The number of illegal immigrants detained Monday in Postville has risen to 390 in what federal officials now describe as the largest single-site raid of its kind nationwide.
The detainees include 314 men and 76 women, according to figures released this morning by federal authorities. Fifty-six detainees – mostly women with young children – have been released under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We’re here to discuss not only the largest operation of its kind ever in Iowa, but in fact the largest single-site enforcement operation of its kind in the country,” U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth said.
The detainees included 290 who claimed to be Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, three Israelis and four Ukrainians. Among the detained were 12 juveniles, six of whom have been released.
It’s all reminiscent, as the folks at America’s Voice pointed out, of the kind of "round ‘em up, ship ‘em out, and let God sort it out" rhetoric favored by the nativist faction that’s overtaken the Republican Party nowadays, especially folks like Rep. Steve King, the Iowa congressman seen in the video above equating undocumented to workers to cattle and saying, among other things:
We could also electrify this wire with the kind of current that wouldn’t kill somebody but would simply be a discouragement for them to be fooling around with it. We do this with livestock all the time.
As Frank Sharry at America’s Voice observes:
The Bush Administration has given up on real immigration reform to join Congressman Steve King and other Republicans who advocate mass round-ups of immigrant workers. The latest immigration raid in Iowa is an ugly example of the Republican thrust on the complex issue of illegal immigration: scare the public into thinking that immigrant workers are the enemy, round them up like cattle, terrorize immigrant communities in hopes they will leave the country, and pray it helps Republicans win elections this fall.
Moreover, as Joshua Holland at AlterNet recently explored, these kinds of mass roundups are always a bad idea, and always produce atrocities — not to mention a big hangover for civic leaders afterward:
Arizona’s new "enforcement only" immigration law, which mandates the use of an electronic verification system and subjects employers to the loss of their business license for hiring the wrong person, has turned out to be a disaster that might rank up there with the Edsel or New Coke in the pantheon of bone-headed ideas.
The state had a very low unemployment rate when the law was passed — it was, at least in part, a "solution" to a problem they didn’t have. Unemployment was at 4.1 percent when the law went into effect in January, and had been at 3.7 percent when a judge upheld the measure in early 2007.
Law-makers are now scrambling to undo the shock they’ve inflicted on the state as up to eight percent of the population — according to one estimate — have decided to hightail it out of Arizona en masse. The people of Arizona are learning that immigrants not only supply labor, but also demand goods and services in turn — and the labor that goes into them. They’re also learning that newer immigrant communities have a mix of people with different legal status all jumbled together, and that when there is a widespread perception that politicians (and citizens) are attacking immigrants, it doesn’t much matter that some differentiate between those who are "legal" and "illegal" — Arizona is losing citizens and lawful permanent residents among that eight percent drop in population.
Arizona is now faced with labor shortages, and when combined with the loss in demand from all those worker/consumers, the whole enchilada might end up costing the state’s economy tens of billions of dollars.
I have a hunch the fine folks of Iowa are eventually going to feel a similar hangover. And they can thank their good Republican representatives for it when they do.
Related posts:
- Joe Wilson: Both Lying and Stupid; Immigrants Buying Insurance Makes Sense
- At Texas Tea Party, Joe The Plumber Recommends Forced Deportation of Immigrants
- Jonah Goldberg: All Republicans Need is a Really Popular Hispanic Guy Who Bashes Immigrants
- FDL Movie Night Welcomes Roy Germano, The Other Side of Immigration
- The Republican Brand in Ruins: 75% of Americans Dislike Republicans; Over 70% Think Palin’s Not Qualified to be President
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Zed!
Jus cogens!
What a hideous wall that man wants to build!
Looks a lot like the one in Gaza.
This is crazy. I hope everyone had a chance to read Dana Priest’s article in the WaPo yesterday too.
Read the comments sections on these WaPo immigrant stories.
Knuckle-dragging xenophobic, racist hatreds reminiscent of the old Yahoo boards.
