Raids a poor substitute for real immigration policy
• published August 14, 2008 12:15 am
The arrest of 57 workers at the Mills Manufacturing Corp. in Woodfin on Tuesday on immigration-related charges highlights once again the failure of U.S. immigration policy.
For starters, it illustrates the vulnerability of an underclass of people whose only crime was to cross into the United States without proper documentation in order to make a better life for themselves and their children. Some have been here for years working, contributing to their communities and to the economic benefit of the nation.
A tip from a fellow employee apparently led to the raid by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service.
Asheville City Councilman and congressional candidate Carl Mumpower took some credit for the raid, saying in a press release that an employee at the plant contacted him several weeks ago and “we developed a connection with ICE in Charlotte on Mills Manufacturing.â€
Besides creating a population subject to victimization because they live under the threat of deportation, it creates an enormous hardship for employers.
Blow to plant
Mills Manufacturing, which employs 175 people, lost a third of its work force in one swoop. The removal of those workers will affect the plant’s delivery schedule, according to plant officials, though it will not affect production.
The company, a government defense contractor that makes parachutes, was not the target of the investigation and was cooperative, ICE officials said.
Mills Manufacturing was unaware of any improperly documented workers, according to John Oswald, executive vice president and chief executive officer.
He said his company checks all employees’ documents, which typically include driver’s licenses, Social Security cards or Green Cards. It does not have experts who can detect sophisticated forgeries, not should it have to go to such lengths.
“It’s very, very challenging,†Oswald said. “We’re only allowed to look at so many documents. There is a new system called E-Verify, to make sure they are who they say they are. But we’re only allowed to look at the documents they give us, and if at face value they appear to be legitimate, that’s all we’re able to do.â€
Mills Manufacturing does use the E-Verify system now, Oswald said, but that does not help with previously hired workers. E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in partnership with the Social Security Administration. Participation by employers is voluntary.
A report released in November, commissioned by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, found that, while accuracy has improved over the years, the E-Verify program uses a database that does not meet accuracy standards set by Congress. In addition, the E-Verify system cannot detect illegal workers using stolen identity information and stolen Social Security numbers, according to the Government Accounting Office.
In the absence of a comprehensive, realistic immigration policy, raids like the one conducted Tuesday are ineffective at best.
Impact on economy
They will not drive the 11 million to 12 million immigrants here illegally from the country and if they did, it would have an enormous impact on the U.S. economy, which benefits from their labor.
A 2004 study by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the impact of Hispanic immigration concluded that Hispanics in general and Hispanic immigration in particular have a positive economic effect on the state. The study found that 41.4 percent of the state’s Hispanic population was born in the United States. Of the remaining 58.6 percent, 76 percent were undocumented.
The study found that Hispanics contributed more than $9 billion to the state economy in taxes and consumer spending, and they are estimated to contribute $18 billion by 2009.
The vast majority of those who come to the United States illegally are meeting a demand for their labor, they desperately need the work and there is no legal way for them to enter the country.
The current visa program for guest workers is wholly inadequate and is set up in such a way that it creates a form of indentured servitude. Unless there is legislation establishing a workable guest worker program, one of two things can be expected to happen: Employers will take the risk of continuing to hire illegal workers, or there will be a serious impact on North Carolina’s and other states’ economies.
Federal lawmakers’ paralysis when it comes to crafting sensible immigration reform creates an irresolvable problem for states, local governments, communities and companies. It also victimizes millions of poor, desperate people.
Ultimately, no law that fails to create a realistic guest worker program and to establish a way for those already in the country illegally to resolve their status will solve the immigration crisis.
The arrest of 57 workers at the Mills Manufacturing Corp. in Woodfin on Tuesday on immigration-related charges highlights once again the failure of U.S. immigration policy.
For starters, it illustrates the vulnerability of an underclass of people whose only crime was to cross into the United States without proper documentation in order to make a better life for themselves and their children. Some have been here for years working, contributing to their communities and to the economic benefit of the nation.
A tip from a fellow employee apparently led to the raid by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service.
