BF2S Forums The Raid

Demonstrating the warped mentality of local officials, business owners and illegal immigrants. The reporting in this story is pretty sickening. The views of the local school principal are pretty sickening. The sweat shop meat plant is sickening. I shall quote the main outrages of the story and explain my beef to each point.

Summary:

Since the raid, revelations about unsafe working conditions at the plant have only served to solidify support for the detained workers and their families.

Last week, the Iowa Labor Commissioner's Office said an investigation had uncovered 57 cases of child labor law violations at the facility, which has also been cited for numerous safety and health violations. The claims have prompted debates among rabbis about kosher law's protections for food workers, and how Orthodox oversight officials should involve themselves.
Hasidic Jews, in traditional yarmulke, broad-brimmed hats, black pants and tzitzit(fringes visible under white shirts) bought the meat plant.


"Before, we tolerated everything they ( the Jews ) did to us at the plant. We worked very hard, but we lived free," said Fidelina, 37. "Now, we have no work. We are not free. And we have no idea what will happen to us."

The largest immigration raid in U.S. history. Listening to the local officials crying doom it is clear that ICE officials did the right thing when they raided Agriprocessors, the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant and Postville's biggest employer. They need to systematically conduct these raids on businesses and force compliance and arrest local politicians advertising sanctuary city policies.

For years, even decades, these Mexican and Guatemalan families had called Postville home. Here, in a place first settled by German and Norwegian Lutherans and Irish Catholics more than 150 years ago, Hispanic immigrants were raising children, buying houses, building businesses.

The main and obvious difference between these Hispanics and the Norwegian Lutherans and Irish Catholics of 150 years ago is that the Hispanics swim across the river, trek through the desert or crawl through tunnels. The folks of 150 years ago went through Ellis Island. They were checked for disease and more. Hispanics who come here and build businesses do so largely without the burden of business licenses, payroll taxes and the various insurances required by citizens. Whatever ' special ' programs put in place to facilitate these people trying to run businesses will be stepped around by a group of people conditioned to view Americas laws and regulations as something to be circumvented as matter of regular business policies.

It was as if a tornado had whipped through the town or a flood had swallowed up houses. A disaster. Man-made, but a disaster all the same. Three months after the raid, that's how many in Postville describe the events of May 12.

Lives disrupted. People pushed out of jobs and homes. Children separated from parents. Businesses verging towards collapse.

Cities everywhere should realize that when the value of various trades is devalued to the point that ONLY sweat shops can operate in town, all that will be left is the poor immigrant workers, and their lives will be turned around upside down if and when the law is enforced. Many here say that businesses hiring illegals should fail. I submit cities favoring illegal immigrants over citizens should and will fail.

"We've got a lot of people here who need help. We can't just throw them out on the street," said the silver-haired mayor. "They're our family. They've made their homes here, had jobs here, raised families here."

So the elected town leader says laws cannot be enforced because they are too used to breaking them. When leaders of cities publicly reject the law of the land can chaos and anarchy be far behind?

Postville has lost more than one-fourth of its pre-raid population of 2,300, including 389 Agriprocessors workers who were detained by immigration officials, and scores more who have fled or gone into hiding.

Shouldn't the headline be 25% of a small American town illegal aliens?

"A lot of good workers were taken away, a lot of good families are gone," said Kim Deering, 48, a lifelong Postville resident and owner of "Wishing Well," a downtown home decor and flower shop. "The community is drained, of our 'giving' energy, of wondering how long the new people will stay, if it will be a culture that fits into our community. We are grieving, scared, apprehensive."

The AP likely did not seek out the opinions of the meat packers who once made union wages at the plant who are now forced out of the area and scattered to the four winds by a influx of workers happy with slave labor conditions at 1/3 the pay and the greedy business owners content with ruining our nation to make a little more money.

And the pooooorrr single moms now facing an uncertain future;

They do not understand why some people disparage them as "illegals" or "criminals." They do not understand why federal officials are pressing criminal identity theft charges against many of the detained immigrants, who say they did not know they were buying stolen information.

"I wish people could put themselves in our situation for one moment. What would they do if they were poor, if they were in dire need? Wouldn't they risk coming here as well?" asked Maria Ruiz, whose 5-year-old son was born in this country. "I wish that the hearts of people with hearts of stone, of ice, the people of ICE, could be transformed into good hearts. We came here to work, not to do harm to anyone."

ICE officials defend the raid, saying the workers arrested were violating immigration laws and committing identity theft.

"They are serious offenses and we will not apologize for enforcing the nation's laws. If 305 U.S. citizens had committed identity theft and misuse of Social Security numbers, would people expect us to look the other way?"

It's obvious we need to mount a major ad campaign in Mexico informing them that we have laws and what they are. One quick way to scare the immigrants away is to lie and say our laws on immigration will be a mirror of Mexicos;  immigrants can't own property, they can't run a business and they will go to jail on felony charges if they are arrested.

Last week, the Iowa Labor Commissioner's Office said an investigation had uncovered 57 cases of child labor law violations at the facility, which has also been cited for numerous safety and health violations.

I for one would rather see a closed business than one exploiting children, and not obeying labor laws.

"What happened here is a microcosm of what's happening in the country," said Brian Gravel, principal of Postville's high school. "If nothing is done, there will be many many more Postvilles around the country, and that's not healthy for anyone."

Without Mexican and Guatemalan children, the 500-student Postville school district could lose a large chunk of its student body, and along with them, extra state funding for English Language Learners classes.

And there you have it; a school system hungry for these illegal immigrant children. Every head in a seat equals more tax money. Even if the children of citizens become dumb because the schools spend too much time teaching the anchor babies English. And it's not even a good investment because about 75% of the children of illegal aliens do not finish high school. One of many sources on that.