That Holland article is very interesting to me.
I’ve been saying words to that effect for a while when people get on this “they’re taking American jobs” theme.
Folks forget a number of things -
– that when you get down to 3-4% unemployment rates you are generally starting to deal with people with multiple barriers to employment – and are starting to deal with skills shortages and labour shortages
– that not all immigrants are unskilled, low pay workers.
– that immigrants frequently do jobs that American-born won’t do at any wage
– that businesses sometimes have to close when they can’t meet their labour needs – affecting the rest of the workers in the company.
– that small communities can be devastated by the resulting loss of jobs and people.
So, they’re holding six children.
Imagine the winger outrage about Family Values if a Democratic administration had been detaining children.
The Immigration debate (sung to the tune of “The Candyman”) and one really big ass sign:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot…..ebate.html
Well, I mentioned this on the late night thread, but it certainly seems appropriate here. Last night’s news shows included Sheriff Joe blustering because Governor Janet cut off approx. $1M of his state funds. She then, through an executive order, used the funds to establish a task force to do what used to be the Sheriff’s day job, enforcing about 40K of court ordered warrants for real life criminals. The image of Sheriff Joe on TV whining, “She cut off my funds (hrumph, hrumph…)” was just comical. Guess you had to be there.
Oops, forgot to mention that Sheriff Joe, of Maricopa County AZ, has had his deputy posse basically terrorizing the Hispanic community in cooperation with ICE’s training to local law enforcement so that the locals could do their job. Part of that harassment was to stop the Mayor of the majority Hispanic community of Guadalupe for a broken tail light. The charges against her appear to be what prompted the recent confrontation between Sheriff Joe and Governor Janet, although they don’t seem to need any provocation.
The Mayor brought this on herself by Driving While Hispanic. Terrorist.
So sorry for the w-a-a-y off topic, but I’m just catching up and seeing lots of love sent to QuakerGirl, and I have no idea what’s wrong. Would someone please post a few sentences to update those of us who might have missed it?
Again, apologies for the OT.
Exactly what I pointed out on last night’s late night thread!
Quaker Girl let us know that she is now in hospice with end term leukemia. We are offering her as much love and caring as we possibly can.
Hospice care. End stage leukemia.
:(
Funny how, once again, not a peep about criminal prosecution proceedings against the employer.
It must be a terrible inconvenience for them to have to find legitimate employees now.
The horror.
OMG. So very, very sorry. I always enjoyed her comments here.
That’s going to add significantly to the collapse of housing prices in Arizona, already one of the hot spots of housing deflation, negative equity, massive numbers of homes owned by banks, the abandonment of entire neighborhoods and resulting crime. Thanks, Republicans!
AT 3.7% unemployment rate it’s a lot more than an inconvenience to find and train new staff.
Geez.
That sux.
((((Quakergirl))))
I am close with the General Manager of a sports bar. He said the owners tell him that they are planning and very much want to open two more bars on the west side of town, but have been delayed due to a fear of staffing the kitchen. These two new bars mean new markets to this company (its a family business) since they already have six on the east and northeast side of town, but they’ve been in the planning stage for quite a while, and the owners said they’d have opened them already if they had their druthers. They’ve had letters of intent out for at least 6 months to a year. Apparently the fly in the ointment is new immigration laws and how to comply and still stay profitable.
yeah :’(
Jus cogens! for (((QuakerGirl)))
Sorry, posted this earlier and got no response.
(((Quaker Girl)))
Good morning CHS. Is this the America we want?
OT
I am sick over the arrest of 300 undocumented workers in the kosher meat plant 18 miles from here. The rural communities are devastated here over their roundup as they were herded into buses and transported 100 hundred miles away to a place called the National Cattle Congress.
http://www.desmoinesregister.c…../805140358
“And then they came for me”
Fascists
((((Quakergirl))))
3 of the alleged illegals are from Israel. That’s interesting, I’d like to know more about their situations. It would seem easy enough for an Israeli to come to the US on a tourist visa and overstay. But do this to work at a meat-packing plant?
