The big news throughout the upper Midwest yesterday was the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on 6 Swift & Company meat processing plants.
In Marshalltown, IA, dozens of migrant workers were detained for documentation violations.
In Grand Island, NE, local law enforcement authorities were ordered not to cooperate in the interest of maintaining good relations with the immigrant community.
In Worthington, MN, as many as 400 people were detained.
In Greeley, CO, the Latino community began to attempt to organise a blockade of the facility, but were unable to block all gates to prevent the loaded buses from taking undocumented workers into custody.
In Cactus, TX, the long-winked at illegal population has so come to dominate the town that the raids had the effect of essentially shutting down the town.
This parallelled, only on a national level, the recent ICE raid of a Crider chicken processing plant back in September, and highlighted again the extent to which non-enforcement of immigration law has led to major demographic shifts affecting entire industries and communities.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Swift Raids Demonstrate Failure of Current Migrant Policy
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2 comments:
Which policy are you refering to? Our official policy, or the de facto policy? The former might need some tweaks, but is generally OK. It's the de facto policy - you know, the one where corrupt politicians look the other way on massive illegal immigration - that needs a lot of work.
Despite what you've heard, the laws are not unrealistic or unenforceable. The problem is simply that our politicians are corrupt.
The official policy does not work because official policy guarantees that it will not be effectively enforced. The Pilot Program, around which Swift will mount its legal defence in this action, is set up only to ensure that the hired worker is at least consistent in his impersonation of another worker. It does nothing to guarantee the authenticity of the documents presented.
The de facto effect is clearly contemplated by the extent (or lack thereof) of the de jure policies. The lack of enforcement is as much a matter of de jure policy as any other part of the Potemkin Village which is U.S. immigration policy.
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