Sunday, December 17, 2006

Raid!

This past week several companies were raided for hiring illegal immigrants. Swift, a major meat packer, and several smaller companies were hit and fined, and undocumented workers hauled off to who-knows-where. Many employers are upset by the raids, complaining that current hiring rules are so confusing that they are unsure just how to proceed when selecting employees. This article in today's LA Times is clearly sympathetic to the employers' plight.

"Employers are very much hamstrung — if they go too far, they run the risk of a discrimination lawsuit," said David J. Ceccanecchio, an attorney for Wolf Block in Philadelphia who advises businesses that hire immigrants. "If they accept documents at face value, they run the risk" of becoming targets of stepped-up federal enforcement of immigration laws.

In the last year, the federal government has arrested 716 individuals for employing illegal immigrants, compared with 25 in 2002. In addition to the Swift raids last week, a Southern California fence-building company was fined $5 million for employing illegal immigrants, and two Florida men were each sentenced to more than four years in prison for "leasing" illegal workers to various companies.

...Federal law requires businesses to have job applicants fill out an I-9 form and to verify that the person can legally work in the United States by checking documents — usually a Social Security card and photo identification. But employers are prohibited from asking for additional documentation to prove legal residency.

Unless the documents appear to be forged, employers must accept them and verify Social Security numbers with the Social Security Administration — a process that can take months.
[Emphasis added]

The employers, according to the article, are in that uncomfortable position between a rock and a hard spot. Still, one can't help but feel there is some misplaced sympathy going on here, and as one goes deeper into the article, that feeling becomes more pronounced.

Even if employers receive a "no-match" warning that workers' identities don't correspond to their Social Security numbers, their next move is a matter of dispute.

The Cincinnati clothing manufacturer Cintas Corp., which employs 32,000 people nationwide, this fall began to require its workers to resolve discrepancies within 63 days or be placed on unpaid leave. Religious leaders and unions trying to organize Cintas workers protested, and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), incoming chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, warned the company in a letter last month that it may be violating anti-discrimination laws.

Cintas is not the only company to take such a step. Last month, Smithfield Foods Inc. fired a few dozen workers at a Tar Heel, N.C., slaughtering plant who had received "no-match" letters. A thousand workers walked off the job in protest, and Smithfield rehired the dismissed laborers, giving them time to resolve the problem.

Labor groups contended that Smithfield, which a federal court ruled in May had harassed union backers, was trying to stifle organizing drives. But Smithfield officials said they were simply trying to do the right thing.
[Emphasis added]

I think it highly possible, perhaps even probable, that many companies who rely on cheap labor count on the vulnerability of the undocumented worker to make the bottom line look healthier. What better way to thwart union organizing than to hold the threat of INS sweeps over everyone's head? And right now, the government seems perfectly willing to make those sweeps.

If these employers really wanted "to do the right thing," they would not only comply with federal law, they would pay decent wages and would stop fighting organizing efforts.

Who knows: such an approach might even increase the accessible labor pool in such a fashion that those employers wouldn't have to rely on undocumented workers to get the job done.

I know, fat chance.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The illegal alien issue is just a front for those who desire to take over this country and it is working. The larger prize for the Communist Party is US. Read on and check it out.
You will see in the near future illegal aliens from the middle-East wearing body bombs blowing themselves up in a Wal-Mart store to make a point of their beliefs. It will take a few of these before the federal, state and local governments will wake up, along with those who are against racial profiling.
If a rabid white dog bites my kid, I do not call the police and insist I cannot give them the damn color of the dog when asked.

The communist ACLU is just trying to destroy us and there are many stupid liberals that will help them achieve their goals. Just how many of the Communist Goals have been achieved through the ACLU and the Progressive socialists.
This is worth repeating so go to: http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm


Communist Goals (1963)
________________________________________
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963

Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

________________________________________
Note by Webmaster: The Congressional Record back this far has not be digitized and posted on the Internet.
It will probably be available at your nearest library that is a federal repository. Call them and ask them.
Your college library is probably a repository. This is an excellent source of government records.
Another source are your Congress Critters. They should be more than happy to help you in this matter.
________________________________________
You will find the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto interesting at this point.
Click here to see them listed with brain-challenging comments.

6:24 AM  

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