http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial ... =110009423

Meatpacking raids, Mitt Romney and other immigration follies.

Friday, December 22, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

At his press conference Wednesday, President Bush alluded to last week's federal raids on Swift meatpacking plants to round up suspected illegal immigrant employees. "It just reminded me that the system we have in place has caused people to rely upon smugglers and forgers in order to do work Americans aren't doing," Mr. Bush said. We hope the incoming Members of Congress were listening.

Among its other shortcomings, the departing Republican Congress failed to do anything substantive to address the nation's illegal immigration problem, which is primarily a labor shortage problem. As a result, businesses and state officials continue to fend for themselves with piecemeal solutions that only underscore the need for reform that would allow willing immigrant workers to fill jobs that otherwise go begging.

Immigration restrictionists would have us believe that harassing businesses like Swift, the world's second-largest beef and pork processor, helps make America safer. But so far the Swift raids haven't uncovered any al Qaeda cells, merely a bunch of hard-working people trying to feed their families. The operation involved more than 1,000 federal agents in six states. And of Swift's 15,000 or so employees, a grand total of 144 have been charged to date with misidentifying themselves to get hired.

Put another way, 1,000 federal agents that could have been focused on potential terrorists or other dangerous threats were instead focused on a meatpacking company that hires thousands of willing unskilled workers and pays them more than twice the minimum wage with full health benefits after six months. How's that for government efficiency?

There's a common notion that businesses seek out illegal aliens to employ. So it's also worth noting that since 1997 Swift has voluntarily participated in a government program for vetting new hires known as Basic Pilot. Under this system, the names and Social Security numbers of all job applicants are checked against a federal database. Which is to say that the presence of illegal workers at Swift is not the result of a company's indifference to the rule of law. It's the result of a flawed government system for determining who's eligible to work here. A few years ago Swift's management attempted to go even further than Basic Pilot to screen job applicants, only to be sued by the Justice Department for employment discrimination in 2001.

No charges have been filed against Swift, but the raid did cost the company a half-day's worth of plant production. Republican restrictionists who insist that a crackdown on corporate hiring is the best way to chase off illegal foreign workers might keep these economic consequences in mind.





Meanwhile, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney recently struck a deal that gives 30 state police officers the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. The Republican governor is eyeing a Presidential run and no doubt hopes that a symbolic hard line on immigration will ingratiate him with GOP primary voters.
At least we guess that's what Mr. Romney is thinking, because he can't possibly expect that turning 30 state troopers into quasi-immigration agents is going to be much of an illegal- alien deterrent. That certainly hasn't been the case in a handful of other states--including Arizona, Alabama, Florida and parts of California--where it's been tried.

Undocumented aliens who commit other crimes are already referred to the feds. But state and local authorities typically don't make arrests on civil immigration violations and for the most part aren't interested in being deputized to do so. Police departments from Miami to Chicago to Sacramento say that a relationship with communities based on mistrust and fear of deportation would only make their job more difficult when it comes to preventing and solving serious crimes.

Mr. Romney, whose term ends next month, is smart enough to know all this, even if political opportunism is leading him in foolish directions. The Boston Globe recently reported that the governor's own lawn was being maintained by a company that employed illegal immigrants. Perhaps a newly empowered state trooper parked outside the governor's front gate could prevent this unspeakable travesty from ever happening again.

On Wednesday, Mr. Bush reiterated his position that the most "humane" way to deal with illegal immigration is to combine enforcement with a guest worker program that would address the country's obvious labor shortage. "I want to work with both Republicans and Democrats to get a comprehensive bill to my desk," said the President. "It's in our interest that we do this."