Two debates have come and gone without so much as a breath of the word immigration. It’s too easy to dismiss the issue by saying that it’s not important as the stock market continues to freefall and war in Iraq rages on. It’s too easy to say it’s not happening and the campaigns utter another i word: ignore. Pero it is relevant. It is happening. Yesterday ICE swooped down into a South Carolina chicken processing plant and changed the lives of 300 families.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald says the raid began shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday during a shift change at House of Raeford’s Columbia Farms plant.

Federal prosecutors and immigration agents have been investigating the plant’s hiring practices. McDonald says 12 people have been arrested in past months, and seven have pleaded guilty.

Pero, don’t anyone dare talk about it. After all what’s the value of 300 immigrant lives?