The immigration raids in Mass yesterday have far reaching effects

[Sydnie]

I just heard on the local news that some of the people rounded up yesterday were taken to detention centers as far away as Texas. This case is going to be a test of many of the immigration issues we saw touted by the GOP last fall. Detention centers, anchor babies, illegals working at jobs "Americans won't do", etc.

BTW, many Americans do these jobs in this area. This is a community that used to be filled with mills and mill workers. Granted, this company was a leather works, but there are other leather works here as well, just not as large as this organization was.

New Bedford and Fall River were always large mill towns. Most of the mills have disappeared and outlet shops now fill those spaces instead. Some mills have also been taken over by the real estate crowd and are being converted into high priced condos or senior assisted care facilities.

But I digress.

The Social Security Administration had notified them twice that some of the numbers they had submitted were either assigned to dead people or minors, yet they kept getting government contracts in increasingly larger amounts.

Can anyone else ever remember a business that was busted with this number of illegals before? They are testing the detention system as well as the buildings built by Halliburton with this. I predict there will be an increase in these types of raids to further test the system. Not unlike what happened to LaLa's cousin this fall, these were mostly women, many single mothers (bringing up the anchor baby issues) who were rounded up yesterday and bused off to who knows where.

The relatives of those rounded up yesterday (I assume they are legal relatives) are waiting on the street in front of the factory for buses to bring back some of their relations. What about those that have no one waiting for them? Could they be "disappeared" completely? Pregnant women and single mothers were released quickly, yet some children were still not claimed today. One has to assume that Dad doesn't want to come forward and get nabbed himself too. What happens to these kids then?

Local radio call in show today was brutal. I didn't listen long, but the part that I heard had callers calling for the children (whether born here or not) to be deported with their parents, that schools should refuse to service them in the system (kick them out of school if their parents are illegals), and "cleanse" the area.

Frankly, it scared the hell out of me how little compassion they had for these people even on a human level. What have we become when we are fighting over a job that pays $7.50 and hour and docks you $20 if you take longer than 2 minutes in a bathroom that has no toilet paper?

This once productive area is almost dead. Fishing is drying up as an industry as the fish disappear, the mills are becoming places for people to live ... but who will be left to live there as $7.50 an hour is not enough to pay the rents for these spaces. Manufacturing has left skeletons (their buildings) behind as well as the families that used to work in these spaces.

It's a double edged sword. This factory also did leather work for some high end companies like Coach. If they close the factory or lose all the other contracts they have with these over-priced companies, we will see not only the illegals lose their jobs, but those that were not illegal as well. With little left in the industry to absorb these lost employees, what is going to happen to them?

I don't have an answer to the immigration question. I do see both sides of the coin in this case though. The owners exploited these workers, kept them in sweat shop conditions, both the illegal workers as well as the legal ones. They were all in it together, just trying to support their families. And yes, legal residents and citizens were exploited in that very same shop as well, yet, the GOP wants to kill the unions so we all can experience the same treatment where ever we work.

Sorry to ramble on and even more sorry not to have a solution to propose. I hope someone does soon, but I also hope that they keep in mind that, at least in this case, they were all in it together.

[Ian David]

1. See also: Mass. Governor Deval Patrick raises concerns for children of detained factory workers

Mass. Governor Deval Patrick raises concerns for children of detained factory workers



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=226&topic_id=5424&mesg_id=5424

[grizmaster]

2. The illegals are criminals stealing American jobs

The people running the company should pay the higher price, but the illegals should be deported.

These jobs used to pay Americans twice as much here, and saying these are jobs Americans won't do is complete BS here in the northeast and particularly in the New Bedford/Fall River area.


And before I get flamed as anti-immigrant, I'm all for allowing in one LEGAL immigrant for each ILLEGAL deported for their crimes.

[hogwyld]

11. I disagree with your premise

If Americans were willing to do those jobs, don't you think it would be easier for the company to hire them than risk jail to hire the immigrants? This is a big country, and we have plenty of room for everyone that desires a better life. I didn't see the "No Vacancy" sign lit at the airport.

[Cobalt Violet]

3. The factory was open today.

It didn't close. I still has it's contract. It still has it's millions. Nothing has happened to them. Only the workers will be punished.:grr:

It should be the other way around or it will keep happening.

[Sydnie]

5. The DOD was here today

and the only statement that I have heard that they made was that they weren't happy with the situation. Even the owner was back on site today, running things as usual, according to a few of the employees that stopped to be interviewed. The reporter couldn't find them on site and were asked to leave when they tried to.

I know they were open today and you're right about the workers being the ones that will suffer, again.

[notadmblnd]

4. being illegal enables the employer to exploit them

and as a result aids in the enslavement of us all. It is difficult not to see both sides, I believe with all my heart that these people deserve a chance at a better life. The 7.50 an hour job is only that because there are so many willing to take them at that price. It's horrible that these people come from such poverty that they see $7.50 as a sustainable income. But employers would be forced to pay more if they weren't able to hold the illegality of their residency over the heads of those they employ. Those children are American citizens and they deserve to be here and need to be taken care of.

[Cobalt Violet]

7. They can't pay less than $7.50.

That's the only reason they pay it. But minimum wage isn't something anyone can live on in Massachusetts.

[nosillies]

6. $7.50 an hour? I know loads of legal workers in many industries making less

There are people in my neck of the woods who would shit themselves at an opportunity to have a $7.50 an hour job. And yes, our cost of living is just as high down here.

[Cobalt Violet]

8. That's minimum wage in Massachusetts.

It's not enough to live off. 1 bedroom appartements are over $1000. a month where you are too?

How much did you have to spend to heat your place in Febuary?

[Sydnie]

9. That's true

Attic apartments for $700 plus in the area of town that this factory is located. Who can live even in this depressed area on $7.50 an hour? :shrug:

[nosillies]

10. Our minimum wage is $6.67 in Florida. You can live off that if you don't like to eat.

One bedroom apartments are just about that expensive in our area. Actually, it's nearly impossible to get an "apartment" anymore, as they've all been repainted and called "condos" just so developers can charge more. Heating in February costs next to nothing, but if you don't want to die of a heatstroke in the summer, you can easily fork over $200 a month for electricity, maybe more if you live upstairs.


edit: spelling

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Nothing like a little Ethnic Cleansing to improve the economy.

Detention camps are a nice touch. And, splitting up families is like celebrating our glorious heritage of slavery.

Don't forget this piece of doggerel to send them off with:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift up my lamp beside the golden door."

Emma Lazarus

[pampango]

13. I say we get rid of immigration laws all together.

We could become the first country to let anyone move here that wants to live here. As many have pointed out here, there are many poor families in the world who have a difficult time feeding their children and go through all of the hardships of immigrating here without permission. This would ease the burden on those poor families.

It would be a big blow to our wage structure at first, but eventually there would develop some level of parity in terms of prosperity throughout the world.

It would seem that we have three viable options: 1) Get rid of immigration restrictions. (People can't break laws that don't exist); 2) No immigration. (American jobs for American workers producing goods for American consumers. Damn the rest of the world.) 3) Come up with some middle ground of controlled, humane, effective immigration, pass it into law, and then enforce it. (Would tight employer sanctions work? Sure, but if they do, the illegal immigrants are going to be out of work.)

I am all for high levels of immigration for humane reasons. But I must say that I would rather see no law than the farce we have of vacillating between no enforcement, sporadic ineffective enforcement, union busting enforcement, and blame the workers enforcement.