Immigration Raids: The Day After at School

[pstans]

I am a 2nd grade teacher in Marshalltown, Iowa. On Tuesday, Immigration agents raided the local Swift plant and took 4 bus loads of workers away.

Yesterday at school, I had 2 Hispanic students pulled out of class early. There was one Hispanic student who was still waiting to be picked up at 5:00 when I left.

This morning one of my students, who left early, came up to me and told me that he had to leave because the police came to take his dad to jail. He said his dad was hiding and didn't have to go to jail. I asked if his dad was at home last night and he said he was.

Then I had another student tell me that his dad didn't have papers, but was at home and is ok. He then asked me why the police want them to go back to Mexico.

I am glad that both of these students are able to go home to a stable situation, at least for the shortwhile.

Seeing these young children try to grasp this situation makes me want to ask why do the police want them to go back to Mexico?

A local TV station has this story about what went on at one of the middle schools in town, which included this quote from the Principal...

Without question, Geoff, the No. 1 concern among our students is, 'Will the ICE folks be coming to school to check for students?' We can assure students that that will not be happening.

To read more about the affects of the immigration raid in Marshalltown, check out my blog at http://commoniowan.blogspot.com.

[Hippo_Tron]

1. Tell them their parents are taking good white peoples' jobs

This stuff is truly unbelievable. They could solve the immigration problem in five minutes if they wanted to. Simply fine the Swift plant and all of the other businesses that hire illegal immigratns a few million dollars.

But nope, they have to make it look like they're enforcing the law and they need to build a fence to keep the illegals out. What a crock of shit this whole thing is.

Of course nobody will re-negotiate the sacred NAFTA so that people in Mexico can get decent jobs in their own country. That might actually solve the problem.

[DU9598]

2. Or

Tell them that there are a lot of racist people who have no social conscience and no understanding of the meatpacking and agricultural economy.

I heard tonight that the detainees are being held at Camp Dodge, a military camp north of Des Moines, Iowa. They are being detained without the right to speak to immigration attorneys and even clergy members. Why deny them either?

[Strelnikov_]

6. ..

[pstans]

3. I agree to fine the companies

If you fine the company $25,000 for every illegal worker they hire, it won't take long for the company to change their ways.

[DemFromMem]

4. Let's just triple the price of food and kick out the illegals

Well, that's basically what you're saying. If you fined workers massive fees and actively enforced immigration laws across the board to the point where employers decided it was no longer worth it to hire undocumented immigrants, you would see a dramatic - DRAMATIC - increase in the price of food in this country and you would bring back hunger that we haven't seen here since the Great Depression. The solution is to have immigration policies that allow employers to bring in workers when they can demonstrate a need and can show they are paying the prevailing wage in the area.

[Strelnikov_]

7. ..

[PsN2Wind]

9. Citizens were doing these jobs in the 50s,60s and 70s.

and I'm guessing you were still able to afford to eat. If they paid "prevailing wage" they wouldn't need workers coming here illegally. Importing labor has much the effect of exporting jobs only with greater expense to the tax-payers.

[Strelnikov_]

10. A Labor Black Market

It appears to me that (uncontrolled) immigrant labor fills a void that it perpetuates, low wages that make the jobs undesirable due to an oversupply of labor, the classic supply/demand relationship. All the current immigration policy of this country does is create a black market for labor, exploiting those who are here illegally, and driving down the wages and working conditions so for legal residents and immigrants the job is a step backward.

[DemFromMem]

12. OK, so you're okay with people starving

Everyone wants to dramatically raise wages in agriculture, but no one wants to explain how you do this and keep food affordable. Explain how we avoid the laws of economics on this one. We have full employment in America. So the choice is

1. use foreign labor to fill the void
2. dramatically raise wages in agriculture and shift workers from other fields (leaving worker shortages in those fields)
3. import our food and make the dinner table the equivalent of our gas tank - a point of vulnerability for our nation's securities.

[Strelnikov_]

18. Glad You Are Upholding The Low Wage Conservative Position

We did not starve in the 60's and 70's when meat packers were paid a middle class wage.

Studies indicate that if agricultural workers were paid a living wage, food prices would increase 10% to 20%.

An increase in wages would result in investments in automation/efficiency in lieu of exploiting illegal immigrants.

