Laura Armstrong: ICE raid points out illegals problem






Published: 08/10/2008

By Laura Armstrong
Columnist



In the midst of last Thursday's heavy afternoon thunderstorms, safe in my home, I watched towering pines bend in the wind as the day grew dark. Dramatic cloud to ground lightning would surely lead Glenn Burns' segment at five.


Next door, Spanish-speaking workers re-roofing my neighbor's home still labored, despite the building storm. They'd already toiled through a heat index of over 100 degrees since before noon.

As wind velocity increased, I prepared to call 911 at the first sign one had been blown off the roof.

Which reminded me of Michael Cutler, who writes about illegal immigration at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

Having been on the front lines as an INS agent and member of an elite drug enforcement task force for 30 years, Cutler has seen it all and is an expert on the absolute necessity for better border security. Like our friend D.A. King, he's targeted by open border activists who call him a hater or worse, but he writes of his empathy for workers who suffer at the hands of those who profit off them.

Cutler often points out that supporters of open borders "conveniently leave out" the fact that illegal immigrants are vulnerable, desperate and "provide labor under substandard conditions for substandard wages."

"Certain industries, such as meat packing, have made it standard practice ... hiring illegal aliens and dropping wages to the point that the Americans who'd previously worked jobs have left ... Salaries within the industry have been reduced by 50% over the last decade."

As for conditions, in suburban Atlanta one sees men on a roof in a thunderstorm. In Postville, Iowa, site of a May ICE raid on a kosher meat packing plant, conditions found were reminiscent of the dark ages of American industry. Not only did the raid reveal hundreds of cases of identity theft, but also evidence of labor, safety and health violations. At least 27 of the 389 illegals rounded up were underage, some only 13 years old. According to a recent NY Times story by Julia Preston, employees were forced to work 17-hour days, six days a week, on the slaughterhouse floor. Allegations of humiliation and abuse, including sexual, are being investigated by a grand jury.

Upton Sinclair, where are you?

Meanwhile, proponents of continued open borders rarely mention this side of the issue. Do they and the politicians they support really care about these people? Or is it the employers' fat contribution checks they value?

The answer's obvious.

Locally, well-meaning open border activists (Rich Pellegrino comes to mind) write letters to the editor touting the "incredible universe of diversity and wonder outside our own neighborhood." Which only makes me wonder if he's been to a poultry plant lately, where Latinos get the short straw when it comes to OSHA violations. We won't even mention the gangs, drug cartels, hit and run drivers, overflowing emergency rooms or failing schools, all due to this issue.

There's nothing incredible or wondrous about illegal immigration as it exists today in America.

Let's not allow our politicians to forget that.


lbarmstrong3378@comcast.net



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