Kinder, Gentler ICE

Do you know where to look for illegal immigrants in quantity? It isn't rocket science to figure it out. We had a good illustration in Texas just a couple of years ago. If you drive US 287 north of Amarillo from Dumas to Stratford you'll notice that you are under continual attack from 18-wheelers hauling live cattle. They are going to the meat processing plants in the area. A small town a few miles out of Dumas named Cactus has a big one.

You wouldn't want to live in Cactus. It's dusty prairie and the dirt streets harbor small run-down shacks and rusted out cars. The smell of manure and offal hangs in the air and somehow even resists the hot winds that blow continually without effect. The business is meat processing and the workers are Latinos, largely undocumented. No one else would want the jobs.

ICE, during the last administration roared into down and swept up a couple of hundred illegals one morning. They were deported. That's what is supposed to happen according to the law.

But, that was then and this is now:

Policy of the Obvious Unintended Consequences

Isn't that so much more refined? Rather than a gaggle of enforcement officials doing what the law requires, we employ an "auditor" who forces the company to "fire every suspected illegal immigrant."

Excuse me? How is this "auditor" going to "suspect" someone? I'm thinking it will be no documentation on file such as an I-9 or no Social Security number in the employment registry or...an Hispanic surname. That sounds to me like racial profiling doesn't it? It sounds a lot like randomly seeking out brown-skinned people and asking them for their "papers"! It sounds like what the Arizona law which is under attack has been characterized as doing but doesn't! Double standards, anyone?

But consider the results. It doesn't deal with illegal immigration at all. It simply has the result of taking hard working people out of their jobs and thrusting them into the welfare lines creating an increased burden on state and local unemployment offices.

Along the way, it removes experienced employees from the business, creates shortages in products, reduces potential profits, raises labor costs, necessitates training, and inevitably raises prices for all of us.

Gotta hand it to the Bamster. He sure knows how to run a country.