Plus, I’ve said for a long time, the main product in AZ is growth! If you’d seen the pictures that I’ve seen of the growth over the decades, or talked to some people about where they came from and when and where they lived when they arrived and what the outer limits of town were then, it becomes quite apparent that we have nothing to sell here but growth.
Wasn’t it a Kosher Meat-Packing plant
Morning love and prayers for (((((QuakerGirl)))))
Working in the spirit of reconciliation.
“How to comply and still stay profitable” means: If we hire people who can legally work, we have to pay them more money, so how can we legally play Sergeant Schultz and hire illegals without being liable to hire illegals?
Hell, I have a family, and if I were stuck in Mexico with no work I’d come here so I could support them. Unauthorized immigrants are here because they feel they have to be here. But my sympathy for business owners is limited, because they are using the situation to depress wages, and that affects all working-class people.
Postville is where I did my student teaching 30 years ago. I now live 18 miles away and saw the helicopters flying over my house on this raid. My high school friend is the Superintendent of the district.
I will add any other details since I studied the Postville situation as part of my Master’s degree in History.
Quaker Girl, please lend your immense humanity to us all.
Immigration Reform is a solution to a political, not economic problem.
And that problem is who to blame for the economy.
Policy makers who have sowed the seeds of the current economy would like to offshore the responsibility as well.
==diane rehm did a show on the subject of this post yesterday, with dana priest and others…available on podcast.
http://www.google.com/search?c…..8;oe=UTF-8
tomato farmers not planting crops this year due to lack of workers, tried to find the npr report i heard on it, found so many articles i decided to just post the google page…..it needs addressed.
and where my family and friends live, illegal immigration is a BIG problem….in ohio. like it or not, it is.
here in se ohio, is in the background. but it’s here in droves.
in the cincinnati area and north, 8 and 10 construction workers living in one apartment….
a few months ago some were murdered cuz they get paid in cash, and save it up to send it back to relatives.
the violent crime rate has gone sky-high, last time i was home we talked about how you never saw latino names in the crime reports, now, that’s about all they are….no exaggeration, it’s true….murders, rapes,
muggings on the bike path, right in populated areas, muggers hardly spoke english …..parents are talking about discontinuing their ’year round volkssmarch walk’ because they can’t trust that someone doing it won’t be mugged. already happened. it’s serious. it’s real.
right now, i can drive down by the se ohio river produce farms and see truckloads of illegals planting acres and acres of crops….truckloads….no port-a-lets, no shade, etc…..dropped off and picked up later. like livestock.
i don’t know how to solve it, it is inhumane to treat people this way…citizens of another country…all because they didn’t get in on an h2 visa……a whole ’nuther subject…….but i think we’re dealing with a number of different issues with this and each need to be addressed. how come europeans can get here with a penstroke and someone else has to crawl across the border?
the temporary worker program to me was just a way to use people, then release them right when the diseases that would manifest from working with all of the chemicals make them ill, no responsibility for the corporations that exposed them…..
they should be able to register and stay, or have to leave.
humane working conditions because they would be legally here, and whomever hires them would have to comply with our labor laws. they would have recourse. businesses who don’t comply, break the law and should be arrested.
this is all rambly and hard to articulate, oh well….so many aspects of it, but it comes down to treating human beings like human beings, and that includes a path they can take that is designed to do that.
we already have laws in place to take care of this….and ways in place for people to become citizens….i feel if that was enforced in the first place we wouldn’t be here.
and something i wanted to know from the diane rehm show yesterday—where were illegals ’placed’ before this new ’temporary prison’ system was set-up?
Have to run but I will be happy to provide links and discuss the Postville roundup later if any of the pups want to know.
Like my law school buddy Bmaz I type terribly and apologize in advance.
Hi, neighbor! I live in the same area.
