Posted on 07/30/2006 9:16:21 PM PDT by neverdem
CINCINNATI, July 30 — Immigration agents had prepared a nasty surprise for the Garcia Labor Company, a temporary worker contractor, when they moved against it on charges of hiring illegal immigrants. They brought a 40-count federal indictment, part of a new nationwide strategy by immigration officials to clamp down on employers of illegal immigrant laborers.
Maximino Garcia, the president of the company, which provides low-wage laborers to businesses from Pennsylvania to Texas, stood before a federal judge here on Tuesday to answer conspiracy charges of aiding illegal immigrants and money laundering. If convicted, Mr. Garcia, who pleaded not guilty, could serve 20 years in jail and forfeit his headquarters building and $12 million.
The criminal charges against Mr. Garcia and his company were brought by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The campaign has included at least five other federal indictments of business executives in Ohio and Kentucky and has sent payroll managers rushing to re-examine their workers’ papers and rethink plans for their work force.
It also created a new environment of fear in Ohio’s immigrant communities.
“It’s a very uneasy feeling,” said Sister Teresa Ann Wolf, a Roman Catholic nun who works with immigrant workers in Canton, Ohio. “People are afraid to leave the house to go to the store. They are afraid to come to church.”
Until recently, the worst that Mr. Garcia, 43, might have expected from the immigration authorities was a civil fine and the deportation of some illegal workers. In April, with President Bush under fire from both Democrats and Republicans who accused him of being lax on employers of illegal immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the new campaign. It focuses on those suspected of violations with felony charges that could lead to huge financial...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bush, Bronson worried about unpicked oranges
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/15007805.htm
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson agreed Monday that it's ironic millions of Florida oranges could waste away due to a shortage of fruitpickers during a national debate over the county's immigration laws.
Orange production in the state could become the lowest since 1992 if the worst projections come true. That year, growers harvested 139.8 million boxes.
Growers have reported difficulty finding enough workers. Industry officials say labor supply was tight from the beginning of the season in October, but grew worse by the middle of May when a large segment of the Hispanic labor force seemed to leave the state.
It is also because we demand tomatoes all year round. Growing season or not.
So if I come home and see that I have a broken pipe and water is flooding my house, I should just sit there until a plummer comes? Or do I go to the water main and shut the water off to stop the damage from getting worse, until the plummer can fix it?
Alot of illegals are using FALSE documentation to obtain jobs and buy houses. If you or I were caught using a fake social security number to obtain anything it would be called identity theft, we'd go to jail.
So where did you my saying that illegals shouldn't be prosecuted for using fake ID-s and social security numbers?
The points is, how is the employer supposed to know that?
It seems to be that appearance is all that matters to them...who cares if it tastes like cardboard?
"The points is, how is the employer supposed to know that?"
That is the point.
With the Internet there is no excuse for not having the information real time. The Fed ought to provide a Federal picture ID when you run the SSN as well. Then there would be no doubt that the SSN provided was accurate. Every person entering this country legally should have their picture taken by the Fed so that it is available on demand.
Oh please, I am so sick and tired of being told that the country will come to a halt and we'll be paying $10.00 for a head of lettuce. And as for the strawberry farmer paying insurance, ya know what? I don't grow strawberries, but right now I am paying for emergency room visits, WIC, medicaid, education, school breakfast and lunch, the list goes on. And if we get a guest worker program who will be paying for the aboved while they are guests if the employer can't or won't. We'll have guest workers but everything else will remain the status quo. I believe we will survive without guest workers and if I have to pay more for a while I will, eventually things will settle down. I'd much rather pay extra for lettuce than to see my neighborhood and country turn into a third world hole.
By golly I know one thing....
When Strawberries hit just a dollar an ounce, i'm going to go into the strawberry business. Even if I have to pick them myself.
At 25 dollars an ounce I'll invent and build a machine that will pick them pack them and buy a fleet of reefer trucks to get them to every store in the country quickly.
At a hundred dollars an ounce, I'll be richer than Bill Gates inside a year.
I know you weren't being actually serious about that price, but the market will find alternatives when the price of a simple thing goes high enough. Trust the market to find alternatives when there is a profit to be made.
You don't have to buy tomatoes, you can grow them. In fact we usually get our tomatoes and other veggies grown from locals, they may not be available all year round, but they're worth the wait. Besides, when I go to the supermarket most of the produce is imported from other countries.
You cannot tell me that someone has not come up with a computer program that can track illegals. Bounce a check to Kroger or whatever and it goes on line, fed into databanks all over the country. When you try to pay, it comes up immediately there is a bad check out there somewhere. After the check is paid you're ok. But if they can track a check they can track if someone is illegal. Here in Atlanta the illegals are using their male children's SS cards. Apparently, employers are just looking at them and that's it, they aren't actually checking the SS #.
APf
There is a Website that tracks employers hiring Illegal Immigrants. It's called: "We Hire Illegal Immigrants".
You may be surprised !
YES! This is an important point, but you exagerate. Actually I would expect the following scenario:
At 1 dollar an ounce you will commence growing strawberries. Eventually your back will get sore and you'll invent the machine. Eventually your machine, along with other innovations, will increase your productivity and you'll offer berries at 75 cents an ounce.
Cheap labor destroys innovation. That's why illegal labor is killing us.
I can't believe that freepers are claiming "not my problem"on enforcement. You know that if the gov. did assume responsibility they'd be bitching about the big brother crawling up their rear-ends, on another thread of course.
Prosecuting employers makes sense.
1. They are the bottom of the pyramid, the consumers of what illegals sell. Knock out the consumer, no market sucking illegals across the boarder. 2. Employers have something the government can take, which they don't want to lose. So it's better for the government to fine them and seize their ill gotten property, than to tax the rest of us to create a force of professional 'alien police.' It won't be luctrative for the government though, et a few get busted and bankrupted and the others suddenly decide that a little background check for people who can only 'habla un poco ingles' is not that difficult 3. There may be some decent and honest employers of illegals, but a lot of them are money grubbing, exploitive, sociopathic bastards--slave drivers and sweat shop stewards. I'd love to see them sent to the deepest corner of hell, but I'll settle for seeing them in prison.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing".
Yes, it IS the Fed. Gov. Org. job to enforce the laws against illegal INVASION.
But it is ALSO the duty of every employer to make a reasonable effort to NOT hire illegals.
If they have dozens or hundreds of invaders on their pay-roll they clearly are NOT making a sincere effort to prevent hiring them.
So it IS up to all of us to enforce the laws against invasion as best we can, and ICE needs to make it easier for all of us to participate in that effort.
Agreed. We have the same issue here in Vermont with apples. But instead of illegals, the local growers bring in Jamaicans - LEGALLY- just for the growing season to pick them. They also provide a dormitory for them and a van to take them to town to go shopping several times a week.
The Jamaican men who come here seem to like it a lot - they come back to the same places year after year and have become fast friends with the growers. They send money to their families back home and are treated pretty well (and work their rearends off) while they are here. Every year they have a "owners vs Jamaicans" cricket match here that is a hoot to watch - the owners usually get their butts kicked and everyone seems to have a good time.
Guest workering can work but it has to be done right, the proper tracking needs to be done, and the anchor baby thing has to stop.
LQ
I understand your concerns, but this is a valid strategy against illegal immigration. If no one will provide illegals jobs, what reason do they have to come here? In addition, I'd recommend immediate cutoff of access to ANY government program. That's when you'll start hearing screams.
We need to eliminate any avenue for illegals to circumvent proper procedures. Then we will see the problem slowly resolve.
They should be afraid to come to the U.S. illegally.
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