Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid netted nearly half of all employees of this long established meatpacking company plants in six states. These arrests were not made for being in this country illegally but for crimes associated with Identity Theft designed to fool Swift & Co. into hiring them. The financial damage to Swift & Co. will be huge as they scramble to replace their workers. The upside is that there are now a lot of job openings that can be filled by unemployed and under employed American and legal resident workers who need and deserve them.
I hope that the other American companies that have been hiring illegal aliens get the message they have to do a lot more than wink at the bogus documents presented by their job applicants or face this kind of business interruption and financial loss.
These, immigrant, identity thieves deserve some jail time before they are returned to their native countries. Just ask the opinions of those people trying to buy home and cars why were rejected because of credit reports related this kind of fraud.
Love the topics you bring up for debate Crimefile.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the entire blame rests on the shoulders of these illegal immigrants though. After all, all they are doing is filling a market for cheap labor that every American consumer sustains with the laws of supply and demand. Meat processing is among the most dangerous professions with some of the worst working conditions. In order to employ legal Americans for this work, these agribusinesses will have to pay living wages and make expensive improvements to worker safety and conditions. It can be done, but that would mean saying goodbye to the 99 cent cheeseburger. I am all for preserving American jobs, but each of us contributes to the problem every time we eat fast food or shop at Wal-Mart.
And what about the role of Swift & Co. in this? Shouldn't they and other companies who employ illegal aliens also be punished beyond a dip in productivity and profit?
Say goodbye to the 99cent cheeseburger? I already said goodbye to affordable health insurance, decent public schools and a huge portion of my income in order to pay for the care, feeding and incarceration of alien drug dealers and violent criminals.
ReplyDeleteThe immigration invasion has done serious damage to our economy and its destroying our country far more than the attack of 9/11
We don't need to watch "Fast food nation" to know that the industry is evil. But there are a lot of ignorant people out there fueling these corporations because they prefer the taste of cheaply made products mostly because they don't have to make them. And how can the blame not rest on these immigrants? They are criminals. They stole identities so they could fill the cheap labor market by duping their prospective employer. Yes, the cheap labor market shouldn't even exist but we need to expose companies that seek this kind of employee. This is how change happens. It's a slow process but people are finally waking up. (I hope) I gladly pay 6+ dollars for a cheeseburger because I feel better not supporting fast food franchises. I don't shop at Wal-Mart after learning how they treat their employees and how they really make their money.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has been self-employed most of his adult life I have never been a big advocate of the labor unions, but the illegal immigrant problem is the direct result of gutting of America's Organized Labor movement. Years ago I felt the labor was far too powerful for the good of the nation. Now I believe it is far too weak to create benefits for society. The pendelum has now swung too far in the wrong direction. It's time organized labor got involved in the illegal immigrant debate because it is costing good, honest Americans decent jobs.
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