Besides creating a population subject to victimization because they live under the threat of deportation, it creates an enormous hardship for employers.
Proud
this guy should be strung up for this article. SHAME SHAME SHAME!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: 4now,
Dozens of foreign-born gang members nailed in sweep
Operation Community Shield -- a campaign by federal, state and local law enforcement -- targeted the metro area.
By JAMES WALSH, Star Tribune
Last update: August 15, 2008 - 11:32 AM
Dozens of illegal immigrant gang members from Mexico and other countries have been swept up in the past two weeks by federal agents and Twin Cities-area police, officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Thursday.
Called Operation Community Shield, the ongoing effort netted 50 arrests, including 35 gang members and seven gang associates from 10 Twin Cities-area gangs. Of the 50 arrested, 38 are illegal immigrants, said ICE spokesman Tim Counts.
Participating law-enforcement agencies also arrested 10 U.S. citizens and two permanent residents, also known as green-card holders, on various state and federal charges, including weapons possession, possessing illegal drugs and criminal traffic offenses. Twelve of those arrested have previous convictions, including assault, drug possession, criminal damage to property, burglary, disorderly conduct and drunken driving.
Of the illegal immigrants arrested, Counts said, 29 come from Mexico, six from Honduras, two from El Salvador and one from Ecuador.
Counts said most of the arrests were in Minneapolis and St. Paul. But police and agents also swept up gang members in Richfield, Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal, Maplewood, Columbia Heights and West St. Paul.
Federal prosecution
Officials are moving to deport the illegal immigrants arrested, Counts said. But three suspects will be referred to the U.S. Attorney's office for prosecution -- two for re-entering the United States after previously being deported and one for possessing a controlled substance. It is a felony to re-enter the United States after going through formal deportation proceedings. They face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Operation Community Shield is a nationwide effort to go after what ICE calls "transnational street gangs." About 10,000 gang members from 700 different gangs have been apprehended since the effort began in February 2005.
Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Bloomington, was the architect of Operation Community Shield when he worked in Washington, D.C.
"Street gangs pose a growing public-safety threat to communities throughout Minnesota," Arnold said. And foreign-born gangs pose a "huge problem" for communities, he said. Because gang members are from other countries, they often maintain relationships with criminals abroad, fueling ongoing smuggling operations of drugs, weapons and people, Arnold said.
Local agencies
Working with local law enforcement is critical to dismantling them, he said.
Locally, ICE worked with several agencies, including the Metro Gang Strike Force, Brooklyn Park Police, Richfield Police, the State Patrol, the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The two-week effort began July 28 and ended Aug. 9, Counts said.
"It's made an impact, and it's helping us gather additional information on the gangs and the gang members. And, as long as they're locked up, they're not shooting anyone," he said.
Jim Heimerl, assistant commander of the Metro Gang Strike Force, said, "A lot of people think that everybody who comes to Minnesota just wants to live here, wants to work here. But these guys, they victimize people."
The excuse, yes, excuse, for gang members has always been that they wanted to be "part of a family, group, larger entity".
My answer to that is simple. Join the Army! There you get a gun, clothes, a roof over your head, food, and tons of people telling you what to do. The same thing only 100% legal and serving a noble cause.
Alien gang members should be deported as quickly as possible, and those who are citizens incarcerated for life!
Originally posted by Houston: The excuse, yes, excuse, for gang members has always been that they wanted to be "part of a family, group, larger entity".
My answer to that is simple. Join the Army! There you get a gun, clothes, a roof over your head, food, and tons of people telling you what to do. The same thing only 100% legal and serving a noble cause.
Alien gang members should be deported as quickly as possible, and those who are citizens incarcerated for life!
The illegals can't join the Army and the ones who are members of gangs - no sympathy at all - get lost!!!!! While they are at it, ICE can round up all the USC gang members too and give them das boot - lol!
Of course the FBI doesn't gather statistics of the Hispanic perpetrators of hate crimes, when Hispanics commit hate crimes they are white, when they are the victims they are Hispanic, which we all know, commit most of the hate crimes attributed to whites.
