[Publius6961]

...and other immigrant workers were terrified of more arrests.

I am continusally amazed at the absence of the word "terrified" when describing illegal immigrants' thousand-mile trip into the United States.

They are only "terrified" at going home?
What's wrong with this picture?

[potlatch]

[freema]

BUY SMITHFIELD'S SUCCULENT HAMS

[NavVet]

Boo Friggin' Hoo. If they want to be reunited with the deported illegals, all they have to do is call ICE and they can arrange to provide transportation.

[atomic conspiracy]

Mexican supremacists, crypto-fascist Greens, media shills, and cheap-labor profiteers join hands, strike up Kumbaya, scream "racists!" and cry crocodile tears for the deported criminals.

But try bringing in ten million Africans or ten million Chinese as a riposte to the illegal "immigrant rights" crowd, and you will see who the real racists are.

[Woodman]

Hooray to Smithfield
Good Job to ICE
Ho Hum to the Unions trying to use it to their advantage
WTF to the Church
ROTFLMAO to the Cleaning Crew who ran away (and probably are hired by an outside vendor)
OMG to the 100's that got away (but maybe they will go somewhere else)

[ViLaLuz]

The title is wrong. It should be "Scared Workers Stay Away," not "Scared Workers Stay Home," since their home is not really in this country. I wish the scared workers would GO HOME.

[wbill]

In November, hundreds of workers walked out of the plant, protesting the firing of 75 employees who were unable to provide verifiable documentation that they were working legally.

Perhaps I'm naive, but - assuming that you ARE here legally - isn't it fairly easy to prove that you're here legally? 60 days seems a but excessive - even replacing a lost Soc Sec card can't take that long.

[ican'tbelieveit]

"Some people said the workers who were most vocal about unionization were some of those arrested.

Yeah, like the company would have to resort to using ICE to get rid of illegal undesirables.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

This is a way to deal with illegal immigration after they are here. So what is wrong with policing the borders to prevent illegal immigration in the first place?

Packing houses in the midwest have many immigrant workers. It is common to have postings in the plant in Spanish and Vietnamese. Most of the Vietnamese are likely legal immigrants. What about the others?

There is protest (also healthy) solution to deal with the Smithfields and other packers hiring illegals - buy naturally raised beef, pork or poultry from a farmer and find a local butcher to process it for your freezer.

[Hatteras]

"“All we were trying to do today is get the product out the door.” "

"...as cheaply as possible by paying illegal immigrants incredibly low wages knowing full well that they can't bitch and moan to authorities. So what if we are tunneling beneath the American economy further weakening the base it stands on, we provide the jobs Americans aren't willing to do and we are getting fabulously wealthy on the backs of these illegals."

"Hey, if they are going to bypass immigration laws, why can't we bypass minimum wage laws?" -Smithfield Rep.

[Redleg Duke]

Smithfield...another brand name to avoid from now on.

[17th Miss Regt]

The 20 men and one woman arrested were moved Thursday from the Mecklenburg County Jail to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., nearly 700 miles from Tar Heel.

700 miles. As soon as I read this I went to my atlas and looked up Tar Heel and Lumpkin. They are about 400 miles apart. It took me about 2 minutes to discover this. But the lazy reporter did not do this. She probably just took some union goons word for it. Typical poor quality reporting. What else in the article was she lazy about?

[bert]

.....After mediation with the Rev. Carlos Arce, of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church .......

The Vatican raises its head in North Carolina supporting the invasion as it does in California and Arizona.