Laurel, Mississippi: The largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history has caused panic among Hispanic families in this small southern Mississippi town, where federal agents rounded up nearly 600 plant workers suspected of being in the country illegally.
One worker caught in Monday’s sweep at the Howard Industries transformer plant said fellow workers applauded as immigrants were taken into custody. Federal officials said a tip from a union member prompted them to start investigating several years ago.
About 100 of the 595 detained workers were released for humanitarian reasons, many of them mothers who were fitted with electronic monitoring bracelets and allowed to go home to their children, officials said.
About 475 other workers were transferred to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, La. Nine who were under 18 were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
John Foxworth, an attorney representing some of the immigrants, said eight appeared in federal court in Hattiesburg on Tuesday because they face criminal charges for allegedly using false Social Security and residency identification.The Mississippi raid is one of several nationwide in recent years.
On May 12, federal immigration officials swept into Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, in Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were detained and dozens of fraudulent permanent resident alien cards were seized from the plant’s human resources department, according to court records. In December 2006, 1,297 were arrested at Swift meatpacking plants in Nebraska and five other states.
(Source: Fox News)
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16 Responses
Finally! While this is sad and America is partly to blame for making immigration for Hispanics a non-legal issue, it will set a good precedent and the word will get around. The consequences of illegal immigration are damaging to America and fellow citizens.
I presume giving a national 90 day notice to leave the country would erupt in riots and high levels of crime so they perhaps must do things this way.
I wonder if this will get as much general media coverage as Agriprocessors. The media loves it when they can have words like “kosher” or “orthodox Jew” in a story. I still see follow-up stories in the media about Rubashkin, let’s see what happens with this story.
The media probably may not make a big deal out of it. Yes, they do point fingers more harshly when they see words like “kosher” and “orthodox Jew”. But so does Hashem when He sees us doing things not right, since more is expected of us.
#1 (sarcastic reply)
It is important that America preserves its heritage. This country was founded on the basis of Anglo-Saxon culture. It’s time to round up all those who don’t accept the true faith (papists, kikes, muslims, etc.) and come from alien cultures (i.e. wrong side of the English Channel). What’s more, all these “Johnny come lately” types put the true Americans (those who came between 1492 and 1776) to shame by working their behinds off trying to build a life for their families. SO MR. VERYINTERESTING, when are you going back where you came from?
#4, you make no sense in comparing law abiding immigrants of the past with illegal immigrants today. How can you compare?
And I mochel you for your hateful comment at the end of your post. I am where I am legally and I pay my way from my legal net pay.
Illegal means against the law.
#4, akuperma, on a more careful read of your post (the part not in all caps), I totally disagree with you.
I will just discuss the specific comment you made and will not address the lengthy issues of illegal crime, health risks, deterioration of our culture and education system, etc.
Illegals are not working their tails off. The ones who bother to work and not loiter and harass passer-bys on the street, are getting paid cash off the books. Being off the books, they are entitled to welfare, housing, medical, schooling, utilities from our taxes, which they dont contribute to.
I worked my tail off by cleaning up floors in a restaurant for $1.25 an hour. Then I worked landscaping for about $3.00 an hour, and right on up the ladder. But I had taxes taken out. All my friends started out young working hard. It is an insult to Americans and union workers to say there is something unique about illegals.
They are cheap and that is their value but they have a good deal going with perks they are not entitled to, NOR do they in their own country allow such a swindle from THEIR southern border invaders.
My ancestors could not enter the country with so much as a speck in their eye. When they did arrive here it was to survive and not exploit. They worked their tails off and became great contributors to American life and faced antisemitism that in some cases resulted in physical beatings, among other things.
I am not comparing legitimate American immigrants to illegal bandits exploiting what we cant afford to share, nor should we.
I am sorry you feel different, but that is very foolish on your part. But in America, I guess anything is permissible.
If being illegal means being alive and working to provide for your family than I want to be “illegal” too. Eliezer eved Avrohom was an “illegal” alien in Sodom as were the malachim who came to save Lot. Eliezer knew how to answer back to Midos Sodom, we should recognize Midos Sodom here in the U.S.A. for what it is and not subscribe to it.
#5 The only law the Hispanics are accused of violating is being in America. If the same law were in effect when we came, our ancestors would have been guilty. America was built on the idea of hard working people coming here, and doing hard work and building their lives. It doesn’t make any different if they are Irish, or Russian (as we were called 100 years), or Hispanic. HaShem didn’t give this land to the WASPs, or to us, and there is no reasonable basis in logic, or economics, or minority, to exclude hard working families from a neighboring country whose only crime is they want to be Americans (and the Hispanics are probably the most culturally like the typical American relative to any other non-Anglophones).
Dont worry #1, #4 is just a bitter Lakewood investor profiting at the expense of his brethren, but now things are getting ruff for him people are looking at him differently these days, hes not such a shaina yid he always was thats why hes talking like this
In the past the government used to make all sorts of amnesties to make all the illegals legal. Many people here have ancestors that became legal this way. G-d judges this world with Middah Kineged Middah, anyone who thinks they are so high and mighty to just say that someone who is illegal should simply be kicked out of this country should look in the mirror and see if that is the standard they want their life judged by. Remember that the Americans are only here because we subjugated the natives, who would most likely have deemed us all illegals.
#8, you are beyond the realm of reason in your statement that the only wrong of illegal Hispanics (not mentioning those from other Spanish speaking countries who still wait for their legal, proper visas) is that they are in America and the way they live here is no different than other immigrants.
I may be wrong but I can only assume you are sticking your neck out so far is that you are either an illegal yourself or you employ illegals, much to your own personal profit, at the expense of the theft of services from taxpayers monies illegal are not only not entitled to, but are exhausting. Someone involved in the line of alluring illegals here are also responsible for what they do, to a degree.
#9, eric55, LOL. If you have a crystal ball I suggest you trade it in because it is smudged too much for you to see anything clearly. I could not be further from being an investor and I would not even hire illegals to rake my leaves.
#10, your comment in trying to draw a relationship between American subjugation of Indians and that of the problem today is a naive one and a deserving of the classic two wrongs dont make a right, response.
You are ok with people around the world waiting for proper visas, often waiting for years, while those from south of our border run away from immigration officers with gold US Dept of Immigration law enforcement badges and guns?
That is kosher to you?
All those who are still looking to bury Rubashkin will quickly forget this raid, just like they forgot about all the other similar raids in recent years. To those, it’s as if this could only happen at Agri. While you may have your gripes against Agri, this happens all over, in many different fields.
So much for everyone who said the raid was anti-Semitic.
The Bush administration did not raid Agri because the Bushies are anti-Semitic. They raided it because most of its employees were undocumented -just like the employees of Howard Industries.
It will be interesting to hear how Howard Industries treated its employees!
Bottom line they should all be shipped back to where they came from !!