Originally posted by federale86: Of course the FBI doesn't gather statistics of the Hispanic perpetrators of hate crimes, when Hispanics commit hate crimes they are white, when they are the victims they are Hispanic, which we all know, commit most of the hate crimes attributed to whites.
Not Exactly! . Compared To The Overall Situation, Criminals and Desperation, Often = Selfishness! Not Racially Motivated As Most Portray! Actually Race, Color, Religion is Scapegoat! FOR ALL!!!! The Easy Way Out Applies To Every Single People Of This Planet!!! The Most Hate Crimes Actually Exist Within Same Cultures! Same Origin! The Handful Of The Confused and Ignorant Should Never Have Been Given The Attention! .
Immigration Raid Shuts Down Jones County's Largest Employer
Posted: Aug 25, 2008 06:09 PM EDT
Updated: Aug 25, 2008 06:10 PM EDT
LAUREL, MS (WLOX) - Federal Immigration Agents raided Howard Industries in Laurel Monday morning, taking dozens of illegal workers into custody.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wouldn't say how many illegal immigrants they believe were employed at the company. But Bill Chandler, Executive Director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, said the number of arrests could be in the hundreds.
Workers leaving the plant Monday told reporters that so many people were arrested, the plant had to shut down. ICE agents offered few details of the investigation.
"If someone is found to be in violation of immigration laws, they will have due process under law. They will have the opportunity to present the facts of their case before an immigrations judge. If the judge determines they are ineligible to remain in the country and orders them deported, then certainly we will carry out those orders of removal," said Barbara Gonzales with ICE.
Howard Industries is the number one employer in Jones County with more than 3,000 people on the payroll. That's according to the Jones County Chamber of Commerce. The company produces commercial and industrial products ranging from electrical transformers to medical supplies.
In 2002, Howard Industries was given $31.5 million tax dollars to expand operations. The state required the company to create 2,000 new jobs. The Mississippi Development Authority said in 2002 that if Howard falls short of employment goals, the state would take away $3,000 for each job not created.
Federal agents and handcuffed workers at the Howard Industries plant on Monday in Laurel, Miss. Officials said at least 350 workers were in the country illegally.
By ADAM NOSSITER Published: August 25, 2008
LAUREL, Miss. — In another large-scale workplace immigration crackdown, federal officials raided a factory here on Monday, detaining at least 350 workers they said were in the country illegally.
Jeff Haller for The New York Times Howard Industries, one of the largest employers in the region, manufactures electrical transformers, among other products. Numerous agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended on a factory belonging to Howard Industries Inc., which manufactures electrical transformers, among other products.
As of late Monday afternoon, no criminal charges had been filed, said Barbara Gonza***, an agency spokeswoman, but she said that dozens of workers had been “identified, fingerprinted, interviewed, photographed and processed for removal from the U.S.â€
The raid follows a similar large-scale immigration operation at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in May when nearly 400 workers were detained. That raid was a significant escalation of the Bush administration’s enforcement practices because those detained were not simply deported, as in previous raids, but were imprisoned for months on criminal charges of using false documents.
The mass rapid-fire hearings after the Postville raid took place in a temporary court facility on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa. An interpreter was later sharply critical of the proceedings, saying the immigrants did not understand the charges against them.
An immigrant rights group in Jackson, Miss., the state capital, was critical of Monday’s raid, saying families with children were involved.
“It’s horrific what ICE is doing to these families and these communities,†said Shuya Ohno, a spokesman for the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance. “It’s just hard to imagine that this is the United States of America.â€
In Laurel on Monday afternoon, several dozen family members of immigrants waited for news of their relatives at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. There were several small children. A priest at the church who identified himself only as Father Sergio refused to allow interviews with the families or answer any questions, saying only: “People are afraid. We need to calm them. There are mothers and children involved.â€
Entrances to the sprawling plant, in an industrial section south of town, had been blocked off by ICE. A nearby fast-food restaurant was full of the blue-shirted agents, one of whom would say only that a “little inspection†was under way at the facility.
