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Greeley immigration raid was justified
Steven Shulman

Almost exactly two years ago, the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley laid off 800 workers.

Unlike the furor over the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, raids at Swift, there was little outcry. No one called it a "day of shame,"as Kim Salinas did in a recent commentary (Soapbox, Dec. 16) about the ICE raids.

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Of course, the workers who were laid off two years ago were not deported. But that is a distinction that should make little difference.

After all, the workers arrested in the ICE raid broke the law by coming to this country (and some of them have committed additional crimes such as identity theft). Deportation is a risk they knew they were taking when they came here.

Here's what deportation will realistically mean to them. They will stay in touch with their families as often as they want by telephone. They will receive the sympathy and support of the Mexican government. Most of them will rejoin their families as soon as possible by sneaking back across the border. Once they do, they will quickly find another job.

In other words, this is not a tragedy. This is an inconvenience that may last a few weeks or a few months.

The deportation of these workersis legal, justifiable and not especially punitive. It has caused outrage simply because it representsthe enforcement of the law. This controversy is about politics, not "human rights."

The political agenda of Salinas and her pseudo-progressive allies is open borders. They oppose any effort to stop mass illegal immigration, and they twist the truth to further that agenda.

For example, Salinas' claim that "it is a well known fact that the economy is running on immigrant labor, most of it undocumented (i.e., illegal)" is not a fact at all. It is a wild exaggeration. The U.S. labor force is so large that even the huge inflows of illegal immigrantsare only a small fraction of the total. Particular industries may have come to depend upon the ultra-cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants, but that is small change relative to the U.S. economy as a whole.

Nor is there any evidence that "we have a shortage of essential workers." Anyone who has taken a course in introductory economics knows that labor shortages cause wages to rise. Instead, wages have been falling for the past quarter-century, especially for workers without a high school degree.

The unemployment rate among high school drop-outs is over twice as high as it is among the rest of the labor force. That, too, is the opposite of what one would expect if there is a "labor shortage" in the low-skill occupations that attract illegal immigrants.

The claims of open borders advocates about the economic need for illegal immigrants and the violation of their human rights are utterly without factual foundation. They are made to whip up fear and guilt in the service of a political agenda that the large majority of Americans strongly oppose.

The deportation of illegal immigrants is not a solution to the problem of illegal immigration. That can never be more than a piecemeal effort. Instead, we need systematic, substantial and enforceable sanctions against the employers who hire illegal aliens.

The ICE raids will not have much practical effect simply because the workers who are deported can just turn around and cross the border once again. But they do serve a symbolic purpose.

They send a message that we are serious about stopping illegal immigration.

To the extent that they deter others from coming here illegally, they are a step in the right direction.