Back in 2002, before all the trouble, the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk retired from St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church here, his last station in 43 years of ministry. He built a home 35 miles away in a town along the Mississippi, and he indulged a passion for family history, tracing his lineage to an ancestor who arrived in New Amsterdam with the Dutch East India Company.
Once a month or so, Father Ouderkirk drove back to St. Bridget’s to officiate at a wedding or baptize a baby. He savored those rituals, proof that the Hispanic immigrants who had arrived over the past decade to work in Postville’s kosher-meat plant were setting down roots. Some had bought their own homes. Their children had graduated from high school, even been selected for the National Honor Society.
Then came the morning of May 12, when both satisfaction and retirement ended for the 75-year-old priest. Federal immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors factory, arresting nearly 400 workers, most of them men, for being in the United States illegally. Within minutes of the raid, with surveillance helicopters buzzing above the leafy streets, the wives and children of Mexican and Guatemalan families began trickling into St. Bridget’s church, the safest place they knew.
Hurrah! for the Federal Immigration Agents!!!!
I would feel happier if some of those who had made the illegal hires in the first place had been detained at the same time. This doesn’t appear to be a case of milking the benefits syetem, but of people doing work that American citizens are no longer inclined to do. Certain sectors want cheap labor and will go to the lengths of hiring illegal immigrants to do it. In such a scenario, the blame should fall on BOTH responsible parties, the hirer as well as the hired.
“System” not “syetem.”
I support the ruthlessly efficient enforcement of our immigration laws, and I would not bat an eyelash if each and every illegal alien were deported.
That being said, I also fully support the concept of churches as sanctuaries where the accused can flee. First, even those justly accused of crime sometimes need to escape “mob justice” (which is no justice at all). Second, those who are related to the accused, such as perhaps the children and wives of illegal aliens, need someplace safe to go and to be cared for. And third, sometimes the criminal himself or herself needs a place to catch their breath, contact family, talk to a priest, and make arrangements before they eventually give themselves up to law enforcement.
I doubt that church law would call these immigrants criminals. Nor must the church recognize borders in sympathy with the poor.
The immigrants are here because they are trying to make a better life.
The immigrants are here because they found they could break the law and get away with it. Now they have found they can’t. Send them home. Let them apply for a green card; let them apply for citizenship, but ship them back to begin with. As to the churches as sanctuaries, it is one t hing for a church to help the poor, it is quite another for a church to be a place where criminals can hide from the law. No. LM
I’m all for increasing immigration quotas dramatically, but I want IDs checked at the border. I have no sympathy for those who come without following our laws.
Once again the article makes no distinction between legal immigration and ILLEGAL immigration. Look at it again — where is the word “illegal” in the article?
Very few people in this country are anti-legal immigration. However, illegal immigration is another matter, one that is costing our society Billions every year.
JE <><
answer: the word Illegal is used very rarely in the article, and not in conjuntion with the word Immigration or immigrant. The closest it got was
“arresting nearly 400 workers, most of them men, for being in the United States illegally.”
There is blame to go all the way around. The greatest blame is on our own government for letting the “illegal” situation spiral out of control and then sit back for years and do nothing about it. I take it that these “illegals” in this town were all gainfully employed and not breaking any other laws. Most of the adults are probably marginally educated and aren’t guardhouse lawyers. Most have probably had babies in this country who are now considered legal citizens which further compounds the problems. Obviously, there is no simple solution and the “off with their heads” approach is not one of them. I would recommend that, if they have a valid job, then photograph and fingerprint them and issue them a green card on the spot as a first step. The details of their further tenure could then be worked out. The adults who are not part of a valid family or have no other visible means of support should be evicted.
I had to wait two years for my resident visa application to go through. I have a friend from Niger who had to wait even longer to come to the States legally. I have little sympathy for those who come in illegally overnight and demand and receive instant benefits that the citizens and leagal residents of this country enjoy. I believe that employers of illegal immigrants should be treated harshly. Activists and politicians who support amnesty for illegals are doing this country no service at all.