Uncontrolled immigrant labor helps only one party, the richest 1%.

[DemFromMem]

11. Do the math

We have unemployment around 5% which basically means full employment. If we rely on American workers, that means workers will shift from other jobs to agriculture and food processing. TO get them to switch, you will have to dramatically raise wages over what they're making in their current jobs. By the way, you're wrong about citizens doing those jobs in the 50s and 60s. We had a guest worker program in those days. A crappy program with no worker protections, but a program nonetheless since we lacked enough US citizens in the hot post-war economy.

Every European country has a guest worker program and its about time we had a real one as well. The ostrich approach is not working in the US.

[Zookeeper]

14. Meat-packing jobs in the upper midwest...

were Union jobs held by American workers. It wasn't a pretty job, but there were plenty of citizens willing to do it when they were paid a livable wage.

The companies busted the Unions, so they could import low-wage workers.

[Hippo_Tron]

15. A symptom of union busting, not of illegal immigration

There are citizens who work for below poverty level wages too.

[Zookeeper]

16. Post #11 has a claim that American workers....

didn't do those jobs in the 50's and 60's. That's incorrect.

You seem to be reading something into my post that isn't there.

[conscious evolution]

27. 5% my ass

Those figures are an example of lying with statistics.In the 80's during reagons time the feds changed how they report unemployment rates to falsely portray how the economy is doing.
The true rate is more than double the official rate,at the least.

[Alcibiades]

24. I suppose that's why people were starving in America before

How many people does Japan let in to do agricultural work? Are their food prices so high that they are starving?

Food is so cheap in the US that prices could increase and people would still be able to pay their cable bills. Allowing so many workers in illegally is really about destroying the labor protections our parents and grandparents fought for. I agree we do need some reform to let in workers who are needed, and to let more Mexicans (in particular, and Central & South Americans in general) apply for citizenship, but this isn't an absolute necessity, economically, morally or socially. It's about profits.

[amandabeech]

8. Revoking Most Favored Nation trade status with China would help

a lot, too.

The Chinese will work for less than the Mexicans. Now, the Vietnamese will work for less than the Chinese. Look for corporate America to take an interest in Africa real soon.

[peacetalksforall]

5. For decades (a couple of generations) the entire country

looked away. Now, instead of looking at the corporations, bigotry and intolerance has everyone looking at the illegals and legals.

Tell the kids that we all think their parents don't work hard enough? Tell them that we all think their parents don't worry enough? Tell them that we all think their parents don't dream hard enough.

We ripped the carpet out from under their feet and the corporations don't get touched? Sounds like a public relations effort to satisfy the bigots and intolerant.

I say to them - don't eat any Mexican food or drink a Corona or Margarita. And don't approve of or drive on the super duper Mexican Highway being built by this administration. And look away if you suspect hypocrisy in all of this.

Save a fetus and destroy a family or separate children from their paretns. Yep - that's what saving a fetus is all about. Send the kids back and don't give another thought to the possibility that their kids could fill in for your kids in Iraq or Iran/Syria/Cuba/Venezuela/Bolivia.

Born in the U.S.A. - doesn't count any more - send em back to their parents birthplace.

[silverojo]

13. Just tell the kids the truth

Explain to them that their parents have done something illegal, and it's very sad that the children must suffer for the sins of the parents.

There are children of many other types of criminals--drug dealers and the like--and it's very sad when these children suffer. But that doesn't mean you can just let all the criminals go, for the sake of the children.

Encourage the children to ask their parents to enter the country legally, so that no more immigration officials would be hassling them.

My prayers are with the children.

[DU9598]

20. 60 of 1000

According to news reports this morning only 60 of the 1000+ detainees were actually complicite in any identity theft. What should we tell the kids of the other 940 detainees?

[Bridget Burke]

21. Tell them they & their parents are too poor & too brown

Tell them that the USA used to simply require health exams for immigrants. Afterward, they were legal; they could work, send their kids to school & earn citizenship. Just as my ancestors did. (Not so long ago--my father's parents came from East Galway.)