One thing that’s not being reported is the effect on some of the children. It’s a pretty scary situation for some of these families and kids.
This is a bit of an oversimplification of the problem.
The market price of the fruits of these services applies downward pressure on the wages.
A co-worker of mine argues strongly against illegals and their employers, but when he selected a lawncare provider for his condo association hed did so strictly on proce.
And the clientelle of sports bars has not historicly looked at the employment proctices of the establishments they frequent.
When was the last time you heard: “Sure the Bud is 50 cents higher here, but the kitchen staff is well paid”
Americans barely look for the union label on goods, never on services.
Sorry, that comment should have been a reply to Jim Clausen.
Hell of a way to treat citizens.
And many of the kids *are* citizens.
oh, and i forgot to bring up a proposed part of the immigration bill that is going around congress—-
to help ’catch’ illegal workers, anyone with more than one job will have to verify their own identity….or not get paid…..that means you have to take off of work, go to the social security office, IN PERSON, get papers verifying yourself as ’self’, submit to your employers…….
supposedly to cut down on illegal duplicate use of social security numbers….
this is for real.
Hey Ripley,
I am in West Union
beaming good thoughts to QuakerGirl…
Me too. (((QG)))
This morning, trying to weigh the comparative benefits of doing all errands in a tight circle vs. driving many miles to Target, held my nose and ran in to WalMart.
Clerk was facing shelves in the vitamins section. Struck up a conversation. She said she needs the job to help her daughter who, in turn, is working three jobs to try to make ends meet. Big Mouth (that would be me) blurted out, “Well, our president tells us what a great country this is because we can work two, three jobs to try to make it.”
Many silent moments. Then she said, “Well, at least they rounded up those illegals in Iowa! They’re taking away our jobs!!” Teachable moment or drop the whole damn subject?
But then she said something surprising. “If they’re gonna bring ‘em here, they oughta pay ‘em same as everyone else.”
It wasn’t much, but it gave me a sense that there are people out there who are willing to think, learn, inwardly digest. Probably our worst strategery is to write off any segment of the population as hopelessly, unrepentantly right wing, because even if their numbers are small, there are people amongst ‘em who want to figure things out and do the right thing, whatever it is.
I know that the GM only gets insurance benefits after he’s been there for a year. Not sure whether they pay the kitchen help minimum wage or not, although I think they do. OTOH, full benefits, not so much, but that goes for all restaurants.
Actually, if you think about it, I have no idea why we go to restaurants at all. We have all kinds of rules and regulations to keep animals out of restaurants (they don’t have this in Europe, but I’d be willing to bet they’re no less healthy than we are), and I’m sure there are rules about sick employees. But I’ve worked in many restaurants, and I can tell you, you don’t get paid if you don’t work. No such thing as sick days. Even if there were, they don’t pay your tips, which is your basic pay. The tips pay the rent, etc., the checks are lucky to pay the gas to get to work. Therefore, if you have a cold or an eye infection or any number of other maladies, you go to work. Think about it.
just doing a driveby … this ICE stuff is appalling. Reading the wapo story today about drugging people during exportation. Just when I think bushworld can’t get worse, it always does …
I just extended one of my entries in my scandals list about this. I think that it is important to realize that the goal of these raids is not to remove “illegals” from this country. Even though we are talking several hundred people, this is a miniscule number in the great scheme of things. These are in fact “show raids” to give the impression for the benefit of wingnuts that the government is doing something about illegal immigration and to terrorize and further disempower undocumented workers.
from the Berkeley High School e-tree:
The other incidents involved more standard-issue crises: a student threatening other students with what may have been an air gun, a homeless guy chasing a student across campus while brandishing a knife, and a fire alarm set off by a teacher cooking something in class.
I just had this strange, totally unfinished (and likely unworkable) thought. If it’s possible to register voters in droves and on election day, would it be possible to send ??? to sites like these to educate the workers about applying for documentation? I don’t even know what I’m asking here, because I am so ignorant about the process. But is anyone taking the issue to the workers rather than waiting for the workers to figure it out and magically walk the legal route? Can someone interpret me to myself?
