About 1,000 Iowans marched in protest yesterday over working conditions at the same meatpacking plant in Iowa where an immigration raid this Spring that led to the arrest of almost 400 people. The incident has left local residents pleading with their congressmen to stop with the raids. This weekend residents told their representatives that the sweep damaged the small town more than it helped, and tore families apart.
The raid was the largest of its kind in US history, and the testimony over the weekend showed the huge emotional toll it took on the community. Those testifying both skewered immigration officials and Homeland Security for inhumane tactics, and leveled criticism at the plant for taking advantage of the workers.
At the end of the hearing, Rep. Gutierrez agreed, "This is wrong. We've taken men and women who want to work and made felons out of them." One local union official said the blame would be better placed with the owners who hired and took advantage of the workers rather than the illegal workers themselves, "the family that owns that place, they're the ones who should be prosecuted."
The mayor issued the definitive statement, and urged them to take the message back to Washington that raids don't work, "this raid did nothing for this community. It downgraded us substantially. It caused people to suffer, and it caused our reputation to suffer clear across the country."
Is he right? Do immigration raids do more harm than good?
D&G
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This is a tough issue, since it's so emotionally charged.
While I do think much more attention should be paid at the enforcement level to employers who use undocumented workers (especially in such numbers), I don't think that it's right to entirely absolve the workers (who are aware, one would assume, that they are breaking the law) or to suggest that only the employers and not the workers should be prosecuted. I can definitely sympathize with the families of the workers, but it seems to me that raids like this are inevitable. They're one of the few ways to send a strong message to both the employers and the workers that this is not tolerated.
1I agree, Jude.
2I agree, Jude!
3Maybe what both sides can take away from this is desire to push Washington to fix our lousy immigration system to devise something that works and would allow for workers to come here to do these jobs AND be protected from such abuse by employers.
Jude, when did you get so smart?!
4Sometime after my fourth cup of coffee this morning?
5That emoticon freaks me out!
6hahaha I love the graphic! I am not good with coffee. I have to have it with all that milk and such. I fear I have failed you Jude!
7Bet I'm worse than you, hunter--my "coffee" is usually about 1/2 a cup of coffee, a 1/2 a cup of milk, and six sugars. I don't really like the taste of actual coffee, I guess.
8Okay, good. I was concerned our friendship was over as a result. You are forcing me to make a latte now Jude... you are my downfall (well, you and our love of JRM, Christian and CHOCOLATE!)
9If we could combine all those things into one delicious product, we'd be set for life, hunter!
I want a latte now, but I don't feel like shlepping over to Starbucks for it
10Again, I think we have stumbled onto another great idea Jude! I don't want to go to Starbucks either, but I might have to in order to force myself to do some work
11I'm stuck with the instant-coffee crystals in the office kitchen...nasty.
12That indeed is very nasty... I will pray you survive
13
14Jude, do you get hazard pay for that??
15No
but I should be getting it for the huge giant
raven-looking thing that's been staring me down from outside my office window for the last hour.
16See, you even captivate nature with your wit, charm and beauty!
17You ladies are so damn sweet today!
But I think the bird wants to kill me. Believe me, that is not a friendly look in its beady little eye.
18Hmmmmm, perhaps it is coveting your insta-coffee??
19That's probably what's wrong with it. It sipped too much instant coffee and mutated into an oversized killing machine that wants human blood.
(Maybe I should lay off this stuff, come to think of it.)
20Well if this isn't between a rock and a hard place I don't know what is. This is precisely what will happen across the country if aggressive raids are implemented across the board.
This is but a taste in micro chasm. As I've said before if we are going to set things right in regards to immigration there is going to be a whole lot of pain and suffering on both sides before the dust clears. We have a choice to make, if we're going to do it lets do it and put our money where our mouth is.
If the realization that our economy is going to take a serious beating too much for us to handle as a result of such actions then we just might want to take another look at amnesty and then start clean from that point in enforcing our immigration policy.
