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ICE Conducts Nationwide Raids : Pope Says God Bless America

11:30 H | Topics: Cities - Immigration - Justice - Religion

Oh the irony of it all. As Pope Benedict declared God Bless America from Washington D.C., immigrants in 8 states: Arkansas, Florida. Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Tennessee and West Virginia, were more likely quoting Rev. Wright.

Federal immigration agents raided Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants in five states today in a crackdown on an alleged scam to provide fake identification for illegal immigrant workers.
Julie Myers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant secretary, told The Associated Press that more than 100 people were expected to be arrested on criminal charges related to identity theft.

There is talk that this recent wave of raids is a scare tactic. Is it coincidence that the raids happened on the same day that the pro-immigrant May Day Marches were announced? Certainly, in my immigrant 'hood, there is fear of living day to day, never mind exposing yourself in a very public display of activism.

The scariest reality is the willingness of the corporate entities to comply. While these companies have zero problems recruiting, hiring, paying below minimum wage, and offering no benefits to immigrants, when the going gets tough and threatens their wallets.

At least, at five of those sites, ICE had the full support of the employer, Pilgrim's Pride Corp, or so the company says.
The company that employs thousands at their chicken processing plants across the country, and who had been the target of a work site raid before, took credit for alerting the government to the fact that some of their employees were engaging in "immigration-related crimes," such as using bogus identity documents.

This is not about me promoting identity theft. Latina Lista points out that:

According to a survey released in November 2007 by the Federal Trade Commission, only 1% of identity theft victims report their identity being used for employment purposes.

Via / Latina Lista, Citizen Orange, Immigrationprof Blog, Of America

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