Time
Mood:  crushed out
An Article Every American Should Read
By Daniel G. Jennings
The Sept. 20 issue of Time magazine contains an article every American should read "Who Left the Door Open." This valuable piece of journalism exposes the massive problem of illegal immigration and exposes it's true causes: corporate America's insatiable hunger for low-cost illegal labor and Uncle Sam's refusal to enforce laws against employing illegals.
The facts as exposed by writers Donald R. Barlett and James B. Steele are dismal: investigations of alleged employers of illegal immigrants fell by more than 70 percent between 1992 and 2002 and orders levying fines on employers of illegal aliens fell by 99 percent in the same period. In 2002 only 13 fines were issued to employers of illegal aliens. Even though legislation passed in 1986 mandates the creation of a federal program for the verification of employment information no such program has been created. Worse, compliance with such laws is voluntary, that is employers themselves decide whether to check immigration staff or not.
If this charade wasn't bad enough the Immigration and Naturalization Service's efforts to crack down on employers of illegal aliens have been thwarted by political pressure. In 1998 the agency launched Operation Vanguard in which agents subpoenaed the records of Nebraska meatpackers, found 4,700 employees with suspicious record then demanded the employers verify their immigration status. The agency was forced to back off because of pressure from congressmen, employers, Hispanic groups and others.
Barlett and Steele also allege that it is the low wages that illegal immigrants are willing to work for that motivates corporations to hire them. They cite court records in which Truley Ponder - a manager at a Tyson Foods meat processing plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee - alleged he was forced to hire illegal aliens because his company wouldn't pay the wages local residents demanded. Ponder plead guilty to hiring illegals but Tyson itself was acquitted of the charges.
It should be noted here that Tyson (which is based in Arkansas) and the family that owns it has long standing connections to Bill and Hillary Clinton. A fact that Time conveniently forget to mention in its article. Tyson is also a large purchaser of advertising.
The sad thing is that the border could be secured fairly easily if the government enforced its employment laws and used modern technology to do so. T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union for border patrollers, told Time he believes that 98 percent of the illegal immigration would end if the federal government would issue an employment card similar to a credit card. This card which would contain a photo i.d. could be swiped through a machine like a credit card reader which would check the data on it against a national database. It would enable anybody to check a perspective employee in seconds.
With such a program in place, (and keep in mind the technology for this exists, as do the phone lines and Internet which would enable it) Bonner told Time that he believes the border could be secured with the existing 10,000 man Border Patrol. No army on the border, no giant fence, no racist sweeps endangering the rights of Hispanic Americans. No massive waste of tax money on new bureaucracy and hardware. (Such a program could be financed by fees paid by employers). The only thing stopping such a program from being implemented is large corporations and their political influence, Bonner said.
It's obvious that giant corporations and the people who profit from them are putting national security and the common good at risk by hiring large numbers of illegal aliens. It's also obvious that our politicians are not doing a thing to stop this travesty of justice. One final thought, sooner or later there will be hell to pay for this illegal immigrant business and I have a feeling that the large corporations and their pet politicians will pay for it, in spades.