ICE's Swift Plant Raids Netted Only Poor Folks

[Jcrowley]

ICE's Swift Plant Raids Netted Only Poor Folks Caught Up in the `War on Illegal Immigration'
By Bill Conroy,
Posted on Sat Dec 16th, 2006 at 11:49:24 AM EST

Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. — George Orwell

Earlier this week, the mainstream media headlines were blaring with news of a raid carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on six meat-processing plants owned by Greeley, Colo.-based Swift & Co.

The raids, orchestrated on Dec. 12, resulted in more than 1,200 allegedly undocumented immigrant workers being detained at the plants, many of whom were hauled off by busses across state lines to be processed and later released — a fact that has not yet made its way into the mainstream media. The raid was trumpeted by ICE as a major victory in the “war on illegal immigration” and as the culmination of a successful investigation into an organized crime ring that was supplying fraudulent ID documents to these workers.

The implied threat there, of course, is that this same organized crime ring could supply phony IDs to would-be terrorists as well. That has led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to renew its political push for the quick adoption of a new centralized ID card system for U.S. citizens.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/12/16/114924/26

[sandnsea]

1. And people say Kerry is windy

Good god I wish some of these self-important writers would learn to get to the damned point. So were these people illegal or not, and if not, why'd immigration think they were?

[Jcrowley]

2. If you scroll down you'll see the point

From article:

“Who arrests illegal aliens at Christmas time that are coming to work to butcher pigs? How does that make our country safer? All it does is raise the price of pork.”

In the end, maybe it’s true what they say: The rich man’s gain comes from the poor man’s pain.

Or, as George Orwell put it: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

[sandnsea]

3. So they were illegal?

Because what you posted seemed to indicate some sort of mistake had been made.

I get the point about these people just being poor folks. OTOH, meat packing plants used to be pretty good paying jobs, and you can't really hold a business accountable without identifying the illegal immigrant. It's complicated, it's also a shitty thing to do to people at Christmas

[madrchsod]

4. "why`d immigration think they were"

because they were brown skinned and spoke mexican. white european illegals in this country blend in better so they never get caught

[sandnsea]

5. And after that?

American citizens generally have some sort of identification that would prevent them from getting arrested, that's what I wanted to know.

Turns out, the article doesn't appear to be about mistaken arrests anyway.

[madrchsod]

6. it was the round everyone up and sort them out later

that really pissed off people. children were left with out parents,husbands and wifes were separated with out any knowledge of where they were or where their children were,and other disrespectful actions against the families. local and state officials were left out of any planning or information on where the people were being taken leaving them with not a lot of time to figure out how to stop these problems before they became out of control. one may disagree or agree on the issue but the treatment of these people is a warning to us about how how american citizen`s are being treated now and the future. the future does not look very bright

[sandnsea]

7. What did people expect with 10 million illegals

There isn't any other way it's going to happen if people want to deport them all, so it certainly does matter whether one disagrees or agrees on the issue. Some of the children are US citizens and can't be deported. This is what's going to happen every time they have one of these raids which is why a path to citizenship is the only responsible solution, and ultimately changing our trade laws so people don't have to sneak into this country to have a chance at a decent life.