Opaque Lucidity

Another 800-Pound Gorilla

Federal officials in six states raided Swift meat packing plants this week in a new offensive against illegal immigrants. At first thought, you probably have one of two reactions. You might be glad that the law is being enforced or you might feel a sadness for the illegals since they are just here to work. I can understand either argument. Part of me feels very sorry for people who take enormous risks to come here and work for nothing so their families can have a better life. But we must have a secure border and we must find a way to make sure everyone living here is here legally. If nothing else, it is a national security issue.

Of course, none of this is new. The real shocking part of this story, the one we don't talk about, is encapsulated by this one sentence:

No charges were filed against Swift.

?????

Am I the only person who sees some sort of inconsistency here? Does anyone besides me think that any company that employs so many illegal immigrants should suffer some sort of punishment?

The defenders of industry will say, undoubtedly, that it's almost impossible for Swift to know beyond a doubt that the people they hire are in the country legally. To an extent, this is true. But 1,200 people? If only half of them are here illegally, that's 600 employees. Six hundred people had impeccable fake documents? Really?

Swift uses a government pilot program to confirm whether Social Security numbers are valid. Company officials have raised questions about the program's ability to detect when two people are using the same number.

This story illustrates something about which I have written before. Put simply, many of the people in private life and government service who stay up nights worrying about radical Muslims sneaking dirty bombs into the country want to give illegal laborers a pass. In the end, it's very good for business to have an almost unlimited pool of unskilled, cheap laborers who have essentially no rights. Should they be given rights? No. Should companies be punished severly for hiring them? You bet.

Eventually, something or someone very dangerous is going to sneak across our border with Mexico. Because we have done nothing to remove the reason people come here (jobs at companies who ask no questions), we will only have ourselves to blame.