Home Builder Breaks Silence On Immigration Raids

Last Update: 12:43 pm


Related Links
Spectrum Interiors Admits Violating U.S. Immigration Laws
Those Who Hired Illegal Imigrants To Be Sentenced
Man Arrested Moments After Being Sentenced For Using Undocumented Workers
Henry Fischer Homes
Reported by: Tom McKee


Northern Kentucky home builder Henry Fischer is speaking out for the first time about the 2006 immigration raids that pulled his company into the debate over undocumented workers in the United States.

Fischer’s comments come in a new book written by Jon Entine and titled "No Crime But Prejudice – Fischer Homes, the Immigration Fiasco and Extra-judicial Prosecution."

In the book’s forward the company founder said the legal and financial risks were too great to tell the firm’s story as the events were unfolding.

"It has now been three years since the federal government raided Fischer Homes and tried to ruin the company I founded and the lives of many Fischer Homes associates," Fischer wrote. "While there will never be a time when releasing this story is risk-free from government retaliation, I now believe the need to get the Fischer Homes side of the story out to our customers and our friends outweighs the risks."

Chapter one is called "The Sting" and details the events of May 9, 2006. Police swarmed over apartment complexes known to house Hispanic families and SWAT teams swarmed through home construction sites overseen by Fischer homes.

"Anyone with a Spanish accent appeared at risk," Entwine, a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, writes.

Additionally, four Fischer construction superintendents were "handcuffed at their homes in front of friends and family and dragged off to jail."

The company headquarters in Crestview Hills was locked down as agents "grilled frightened employees and carted off company records."

At the time Dean Boyd, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said the action was not a random roundup of illegal aliens.

"We don’t randomly pick companies," Boyd is quoted as saying. "We follow evidence and go where it leads."

The superintendents were charged with harboring illegal aliens for commercial or private financial gain, but the government later dismissed the charges.

"The only thing missing from these inflammatory allegations were the facts," the book contends. "Although the media was slow to report it, none of the Mexicans arrested that day were employed by Fischer Homes."

As chapter one draws to a close Entine writes, "An endless stream of print and electronic media reports erroneously excoriated the company for hiring illegal workers and flouting U.S. immigration laws."

The book raises questions about why Fischer Homes found itself under the criminal microscope.

"What has been the consequence from the raid and "subsequent high profile prosecution effort orchestrated for the media on Fischer Homes, its executives, associates, their families and the local community?" Entine wonders.

The key issue, according to Entine, is what the book terms the "Politics of Prosecution" – how and why the government targets individuals and corporations, sometimes recklessly, taking an enormous human toll in the process.

The chapter concludes with the words, "It’s a story of David vs. Goliath of the government – and surprisingly, once again, how David prevailed."



http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhare ... YT9Eg.cspx