Thread: Immigration gaps are open here

Opinion

Cincinnati.Com NKY.com Opinion Immigration gaps are open here


Last Updated: 2:48 am | Friday, February 2, 2007


Immigration gaps are open here
Editorials
We don't need to trek to border states to see the contradictory results of Congress' failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

In the past week, almost all 32 undocumented workers rounded up at various Northern Kentucky sites last November were released on plea deals for jail time served. It's expected they will be issued temporary work visas and not be immediately deported, if they give useful information to prosecutors. Mostly Mexicans, some were hired to hang drywall at Covington's showcasecondo-tower development, the Ascent at the Roebling. A similar roundup of immigrants last May led to charges against Fischer Homes supervisors, but that case collapsed when a key witness, Nelson Trejo, a supplier of illegal labor, vanished before trial.

The current U.S. system of de facto "guest workers" is an open invitation to law-breaking, bogus ID enterprises, direct exploitation of illegals, and indirect injustice to legal workers and law-abiding immigration applicants. Congress needs to step up and clean up our double-standard immigration system this year, before it becomes hopelessly politicized again in presidential election year 2008.




Prosecutors here are trolling for the "big fish," which presumably means bigger than just suppliers who keep the pipeline full of workers from south of the border. Some illegals who cluster outside Home Depots or other Northern Kentucky-Greater Cincinnati sites may be hoping just for a day's work, but others could be waiting for transportation to work on long-term projects or even factory jobs.

The current cat-and-mouse game of enforcing laws against hiring illegal workers may not produce many convictions, but it's been good for litigation. A federal judge in Chattanooga this week set a 2008 trial date for a class action lawsuit filed by legal workers charging Tyson Foods with intentionally hiring illegal workers at eight plants, including one in Corydon, Ind. Plaintiffs' attorneys claim the class could total as many as 100,000 legal workers. Tyson's attorneys argue that their client, the world's largest meat company, can't discriminate against workers if their documents appear valid, and that the law doesn't expect employers to "guarantee" such documents.

President Bush has advocated bringing illegals out of the shadows by creating a legal "guest worker" program. Whatever Congress decides, federal and state officials will need to devise a more foolproof ID system, one that doesn't give employers an easy out of plausible deniability.

IF THEY GET THE VISA ITS THE BIGEST BUNCH OF BS I WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS MOUNTH AND BELIEVE ME
ITS BS IM JUMPING ON THIS ONE WITH BOTH FEET

I WANT THE HELP OF ALIPAC ON THIS ONE