GritTV newness
Perhaps I’m splitting hairs here, but David’s topic was a raid on a meat packing plant. I’m about to say something politically incorrect but realistic. There are jobs in this country that people do not want to do, and if they are hired, they may not do them for long. Just ask managers of meat and poultry processing plants in all the small towns throughout the Midwest. So, managers often have to rely on immigrant populations who aren’t so picky about the type of work they do. Now, one could make the argument that these immigrants should be legal immigrants. Fine. Or that plant managers should have to apply for special visas for these workers. Fine. But, to say that these jobs will immediately be snapped up by willing local workers is not borne out by facts.
the thugs and corps actually support illegal workers. High profile roundups like the ones we’re talking about here are red meat for the thug base. And having an oppressed workforce who’s here illegally does wonders for depressing wages and cost to employers for everyone, documented or not.
the apparent inconsistency of supporting and denouncing is not an accident …
Just got back Hugh,
Thought you would like to know that 33 three year old Matt Dummermuth who is the USA was in schlozman’s civil division and was appointed during the resignation scandal. I was all over it once and will do some research.
Yes, you are correct. But I guess I was noting “phase 1″ of the problem–finding workers at all. You’re addressing “phase 2″, the wages the workers are paid. This phase directly affects “phase 3″, the prices that WalMart and other corporate giants have told the processors they’d pay for their product…and not one cent more.
Harvard grad, and maybe Federalist Society?
I taught three of his siblings and his Dad is a director of my bank.
You know, you bring up another subject that also needs exploration. Believe me, I know what you mean about suppression of wages. But if some of these jobs, restaurant work for instance, and unskilled labor like the tomato growers who are not planting because they can’t hire workers for harvesting their products, paid all their workers accordingly, would the middle class be able to afford the products? What would you be willing to pay for a tomato? For a meal at a sports bar? This is a huge problem! I hate the idea that the illegal immigrant accepts jobs for $5/hr here because s/he sees it as bettering his/her family’s standard of living, while Americans don’t feel they can do those same jobs without reducing their standard of living. I hate it, but it’s a fact of life. Until their own countries improve the standard of living by not allowing companies to exploit their citizens, this will continue to be a fact of life. At that time, a tomato will probably cost $5 and will exceed the amount most middle class families can pay for produce. And we may have to save up to go to a restaurant. Go figure.
excuse me, excuse me, excuse me
sorry to go all get-off-my-lawn, but it isn’t just about breakin’ bad on brown people in an election year – it is also about rewarding CCA or some other Pioneer or Ranger in the human warehousing business
CorpWatch
they were getting $2.2M a month in our county alone. yes, it is racist flim flammery, but it is also about keeping another Cheney crony on the DHS dole.
Oh, sure, deport all the illegals and all the scary brown legals without proper documents in their pockets when Mr. ICE-guy comes knocking. Then institute a draft to fill these nasty jobs, paid at just the hourly wage and job insecurity as now. Watch how the conservative immigrant-bashers flock to the registration offices to do their part for the country. America needs meat!! Good way to put some skin in the game (put their skins where their mouth is–but that sounds a little vile, maybe).
barbara at 47–i see what you’re saying, i think that is happening in california……
martha at 49–that may be the case in some areas of employment, but if employers were paying what the job should be paid, they wouldn’ thave a problem at all…….and in the construction trades……
there are hardly any entry level trade jobs in my family’s area anymore for high school graduates that lead anywhere, grocery stores and restaurants……
and contruction jobs and plant jobs ARE filled by illegals….food processing plants that i KNOW people who worked there before, so, they did too work there…..i’ve lost count of trade people who are out of a job, no longer a living wage cuz of it……unless it’s a union job, but developers and plants and factories are hiring the cheaper wage workers…but it is a living wage for them, because they have entire extended families living under one roof, or a bunch of coworkers all living together under one roof. drive down a street in the evening and see how many people are crammed into one house, how many people are hanging out on one street. go to the waffle house and try to find one person speaking english……who doesn’t work there.
martha at 49 says–”So, managers often have to rely on immigrant populations who aren’t so picky about the type of work they do.”
more like– aren’t so picky about their pay or their working conditions. cuz that’s what’s happened.
