CROMER: Icy response after ICE raid

Mark Cromer

Hundreds of people march down a street, Sunday, July 27, 2008, in Postville, Iowa, during an immigration rally. Busloads of people from around the country came to protest a federal immigration raid of the local Agriprocessors plant in May, during which nearly 400 people were arrested. Associated Press.

I saw the headline over my morning coffee: ‘Immigration Raid Rocks Small Town.´ The story that followed described in detail the supposed chaos, fear and heartbreak caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement´s raid on a Howard Industries plant in Mississippi.

The raid was apparently the largest ever undertaken at a single workplace and it netted nearly 600 people who have no legal right to be in the nation, let alone working here.

While the story highlighted the politically correct narrative that seems omnipresent in most news coverage of ICE raids these days, spotlighting the disruption and dislocation of the lives of illegal immigrants; for me the story raised a different question.

Was Howard Industries now hiring? I decided to give their corporate office a call.

Here’s how the first call went: “Hello, Howard Industries.â€