On our local news two weeks ago came the story of a local resident who had her identity stolen by an illegal alien from Guatemala who was working in Ohio. This illegal owes $40,000 in back taxes to the IRS and our local resident is having a devil of a time with IRS, who is claiming she has to pay the debt. They can’t find the Guatemalan woman now as she’s on the run.
If these people are working here, they’re breaking the law by using fraudulent or stolen Social Security numbers, birth certificates, etc. I have no sympathy for them. This country offers hundreds of thousands of work Visas (14 different types and programs) available to companies who are truly in need of workers. Most of these Visas are for agriculture/agribusiness and laborers. If people want to work, they need to do it the RIGHT WAY or else stay home.
The churches should not be harboring illegals, either. Do you turn away the hungry? No, of course not. But breaking the law and sheltering them from prosecution is overstepping the boundaries. Somehow, I don’t think the church would shelter American citizens who stole food and clothing because they were poor and were fleeing police. The illegals are taking our social services and free education for their kids.
Often overlooked by defenders of illegal immigration, such as #5, is the suffering of the illegals that inherently derives from their illegal status. Exploiters of the illegals are well aware of their inability to avail themselves of normal legal rights.
Once arrested and deported, you cannot legally get a visa anymore. At least that is what I was told.
I teach at a school that has quite a few migrant students, many of whom are probably here illegally. These students are many of those who take the standardized tests (which are given in English only), and do horribly because they don’t understand the questions. My school is one of the lowest performing in the state because the students either don’t care or don’t understand.
Roman bishops in general have embraced illegal immigration as a basic human right. Although Anglican, I had hopes when the liberal RC bishop of our area finally retired and was replaced by a conservative. The new one, sadly, has thrown himself into the illegal immigration cause. Why is it that the U.S. is the only country on earth which should not be allowed to have borders and to examine the credentials of those who cross the borders? If the RC bishops had only the human rights of the people in mind, they would be engaged in a massive mission effort to support and educate the poor in Latin America and to strengthen the witness and mission of the RC church in those countries. Instead of caring for their illegal parishioners’ needs here while telling them that they err in violating the civil law, they choose to ignore the civil law.
I cannot speak for the rest of you but, as a legal immigrant to the United States, I think I can say from experience that this is perhaps the most difficult country in the World to immigrate to legally. We came in 1998, before Homeland Security came into being and took over the I.N.S. I have spent many hours in I.N.S. offices filling out forms, renewing Resident Alien cards for myself and my family and going through the dreadful experience of trying to speak with the I.N.S. on the telephone. It is not very pleasant and I can see that the problems and frustrations are compounded if one doesn’t speak English very well. That being said, I understand that the United States has an obligation to secure its borders from illegal entry and undocumented foreign workers. I’d like to see the Sons of Belial who own the companies which employ illegals put behind bars and lose their assets. I live in Biloxi, MS and I can tell you that since hurricane Katrina there has been a tremendous increase in the local immigrant population with thousands more workers coming from Latin America. I can say from experience that many of these are undocumented. The bottom line is that as long as it is financially beneficial to employers and others to traffic in illegal workers it will continue. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. I’m here legally and know from whence I speak!
Yes, RMBruton, you are right. There is a large element of exploitation here. As to INS procedures, immigration quotas, the number of work visas, and so on, where there are problems with the current system, the right solution is to get Congress to change the laws, not to simply ignore the laws.
Katherine,
I agree. The article made me so upset that I wrote to Mr. Freedman, the author, to inquire as to what happened to the people who own the Plant? I will let you know when/if I get a reply from him. My Mum used to say “love the sinner, but hate the sin”. Don’t get me wrong though, a lot of illegal workers play ignorant and innocent and damned well know what they are doing, that infuriates me. In the meantime folks, I and my family are legal.
One thing almost never mentioned is that illegal immigrants depress wages and take jobs from the least educated and poorest citizens [as well as high paying construction and meat-packing jobs] of the US. The injustice done to our citizens by illegal immigrants is ignored.