21I hear ya Jude, I drank regular coffee today...like a gallon of it. I had a huge meeting this morning and I just felt like I wasn't waking up this morning. Well now at 1 in the afternoon, I feel like the walking dead...major come down.
22If you lay off the coffee, what will be your next addiction Jude?
23Mmm...doughnuts.
24Okay then: Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Doughnuts?
25I've never had the Dunkin
I worship at the altar of Krispy Kreme.
It's getting really hard to find them in San Diego now, though. There used to be one 5 minutes from my place, but Chick-Fil-A took over
26Ok, ladies, now I am really getting hungry!!! Almost lunch time!
27When I was little I'd get so excited when the light was on at Krispy Kreme since it meant they were making fresh doughnuts
Oh my youth!
Martini-haha now you know how I feel with Jude and her talk of coffee!
28Oh, those fresh doughnuts are the best. I loved it when they handed out "free samples"!
29WHAT?! THERE WERE FREE SAMPLES?! My youth suddenly is not as great as it once was.
30Haha...I don't know when they started doing them, but I know that the Krispy Kreme by my place would always hand you a free doughnut (or two) if you strolled in while they were making them fresh.
This, of course, inevitably led to me getting a dozen instead of the one or two I'd walked in for. And those things get eaten fast!
(I used to have the best-attended staff meetings at the store I ran, because I always brought Krispy Kreme.)
31(and what is really funny is that I first typed you as "hungerme"!)
Yes, there are free samples - when you go to a Krispy Kreme here, they hand you a donut while you wait in line to order...so often I have wanted to just say "Thanks, that's all I need" and leave!
32haha Martini! You just have something else on your brain! When is your lunch?
Okay, I am so concerned that you two knew about these samples and I did not! I am beginning to question my whole existence. Clearly, my parents did not love me as a youth. My whole world is now upside down!
Your idea Martini has me thinking about what I wanted to do at mass one time. Remember like 5 years or so ago when everyone was obsessed with carbs? I used to joke with my sisters that I was going to ask if the Eucharist had carbs in it when I went to take communion. If it wasn't such a slap in the face of God, I think I would have because I am a pot stirrer
33They never had samples at my Krispy Kreme, either.
34I would have paid good money to see a video of that, hunter!
35
I would have LOVED to have seen that, too, hunter!
36haha I thought of it when I was taking communion yesterday for some reason. I think my mother would have been mortified and I think that punishment would have been worse than hell!
However, I bet the video would have been a big hit on youtube and could have launched the socialite life we were meant for
37Kim, I have been racking my brain to think if there were ever samples. I am glad we can share this bond of no free doughnuts
and 
at the same time haha
38HURRAY!! I am finally off to lunch! See you later this afternoon, you fab sugargals, you!!
39oh, and kim...next time I am in Krispy Kreme I will send the free sample your way! (ok, maybe you and hunter will have to split it) So unfair for you not to have had free samples!
40You are such a giver Martini! Have you been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize yet?
41Enjoy your lunch! Hope it was all that you dreamed of
42To paraphrase Dane Cook:
"What's the carb count on this Lord?"
Yeah, I'm going to hell. It's a good thing I like hot weather and fireplaces...
43Jude, do you like being the log in the fireplace?
44I'm just going to have to get used to it...
45Honey, you are so hot anyways, what would be the difference?
46(My two cents.) We need to do some extensive cleaning, in regards to illegal aliens and reform of the immigration policies. I am all for securing our border, but I want to make sure the gate is open for an orderly entrance. I don't want to keep everyone out. Just the ones who 1) Don't want to become American, or 2) have criminal records they are running away from.
47Oh, hunter!
48Jude, do you feel like we are just flooding the threads with our pictures?
Not that I am opposed to this at all
49We're doing our part to beautify Citizen
"We need to do some extensive cleaning, in regards to illegal aliens and reform of the immigration policies. I am all for securing our border, but I want to make sure the gate is open for an orderly entrance."
Nicely put, UD.
Has anyone here been to the border in Texas or Arizona? I've only ever seen the San Diego border crossing, so I'm curious what other, less heavily trafficked places are like.
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