of enforcing it.
posted by The Lady Logician at
8:17 PM
2 Comments:
Why are you whining about this article? It merely reports about the raid and its consequences. Of course when hundreds are rounded up in an immigration raid, there are going to be some bad consequences, including children who must be cared for because their parents were swept up in the raid.
By
Anonymous, at 1:54 PM
My, my Skipper.....
You really need to reread. People "afraid" to leave their homes because the big bad storm troopers are out to get them. How is that reporting on the facts?
By
The Lady Logician, at 8:27 PM
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