A woman entering the church grounds with four small children said several of the youngsters’ parents had been detained. The woman, Mary Troyer, said she was a translator for many of the families.
“I don’t like this at all,†Ms. Troyer said. “I don’t understand it. They have come here to work. It’s very sad.â€
The ICE spokeswoman, Ms. Gonza***, said the workers would be taken to an ICE detention center to “await the outcome of their cases.†She said 50 would be “released into the community†instead of being sent to the center, for “humanitarian reasons,†including medical difficulties or the need to take care of children.
She said no lawyers were present while the workers were being interrogated. “Everyone will have due process under law,†Ms. Gonza*** said.
Late Monday afternoon, the grim-faced workers, some of them handcuffed, were lined up near white and silver buses as the rain poured down.
In a statement issued after the raid, Howard Industries, one of the largest employers in the region, acknowledged that it was “visited†by immigration agents trying to determine if its employees were citizens or otherwise legally authorized to work in the country.
“Howard Industries runs every check allowed to ascertain the immigration status of all applicants for jobs,†the statement said. “It is company policy that it hires only U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.â€
Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, called the Laurel raid a violation of human rights.
“We’re very disturbed at what’s happened,†Mr. Chandler said. “It’s a real contradiction between our proclaimed values of hard work and family in Mississippi and the actions of local law enforcement, and ICE. I think it’s a real affront to our values. They’re creating their own terrorism by going after workers.â€
After the Iowa raid, the federal interpreter said many of the immigrants did not understand the charges to which they pleaded guilty. But federal officials said the judges in the cases believed that the guilty pleas had been made freely and voluntarily.
Maricopa Sheriff's Office nabs suspected illegals in raid on Mesa landscaper
Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday raided a Mesa landscaping company, Artistic Land Management, arresting three dozen workers suspected of being illegal immigrants. The company could face charges under Arizona's employer sanctions law, which punishes businesses that hire undocumented migrants.
The company, located in downtown Mesa, did not return phone calls seeking comment on the raid.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has conducted numerous such sweeps of day labor sites and other suspected locations as part of efforts to fight illegal immigration, smuggling and associated crimes. The MCSO raided Golflland Entertainment Inc. water parks in north Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa earlier this summer arresting several park workers who allegedly did not have legal status. Golfland has said it follows immigration and employment laws at its Big Surf, Waterworld, Sunsplash parks.
The Mesa action comes a day after federal authorities raided a manufacturing plant in Mississippi arresting 595 suspected illegal immigrants working for Howard Industries Inc.
More details of immigration raid in Mississippi, US
By Hiram Lee 29 August 2009
The number of those arrested in Monday’s US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a Laurel, Mississippi manufacturing plant is significantly larger than previous reports had indicated. Approximately 595 arrests have now been confirmed, making this the largest immigration raid on a workplace in US history.
The raid, which saw workers from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, El Salvador and Germany taken into custody, has terrorized the immigrant population of Laurel. Fabiola Pena, a 21-year-old mother, told the press about the moment the ICE agents stormed the Howard Industries factory: “I was crying the whole time. I didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know what was happening because everyone started running. Some people thought it was a bomb, but then we figured out it was immigration.â€
The aftermath of the raid has left the workers and their families traumatized and confused. Bill Chandler, the executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants’ Rights Alliance (MIRA), told Reuters, “People are very, very fearful. People in the Latino community are afraid to go out of their homes. In many cases they are afraid to go to work.†Families have been separated, in some cases with both parents of a child held in custody, leaving children suddenly without care. “If you have young children going to school, and they come home and find their parents gone, that is a major crisis,†said Chandler.
The superintendent of schools in Jones County, where Laurel is located, says half of the 160 Hispanic students did not attend school on Tuesday.