Maybe if the tomato grower and resteraunt owner and such paid living wages, then the middle class folks would:
A) work those jobs since they could make a living at them and
B) they could afford the higher prices cuz they would be earning enough to pay the higher prices
cbl2 at 55–yep, that’s why i brought up earlier, where were these people ’housed’ before all this?
couldn’t remember the name of the company, thanks.
About 35 years ago, when I was a rather adventurous type, I found myself looking for farm labor work in California.
Not a chance.
(Full disclosure: white guy).
Nor in Arizona or Texas.
I did fine up in Washington state, where the Mexican labor contractors had little penetration (35 years ago; may well be different now).
I’ve never been in the least bitter about it; I have so many opportunities as a white guy, it all only makes me more understanding of racial and ethnic prejudice among the working class.
I fully believe it when younger white men tell me these days they simply cannot get construction jobs in southern California. Actually, it’s practically the same story for black men in SoCal, also.
Dunno what it all means, but thought I’d offer some personal experience history.
I’m on a fixed income. Guaranteed I couldn’t afford it! No more tomatoes in my life. Never a visit to a restaurant (already I only go when a working relative takes me). Might as well just shoot me, cause I wouldn’t be really living anymore anyway!
Rep. King! Teardown this wall!
Maybe we could build a wall around Obama’s White House to keep Hill out. I don’t think he wants Lady MacBeth and her husband in his castle. :)
Illegal immigration cannot be stopped. It can be made more rare, but never stopped. Walls & fences will not work – ask the former residents of East Germany. The way to lessen illegal immigration is to take away the incentive. Jobs. The corporations that hire the illegal immigrants need to be severly punished. They need to be hit so hard that the penalties far out-weigh any benifits for hiring illegal immigrants. Once the illegals know that US jobs would be hard to get, the number of illegal immigrants will go down.
Why does the Bush Administration’s ICE hate Jewish people? /s
tomorrow’s book salon author, tim shorrock is on terry gross’ fresh air program today……
Republics don’t really want to stop illegal immigration. They really want to keep things as they are. That way, it’s an issue they can use, election after election. If that weren’t true, then they would have made big changes when they had total power. They didn’t because it’s so easy to use illegal immigration to heat up their rabid base.
And the powers they represent, big business, want cheap illegal works. If you put in a way for people to work legally they could be paid more.
It never ceases to amaze me when folks scream that the current Congress is not enforcing the law with regard to all the criminal acts of the Bush Administration, but scream that the immigration laws should not be enforced. You either support the rule of law or you don’t. You’re either a hypocrite or your not.
Amnesty is the solution to the corporate demand for cheaper and cheaper labor. The left supports rightwing ideals, too.
Howie has a guest post from Ed Fallon, who is running for Congress against Leonard Boswell in Iowa, about Monday’s raid.
Where I live, the agricultural and manufacturing sectors are two mainstays of the ecocomy. There is a lot of pork production and processing. Processors find if very, very difficult to find workers for production jobs, even when these are well-paid union jobs. They have to recruit overseas to get staff – using citizenship-track guest worker programs. And the workers do not stay. They have brought people in from China, Mexico, Ukraine, Poland – lots of places – and the companies still have staffing problems. Processing capacity is reduced, which in turn affects the producers. No way are most Canadian-born workers going to take these jobs in enough quantities to keep the industry running.
Maybe in some places, illegal immigration is having a downward influence on wages, but I do not think that is the case everywhere and for all industries. My guess is that a lot of American employers hire illegals just so that they have warm bodies to fill positions.
