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Immigration Raid Jars a Small Town
Washington Post Online ^ | Sunday, May 18, 2008 | Spencer S. Hsu

Posted on 05/18/2008 11:41:44 AM PDT by Reagan is King

POSTVILLE, Iowa -- Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife Monday when he saw a helicopter circling overhead and immigration agents approaching the meatpacking plant where they both work. The couple hid for hours inside the plant before obtaining refuge in the pews and hall at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, where hundreds of other Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered, hoping to avoid arrest.

"I like my job. I like my work. I like it here in Iowa," said Escobedo, 38, an illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, who has raised his three children for 11 years in Postville. "Are they mad because I'm working?"

Monday's raid on the Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 immigrants were arrested and many held at a cattle exhibit hall, was the Bush administration's largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself "Hometown to the World." Half of the school system's 600 students were absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of Hispanic children, because their parents were arrested or in hiding.

Current and former officials of the Department of Homeland Security say its raid on the largest employer in northeast Iowa reflects the administration's decision to put pressure

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ice; illegal; immigration; policestate; raid; sobstory
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To: Reagan is King

Be sure and check out the first thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017588/posts


21 posted on 05/18/2008 1:53:48 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (Buy a Mac ...)
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To: ml/nj

No I want business owners to care for the country and the people who built it, above the almighty dollar. Not too much to ask is it!!!


22 posted on 05/18/2008 1:59:26 PM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Reagan is King

But we don’t like you illegals here.

Bye


23 posted on 05/18/2008 2:34:23 PM PDT by wastedyears (Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. - Optimus Prime)
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To: org.whodat
I want business owners to care for the country and the people who built it, above the almighty dollar. Not too much to ask is it!!!

Hillary. Is that you? (Maybe all business owners should be forced to serve in the military too?)

ML/NJ

24 posted on 05/18/2008 2:43:04 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: Reagan is King

But what did the find in the jars?


25 posted on 05/18/2008 2:45:08 PM PDT by Puddleglum
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To: ml/nj

So are you saying that American business men should not care about their country. Do tell, and the ones that do, you compare to Hillary. WoW!!


26 posted on 05/18/2008 2:45:57 PM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Puddleglum
d’oh, “but what did they find in the jars?”

Okay, it struck me as funny for the second it took me to type it and misspell a word.

27 posted on 05/18/2008 2:46:10 PM PDT by Puddleglum
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To: Reagan is King
get me a box of tissues, this such a sad story.......

Oops....did I say Tissues?...I meant, get me a box of ammo.

28 posted on 05/18/2008 2:47:45 PM PDT by gitmogrunt (You didn't ask, so I posted it anyway...........waiting for the backlash........)
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To: org.whodat
It's really nice that you want to deputize these businessmen. Could we at least fire all the people we are now paying whose job it is to identify people who are here illegally?

ML/NJ

29 posted on 05/18/2008 2:55:50 PM PDT by ml/nj
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To: ml/nj
It's really nice that you want to deputize these businessmen.

LOL, you apparently do know the scope of how many different business that already have such requirements. The firearms thing was just an attention getter. Try the ones that government puts on trucking companies and their CDL holders and the hazmat requirements and you Pi**m** over making sure that that they have the correct and legal SSI number. Grow up.

30 posted on 05/18/2008 3:32:41 PM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: ml/nj

Social Security already HAS done this legwork. They already KNOW how many SSN’s are being used in illegal manners.

They refuse to share the information with the IRS and they have been reluctant (until recently) to send out non-compliance letters to employers.

The SSA/IRS should have the ability to tell by the second or third month of employment that there is an issue in the SSN’s filed. As it is, the typical time between when you hire a worker with forged paperwork and when you get a non-compliant letter from the SSA is about four years.


31 posted on 05/18/2008 7:32:27 PM PDT by NVDave
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To: ml/nj
Why don't you instead look to jail some bureaucrats.

You have my vote.
32 posted on 05/18/2008 9:37:22 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: Army Air Corps
My faith in FR is renewed!

ML/NJ

33 posted on 05/19/2008 4:17:44 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: ml/nj

Can we at least criminalize businesses who willfully, knowingly, and will full knowledge and aforethought, recruit and hire illegal immigrants?

Those that pay their illegal immigrant employees slave-labor wages with the knowledge that they have no legal recourse whatsoever to challenge such abuse?


34 posted on 05/19/2008 5:59:47 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: mvpel
Sure. I have no problem with that. In fact, I would favor it.

ML/NJ

35 posted on 05/19/2008 6:29:59 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: mvpel
BTW, if there are such businesses, deporting all or most of their employees would probably put them out of business.

ML/NJ

36 posted on 05/19/2008 6:34:01 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: ml/nj
BTW, if there are such businesses, deporting all or most of their employees would probably put them out of business.

For a week, maybe? Until they have time to hire a full replacement of their staff from among the estimated 21.5 million illegal immigrants in the US now or the hundreds of thousands of new illegal immigrants entering every year.

37 posted on 05/19/2008 7:45:56 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: mvpel
For a week, maybe?

Forever, I suspect. Even the simplest jobs require some training so each turnover costs money, and if the wetbacks see that everyone who starts to work for Xyzzy Mfg disappears they wouldn't be too eager to sign up themselves.

To my mind this is all very simple. The whole immigration mess is the result of all sorts of government people turning their backs on the problem. E.g. if the guards on the border had orders to shoot to kill people who cross at unauthorized places as the invaders they are, probably no more than ten people would be killed. (fewer than die in the deserts) Word would get around that the gravy train was over and that would be the end.

But it's so much easier to blame eeeevil businessmen, isn't it?

ML/NJ

38 posted on 05/19/2008 8:27:03 AM PDT by ml/nj
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