Thread: Colo. City Becomes Flashpoint in Immigration Debate

Like I have stated before, if these illegals have no respect for our laws now, why would they if allowed to become citizens? Shall we grant citizenship to people who are already criminals in our country?


http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061218/24357.htm

Colo. City Becomes Flashpoint in Immigration Debate

By The Associated Press
Mon, Dec. 18 2006 09:15 AM ET


GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - Outside the Weld County Courthouse, there's a five-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of freedom that greets immigrants arriving in New York City.

Inside the courthouse on Thursday and Friday, a new symbol of today's immigration debate. Five Mexican nationals caught in a federal raid Tuesday at the local Swift meat packing plant faced charges of stealing American identities and using them to get jobs.

The scene is one of many playing out in this northern Colorado city and across the nation as the ripples spread from the arrests last week of nearly 1,300 people in immigration raids at Swift & Co. meat processing plants in six states.

In Greeley, the detention of 261 workers left parents separated from their children. Neighbors, relatives and charities scrambling to find food and rent for families left without a wage-earner. Questions lingered over the outpouring of support for people accused of breaking laws. And still more questions formed over what to do about a system that both rewards and punishes illegal immigrants.

"It's putting a face to the complexity of immigration," said Ernest Giron of Catholic Charities in Denver. "It's a matter of how the law impacts a community, which is what we're seeing up in Greeley."

And in the end, for all the furor and worry, nothing much changes, predicted Wayne Cornelius, director the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California at San Diego.

Locals may fill the vacated jobs for a while, but he said history shows Americans will leave low-paying, unpleasant tasks within months. And when law enforcement backs off, illegal workers will return. It's an economic necessity.

"Americans don't raise their kids to do these kinds of jobs," he said.

Those who will do the jobs become political pawns, Cornelius said. It's happened before. The arrest last week of 1,300 at one company, he said, doesn't put a dent in the estimated illegal immigrant population of 10 million.

But it demonstrates that law enforcement can bring great economic pain by strictly enforcing the existing laws. It's a good way for the Bush administration to build support for a guest worker program, Cornelius said.

Caught in the middle, a few hundred spouses and children in Greeley.

"It's not fair to have these people come here, pay them, then kick them around politically," said attorney Robert McCormick, representing some of the detainees. "It makes no sense. There's a reason people come here, that is the demand for labor."

Karina Miranda is 24, married just two weeks. Her husband, Jose Mendoza was scooped up in the raid. Miranda is left with two children, no job, little money and lots of questions.

Like her husband, Miranda is here illegally. She paid a transporter $2,000 to lead her and her daughter, Litzy, now seven, on a three-day march across the Arizona desert last year. She doesn't have the papers to get a job or to get inside a federal detention center to see her husband.

"She's worried about him, and she's worried about her children, and she's worried about getting a job as soon as possible, and it doesn't matter what it is," Miranda's sister in law, Claudia Mendoza, explained as she translated from Spanish.

Only one thing is certain, Miranda said: If she must, she'll return to Mexico with her husband. And then the family will return to the United States, illegally if they have to.

Miranda's mother, Margarita Mart D inez is in the Mexican city of Durango, about 150 miles south of the Texas border. She worries for her daughter and remembers when she left.

"It's very sad. She told me that she needed a steady job," Martinez said "It hurt me a lot, because we were inseparable, but a lot of times necessity motivates people."

Martinez doesn't understand the developments in Greeley, but says she puts her trust in God.

"It's not fair to have these people come here, pay them, then kick them around politically," said attorney Robert McCormick, representing some of the detainees. "It makes no sense. There's a reason people come here, that is the demand for labor."

So then why can't they do it legally then Mr. McCormick? And it isn't the demand for labor, its the demand for CHEAP labor.

Its not fair to have them come here???? You stupid idiot, is it fair that Americans are paying for them? Is it fair the people who have had their ID's stolen have to go through the hoops in order to get it cleared up?
Take your sympathy and move south you traitor.

There is an implied assumption throughout this article:
some jobs cannot be offshored. Why is meat processing
considered a sacred cow (no pun intended) in terms of
outsourcing? I see more & more imported foods on the
shelves, i.e. seafood. I realize there is a lot national identity
in raising animals for food, but why not at least ask the
question when folks present the 'no one wants this job
at ____ $/hr' argument. Why should other industries
have to deal with shipping, time zone hassles, etc &
Swift mgmt gets a 9-5 job?

We haven't protected manufacturing or hi-tech jobs. In-fact,
in those areas the whammy is two-fold: outsourcing (with
travel to train your replacements) plus H1-B floods.

The challenge should be outsource it, because it's a legal
alternative, but don't give me excuses to break the law.

The meat packing industry is "protected", when it is enabled to hire illegals and depress wages. If they can't afford higher wages, why are the protected ? The following companies were permitted to die:

ARMCO Steel, Bethleham Steel, Gibralter Steel, Inland Steel, LTV Steel, Republic Steel, Youngstown Steel, Weirton Steel.

This country has two big steel companies left. The fully intergrated USS and the thin slab casting Nucor Steel. USS has a fully funded pension of 6 billion dollars. Sixty years ago the treasurer of USS took profits from WW2 and put them in the pension fund. What it did then, is still benefitting thousands of workers. He's one of my heros.

I like American companies (Swift included) getting some type of protection. I think we should protect our companies, benefits ( pensions & healthcare) workers, ect. The downside of Swift's protection is detrimental to the employment of Americans and their wages. Wages in this industry have declined 50%. AN illegal employed may displace a legal.

Companies whine they aren't the INS or ICE and can't be burdoned by the responsibility of NOT hiring illegals. Why not ? Why do they get a pass, on this ? They have other burdons, simply because they are a business. They have the burdon of payroll, taxes, haz mat regs, safety,
hygiene, on time shipments, quality, etc.

If the government would have long ago enforced the laws and deported all these parasites, and more Americans would get off their complacent rear ends and start taking part in our country and holding corrupt politicians responsible who rob us each day of our rights while supporting criminal invaders none of this would be. Nothing angers me more than politicians who take the oath of office while having no plans of keeping that oath. Anyone who supports this criminal invasion should lose their citizenship and be deported with them.