Sources: http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/01/news/economy/immigration_economy/index.htm?cnn=yes
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/85429
And yes, they really are depressing wages. A meat-packing job paid $19 an hour in 1980, but today that same job pays closer to $9 an hour, according to the Labor Department. [That figure is not adjusted for inflation.]
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/01/dobbs.immigrantprotests/index.html
There is also a significant problem with illegal immigrants breaking other laws than immigration laws.
In 2002, criminal aliens accounted for over 29 percent of prisoners in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities and a higher share of all federal prison inmates. That number has gone up since that information was released. That year, the incarceration of criminal aliens cost an estimated $891 million to federal prisons. The New York State Senate Committee on Cities estimated that the annual criminal justice costs for criminal aliens in New York was $270 million. The Committee called for a national moratorium on immigration to help alleviate the problem. In 2006, estimates showed that illegal aliens made up half of California’s prison population.
Sources: National Institute of Corrections, Federal Bureau of Prisons, June 2003. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/pim07.pdf
Besides knowing the costs to our society of illegal immigration, those who want to flout the law concerning illegal immigrants should be aware of the penalties. Please take note where it refers to “group of persons”, “organization”, and “due to personal convictions”. That means that the law applies to Churches, pastors, and congregants violating its provisions just as it does to companies hiring illegal aliens. We do not live in the medieval period and Churches are not “sanctuaries” from the law.
[blockquote]The following is an overview of federal law on hiring and harboring illegal aliens. It is not a substitute for professional legal counsel in specific situations.
Summary
A person (including a group of persons, business, organization or local government) commits a federal felony when he:
assists an alien whom he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him to obtain employment,
encourages that alien to remain in the U.S., by referring him to an employer, by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or
knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.
Penalties upon conviction include criminal fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture of vehicles and real property used to commit the crime.[/blockquote]
Source: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecentersbcdd
If you have not seen this yet, and have an interest in immigration policy of the U.S., this is a must see video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871651411393887069
Nuance, thanks for all the sources. Many people don’t want to talk about the criminal element among illegal immigrants. There are drug runners and also pimps who take advantage of Latinas who end up essentially enslaved in prostitution rings. And then there is the drunk driving problem — the rate is much higher among the illegal men stuffed into crowded apartments, away from family and spouses. Indeed there are illegal families who are exemplary except for being illegal, but people avert their eyes from some of these other things.
STN/#19,
You correctly note the wage depression factor. Isn’t it curious how the Democrats embrace illegal immigration at the direct expense of perhaps their largest traditional constituency, the labor unions?
“This doesn’t appear to be a case of milking the benefits syetem, but of people doing work that American citizens are no longer inclined to do.”
Correction, They are working for wages that American Citizens who want to support a family, live on their own, and retire IN THIS COUNTRY no longer are inclined to accept.
In the industry I worked in in college – restaurants – the “back of the house” guys – kitchen, were mostly black and young white guys whose rate of pay – when they maxed out – could get up to $18 and hour. Now? Try $12-13 (TOPS) and most are certainly not making that.
My friends who put themselves through college working summers and part-time gigs during the school year who worked in landscaping/lawn care 10 years ago were making double the min wage (at the time $4.25 in my state)… Now the state min wage has gone up to $7 and crews are making that, or a little more and around here are mostly immigrant.
Now among the folks I work with at my part-time gig in a restaurant two nights a week and on the weekends (cash tips that pay the rent are too hard to pass up!) the BOH folks are generally immigrant and often working two jobs while rooming with 2-4 other guys, and splitting $500ish in rent a month 2-4 ways… The food that would be thrown out for being out of date constitues the evening meals… 4 guys working 8 jobs with no grocery bill splitting rent 4 ways… That puts room and board at a rate of >$40 a week per person. That is a lot of remittances going south of the border, buying a small farm or supporting a family that lives well on 1/10th of what it takes to live rather well here.
If I could live like that, I would still take jobs like that too.
NO, immigrants do NOT work the jobs “we” won’t. They work for the wages “we” won’t.