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/18861684.html
Please read the affidavit for the warrant served. It’s on the left side in a box labled ‘related content’. The affidavit is in 3 parts.
On the surface this is about ‘illegal’ immigrants and that’s what the media is focusing on. But, in what I’ve read of the affidavit, management heads had better roll on this one. According to the affidavit, informant #1 was a former empolyee of the Postville plant, in HR. Accroding to #1, management actively encouraged ‘illegals’ to do ‘wrong’ things (SS, etc), management ’supported’ a meth lab on the grounds, have/had an auto racket going that crosses many county lines.
I’ve not heard anything about ‘management’ in this deal and plan on asking. The governor is also on record of saying that he’ll not let employers off the hook and I’ll do what I can to make sure he holds to that. I’ve read on other boards that some think this raid was to prevent a call for unionization at this plant. Don’t know if that’s true or not.
From post #71
“Maybe in some places, illegal immigration is having a downward influence on wages, but I do not think that is the case everywhere and for all industries. My guess is that a lot of American employers hire illegals just so that they have warm bodies to fill positions.”
The meat packers used to pay upwards to $20 an hour. Now it’s around 10. That smacks of downward pressure on wages to me. Now that ‘Big Ag’ is the owner of the meat packing plants, all that matters is the bottom line.
I was thinking along these very lines. If these immigrants are going to be loaded on the ICE bus . . . a special seat (or seats) should be reserved for the CEO (or his proxy) as well as anyone in the personnel department or in supervisory positions who knew (or were in a position to know that laws were being abridged–the wrongdoing STARTS AT THE TOP.
Mr. Salerno’s treatment is appalling. The loudest thing it shouts is that the hiring and training of customs and immigration staff has fallen to new lows, and that the mantra is that nothin’ bad will happen to them if they just keep out whomever the hell they please. Regardless of facts and circumstances.
Mr. Salerno is a poster child that illustrates some of the most glaring faults of Michael Chertoff’s customs and immigration service. Here’s why:
Dulles receives more foreign visitors – government, business, tourist – than all but a handful of other airports, Kennedy, SFO, O’Hare, Miami, LAX, among them, Mr. Salerno. He is handsome, good looking, university educated, a practicing lawyer, which means he’s been vetted by the Italian state for his character and associations and has no criminal record.
He has adequate wealth, unlike the thousands who pound the sands and cactus on the Mexican-USA border, to travel here often and legally from a friendly European state. He has the means to maintain himself here, he’s no threat to the public purse or to the peace, and return home. He has upper middle class friends who live and work in Metro DC, within thirty miles of his arriving airport.
Despite all that, Mr. Salerno had the audacity to come here more often than some local customs officer – working at possibly the single most important international airport in America – thought good for him. He challenged his right to enter. Mr. Salerno appears to have been unwilling to cower at the customs officer’s power and had the audacity to talk back and to ask to speak to officials from his embassy (who could reach Dulles within an hour). This customs official cooked up an asylum story, which put Mr. Salerno in a category that allowed for his indefinite, unreviewable detention, and tossed him in the slammer.
No doubt, a more unbiased official looked at the proceedings and decided to hush it up rather than admit what a shit he has working for him. He thereby abused his discretion. The interference by qualified lawyers and Virginia’s senior Senator just made Homeland InSecurity more Bushlike in adamantly maintaining that all its people did exactly the right thing. But as a courtesy, after having taught they Eyetie that he shouldn’t ever come back here, they let him go. Mr. Salerno is a poster child for Homeland InSecurity’s incompetence and abusive tactics because there are undoubtedly thousands like him we haven’t heard about, who remain in the Gulag of our “immigration” prisons.
Diverting a river won’t clean up half the mess, half the corruption and incompetence that Bush has littered across America. So we better gird our loins for one helluva clean-up campaign. One that anticipates that Karl’s Klackers will flood the media with claims that George left everything in perfect working order, so the trouble, the cost, the mess, must be because the Democrats screwed it all up again.