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Politics : ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION THE FIGHT TO KEEP OUR DEMOCRACY -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tadsamillionaire who wrote (1445)	2/23/2007 5:31:02 PM
From: Tadsamillionaire	Respond to of 3197

Immigration crackdown is overdue The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is screaming "foul," but most Americans will shout "hallelujah" that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is finally cracking down on illegal workers. This battle is being played out at the Smithfield Foods hog slaughtering plant in Tar Heel, which employs about 5,000 workers, many of them Hispanic. The UFCW has been trying to organize the plant and is citing the ICE crackdown as evidence of the company's anti-union activity. In actuality, it is evidence that the federal government is finally beginning to address the problem of illegal immigration. Problems at the Smithfield plant began last November, when the company fired about 50 workers for providing false Social Security numbers, names or other personal information and sent letters to another 500 to 600 whose personal information could not be verified. That crackdown prompted a walkout of about 1,000 workers. The company backed down and gave workers 60 days to produce verifiable documents. With this grace period running out, about 50 workers have produced proper documents and remain employed, company officials say. But hundreds of workers have disappeared from the plant, either resigning or simply no longer showing up for work. It's easy to conclude that these workers could not produce documentation because they were in this country illegally. The crackdown at Tar Heel is part of a new, more aggressive strategy at ICE that takes aim at the employers who hire illegal aliens. Companies are asked to allow ICE to audit their employee records to ensure that all workers are in this country legally and that their required paperwork is in order. Employers who fail to cooperate and who are found to have knowingly or negligently employed illegal aliens can face criminal penalties themselves. Targeting employers who look the other way when job applicants produce suspicious documents is the only way the United States will be able to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Jobs are the lure that brings illegal aliens to America. Blocking entry to those jobs will discourage the flood of illegal immigrants. Estimates of illegal immigrants throughout the United States range from 7 million to 20 million. For political reasons, neither Congress nor the White House has wanted to take the steps necessary to stem the tide of an estimated 4 million illegal border crossings a year. The ICE crackdown at Smithfield, if replicated nationwide, could discourage immigration crimes.