The ACLU has begun to investigate the treatment of those arrested, sending staff from its Immigrants’ Rights Project to Mississippi. Attorney Mónica RamÃrez, part of the team sent by the ACLU, released a statement saying, “We are deeply concerned by reports that workers at the factory where the raid occurred were segregated by race or ethnicity and interrogated, the factory was locked down for several hours, workers were denied access to counsel, and ICE failed to inform family members and lawyers following the raid where the workers were being jailed.â€
Of the hundreds arrested in the raid, roughly 475 are now being held at an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, some 200 miles away from their homes and families in Mississippi. The prison system of the ICE, the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is notorious for its record of abuse and neglect. More than 60 immigrant detainees have died in ICE custody since 2004.
More than a hundred of those arrested in Monday’s raid are said to have qualified for an “alternative†to detention because of “humanitarian reasons.†Most are under house arrest or have been given ankle bracelets for tracking purposes. They will still have to face a federal judge and almost certainly be deported.
Eight workers arrested during the raid have been charged with federal aggravated identity theft and could face up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. The defendants, six men and two women, appeared before Federal Magistrate Judge Michael J. Parker in a Hattiesburg, Mississippi courtroom on Tuesday in shackles and handcuffs. They told the court, with the aid of an interpreter, that they could not afford their own attorneys and were each assigned Assistant Federal Defenders.
Appearing before the court again on Wednesday, all eight defendants were ordered to be held without bond. When public defender Abby Brumley sought to have her client Paula Gomez released on bond to care for her 5-year-old son who was sick, Assistant US Attorney Gaines Cleveland argued against her with the customary coldness, saying, “She has been charged with a serious crime. We need to keep this defendant until the charges are resolved.â€
Information is also coming to light that reveals the considerable damage done by the nationalist orientation of the trade union bureaucracies in the area. There have been reports of tension between union workers and immigrant workers at the raided factory and that some of these workers applauded as the immigrants were being arrested. The Associated Press spoke with union and immigrant workers who described resentments over the amount of overtime immigrant workers received—sometimes up to 40 hours per week—while union workers were discouraged from working overtime. A union member is said to have given the tip to authorities that initiated the investigation of the plant.
Robert Schaffer of the Mississippi AFL-CIO responded to the raid in the way one might have expected: “Jackson, Hattiesburg, Laurel and all areas along the coast, it’s a little Mexico. I’m not against people trying to make living. I have a compassion for those folks. But at the same time, the taxpayers of Mississippi shouldn’t be subsidizing a plant that won’t even hire their own workers.â€
The anti-immigrant positions of the trade unions have only aided the efforts and cleared the way of the US Government to terrorize large sections of the working class with raids like those in Mississippi and Pottsville, Iowa earlier this year.
Well, lets deal with the facts. The FBI, for political reasons, does not collect statistics of hate crimes commited by hispanics, but does collect statistics of hate crimes commited against hispanics. There has been no major increase against hispanics, but hispancis commit large numbers of hate crimes against whites and blacks. Of course, the largest number of hate crimes adjusted for population is hate crimes commited by Muslims against Jews. So, stay with the facts. You cannot even deal with the issue of hispanic hate crimes because there are no reliable statistics. Hispanics just want to be the newest and latest victim, but given that most hispancis in the U.S. are illegal, you can avoid hate crimes by returning to that glorious countyr of Mexico, or Honduras, or El Salvador, etc.
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For starters, it illustrates the vulnerability of an underclass of people whose only crime was to cross into the United States without proper documentation in order to make a better life for themselves and their children. Some have been here for years working, contributing to their communities and to the economic benefit of the nation.
Besides creating a population subject to victimization because they live under the threat of deportation, it creates an enormous hardship for employers.
Jim Heimerl, assistant commander of the Metro Gang Strike Force, said, "A lot of people think that everybody who comes to Minnesota just wants to live here, wants to work here. But these guys, they victimize people."
. Compared To The Overall Situation, Criminals and Desperation, Often = Selfishness! Not Racially Motivated As Most Portray! Actually Race, Color, Religion is Scapegoat! FOR ALL!!!! The Easy Way Out Applies To Every Single People Of This Planet!!! The Most Hate Crimes Actually Exist Within Same Cultures! Same Origin! The Handful Of The Confused and Ignorant Should Never Have Been Given The Attention! 
