UTAH DHS RAIDS- light-skinned workers considered citizens, dark-skinned workers get scrutiny

[ariesgem]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002144.php

A troubling report from the DHS immigration raids yesterday, from the Salt Lake (Utah) Tribune. In this case, DHS agents allegedly separated workers by their skin color -- light-skinned were considered citizens, dark-skinned got scrutiny. Predicatably, they swept up at least one dark-skinned U.S. citizen up with immigrant workers:

snip....

If only for a few minutes, Maria felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland - the United States of America.

She thought she was going on break from her job at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here on Tuesday, but instead she and others were forced to stand in a line by U.S. immigration agents. Non-Latinos and people with lighter skin were plucked out of line and given blue bracelets.

The rest, mostly Latinos with brown skin, waited until they were ''cleared'' or arrested by ''la migra,'' the popular name in Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employees said.

''I was in the line because of the color of my skin,'' she said, her voice shaking. ''They're discriminating against me. I'm from the United States, and I didn't even get a blue bracelet.'' .

snip....

The paper confirms that the federal agents took an undisclosed number of people away in buses away to an undisclosed location.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002144.php


:grr:

[Deja Q]

1. I feel like an alien amongst my own people too.

My only suggestion is that everybody gets screened equally. That way nobody can complain "discrimination!".

Or everybody will complain...

Either way, the case for any discrimination-type scenarios will lack merit. But then everybody will say "nixing all our freedoms". Seem damned either way. :shrug:

I dunno. Except there is an illegal alien problem and something has to be done. But the DHS could have done things a bit better. Even if "light skinned Mexicans" are few and far between. :eyes:

[UndertheOcean]

3. So I guess you are against amnesty ?

Just bus those 13 million human beings to the border ?

[rodeodance]

2. blue bracelets?? gawd--the images this scene conjures up!!

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

4. How bout it rodeodance, scary images for me at least.. n/t

[RC]

7. At least nobody got tattooed.

This time.

[phaseolus]

5. I saw this happen once...

... at a South Gate, CA cheese factory in the mid-90s where I spent some time fixing my then-employer's stupid mozzarella molding machine. The INS had just come through & removed about 30% of their workforce (Mexicans, Central Americans). The plant manager was an Englishman with a tourist visa that had expired years before, yet no one asked him to prove anything...

[On the Road]

6. I'm Actually Not Sure What the Solution Is

If ICE is going to raid places of employment for illegal aliens, they have to ask for ID. Legal immigrants with green cards need to carry those. But what about US citizens of Hispanic descent -- do they have to carry proof of citizenship or face legal problems? And if screening is going to be nondiscriminatory and everyone is going to be screened equally, do all of us have to carry a passport or other federal ID at all times?

Sounds like a quandary.

[RC]

8. Sounds like a push for a national ID card.

"Your papers please."

[warrens]

14. DHS is already on the case

Chertoff was spouting off while the raids were still going on.

[Karenina]

9. The SOLUTION is

putting the CEOs, Personnel dept. and managers in the police vans.

[On the Road]

11. Yes, But in Order to Do That

they have to prove that individual employees are illegal. That requires the police to get documentation from the workers. And if an employee can simply say "I'm a citizen and not required to carry ID," that creates a siginificant obstable for the police.

I don't think people should be required to carry proof of citizenship. And I don't think Hispanic citizens should have different requirements. But I don't know how ICE can effectively do its job otherwise.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Not to mention that many illegal immigrants are European or Asian

not just Latino.

[On the Road]

15. Right -- I'm Not Supporting the Current Practice

I do understand why officers do this from a practical point of view. I don't think they're being racist so much as they're trying to identify illegals.

A workplace is usually raided because there's already information that it employs illegals. In California or the Southwest, these are statistically most often Mexicans or other Spanish-speaking people. So the ICE agents focus on that profile.

However, that leaves US citizens or green card holders who are Hispanic in the position of having to prove their identity, while caucasians and Hispanics are not subjected to the same standard. And the business owners can't be prosecuted unless the workers are found to be illegal.

Again, I don't know what the solution is, but I agree it's a problem.

[Sequoia]

10. Delete

[verse18]

13. Let's not forget-

These workers were segregated by the SHADE of their skin.

Is this 2006, almost 2007? I feel like I went through a time warp and it's 1953 again.