Tell them that the current bosses prefer workers who fear the law, so they can't organize & ask for better pay & better conditions. Immigration is still allowed, but it's expensive; & only certain people are wanted. No poor, brown folk need apply--unless they're from Cuba. A Guest Worker program would allow Mexicans to come here, work for miserable wages--thus keeping them down for everyone--live in prison-like conditions & go back when not wanted--that's the ticket!

Tell them that, even if they are allowed to stay, they will always be vulnerable to "rounding up" by immigration authorities. Were they born here? Do they speak perfect English? Tough. They'd better keep their passports handy at all times. (Although the Irish economy has improved, we've still got thousands of Illegal Irish Immigrants here. They face problems, but no "roundups.")
www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/story.tpl?inc=2004/10/07/news/51479.html

Finally, tell the kids that, even if they were Born in the USA, they might be shipped South; it happened before. Many immigrants who were sent back had broken no laws of the day; of course, their children went along, whether or not they spoke Spanish. This article is a good start; Depression Era repatriation is especially interesting.
www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/pqmyk.html

Tell them to pray to La Virgen. She has marched before The People before.

[lynne]

17. Illegal immigrants involved in Identity Theft -

- was the reason for the recent investigation and sting. Sorry - no sympathy for the parent here or for anyone involved in identity theft or other criminal behavior. It is unfortunate that the child is caught in the middle but children of all criminals are caught in the middle; illegal immigrant or not.

Hopefully the child will not unduly suffer from his parents criminal activity.

[pstans]

19. Only 2 people out of the 4 busloads here were charged with ID theft

Just 2 people out of the 4 busloads of people taken away in Marshalltown, IA were charged with ID theft.

[opihimoimoi]

22. Mikey Chertoff desperately needs some positive results/numbers...

so he does this crap...whadda guy....

It really looks like he HAD to SHOW he be doing SUMPthin....

So he makes a big deal about catching some Meat Packers??? Even Geraldo was fuming about this with O really...

[LanternWaste]

23. I guess I have a bias...

My suggestion would be to mention to them that there are a lot of individuals in this country who believe that imaginary red and blue lines on a map are more important than people.

I guess my bias is showing...

[pstans]

25. I like that one

I might have to borrow it.

[LanternWaste]

28. Preface of Victor Hugo's, 'Les Miserables'

I borrowed it myself from the Preface of Victor Hugo's, 'Les Miserables'. I've always though Dickens was the Classical Progressive, yet when I finally read Hugo last year, I found a new Icon for the Progressive movement.

If you've never read it, I highly recommend it for the Preface alone. Very thought provoking. Actually reading the novel (something I had to force myself to do since Hugo makes Joseph Conrad read like Dr. Seuss) was... eye-opening for me. His characters, in all stations of the class system had extremely in-depth conversations with each other and with themselves. Hugo strayed from his plot line again and again, but I never noticed it as each monologue seemed an independent island of self-discovery the character.

Anyway, if you're ever bored and want to chew on something really, REALLY meaty, this novel could be just the thing.

[madfloridian]

26. pstans, thank you for posting this. The heartlessness in this thread sickens me.

I was a teacher, though retired now. For several years I was in a school with many migrants.

I am too angry after reading some of the posts in this thread, so I won't say too much for now.

But just know that many of us here know this was a stupid, ignorant, racist thing for the government to do. Most of us here know it, in fact. It is to play to the people who are listening to the 6:00 hour on CNN and MSNBC.....I call it the hate an immigrant hour.

I can't think of words right now, I would just get in an argument.

I have taught the children, I knew their parents, their hopes and dreams.

If this country really wanted change they would simply fine the companies. I am alarmed to see DU turn into a place with no understanding or caring.

But then I remember a different America than some here do because of my age. It was never this hateful.

[justice1]

29. Who is heartless is the Mexican elite.

I understand having compassion for people caught in the cross-hairs of this situation. The poor from Mexico and Central America and citizens of the U.S.

Mexico isn't an impoverished country, their GDP of $10,000 per person annually puts the country in the top half of the world. Yet when compared to other countries it's poverty rate is more than twice that of similar countries. Russia for example has a population with 17% living in poverty, whereas Mexico is at 40%. It's the way the money is distributed that's the problem. If the government collected taxes at the rate of their U.S. counterparts, and used the money to improve the quality of life for it's citizens, instead of encouraging people to immigrate illegally to the U.S, both countries would be better off.