#23,
I don’t disagree with you (since it’s my comment that you reference). I don’t think it changes my principal point. To hire one illegal immigrant might be considered a misfortune, to hire two looks like carelessness; to hire 400 has all the appearances of a pattern of contempt for the law. The workers cited in this article are not coming because the state government is too accommodating of them, but because an [b]American[/b] employer is trying to get out of paying [b]American[/b] wages to his employees. Having been through the Visa process (as a student) and the Green Card process (as a spouse), I am not overly sympathetic to the problem of illegal immigration, but I do think that all the economic factors driving it need to be addressed. Oh, and just for the record, in the sixteen years that I have been resident, the American economy has still seen more money brought from abroad – from family support while I was in graduate school – than I have been able to earn, mostly from my pen, in more recent years.
It’s interesting that the issue of foreign remittances is not new. During the 19th century, Italian and Central European immigrants – despite being admitted legally – were criticized for coming without their wives and children simply to earn enough money to go home and buy the land that would make them and their families independently wealthy. For many old stock Americans this was viewed as entirely the wrong approach to adopt to the land of opportunity.
“To hire one illegal immigrant might be considered a misfortune, to hire two looks like carelessness; to hire 400 has all the appearances of a pattern of contempt for the law. “
Actually, I couldn’t agree more. You are right.
For the part of my employers, I had one fellow come in, fill out an app, get hired, present papers…. Well “Juan’s” SSN was already in the system – it belonged to ANOTHER person already in our database (employed by your company 10 states away!) . What did the manager do? He had someone from the kitchen explain to this guy WHY this SSN would not work.
The next day he came back as “Juan” and sure enough, he was hired, this SSN didn’t have trouble, and he began the next day.
Not that there is NOT more than enough culpability to go around… The US INS ID cards… Have you ever seen them? 5 years ago when I was processing paperwork and saw them regularly… Well let me tell you those things were so cheap, poorly made, and easy to tamper with (pasport photo laminated to a card)… They DEMANDED to be forged and faked. Honestly, my high school ID was more sophisitcated than they were! I don’t know if things changed… But business want to hire them, the government wants to pretend like it is doing something. It is sort of like the briar patch & Bra’er Rabbit…
“Whatever you do, don’t you dare cross that border and get a job from an employer who doesn’t care if your papers are faked. I am going to go take a nap and then get some coffee… while I am gone, don’t you dare do what all these other folks did, cross over, get jobs and make money! You hear?”
Well I’m back with a reply from Mr. Freedman, who wrote the Article for the New York Times. He said that many conservative Jews are upset at this and that there is a new group that has been formed titled Hekhsher Tzedek, under the direction of Rabbi Morris Allen. They are joint project of the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and are attempting to connect Halakhah to Social Justice. Mr. Freedman was unable to tell me whether the operators and owners of the plant had been arrested or fined. This is the most information I could gleen; but if you are curious look-up Hekhsher Tzedek on Wikipedia for some further explanation, it refers to the problems at the plant in Iowa.
Let me make an Anglican connection to this. I am a presbyter with CANA, formerly I had been a priest in the APA. When I took a stand against the election as Senior Warden of a practicing homosexual and was not inclined to introduce ritualistic worship in my parish, I was fired. The diocese assured me of a settlement package, which never materialized, nor did I get a final check. I was not even allowed to take my case to the diocesan Ecclesiastical Court, so I resigned from the APA. This was in the Fall of 2003. I live in Biloxi, MS. The only job I was able to find at the time was as a laborer in a commercial laundry that did the was for the Casinos and hotels which dot the Gulf Coast. I made minimum wage. This was when I was forty-seven years old. The foreign workers with whom I worked were all documented, but the wages were very poor. Most of them worked more than one job. Then we went through Katrina. I have more respect for those who will stoop to taking minimum wage work if that is all there is where they are than for someone who is too proud and would rather do nothing at all. I did that job for six months and since then work as a nurse’s aide. Perhaps some day full-time ministry will be a possibility.
So this is how illegal immigrants end up in Iowa. A meat packing plant brings them in … not for jobs that Americans don’t want, but jobs that Americans refuse to do for $5 an hour, or less! I agree that the people who hired these illegals should be in jail right beside them! If any church members want to help them have a better life, let them become missionaries.