30 children LEFT BEHIND after Immigration raid

[Bluebear]

About 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents after immigration agents raided a poultry plant and took the parents away to face possible deportation.

While some of the arrested workers were able to call and arrange care for their children, others were not and a local church had to help make arrangements.

The mayor said what happened to the children was a shame.

"A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn't know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up," Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050729/ap_on_re_us/immigration_arrests_children&printer=1

[joemurphy]

1. Disgusting. n/t

[Maestro]

2. Yeah and we will still have bash immigrant thread here

And the government will uproot and tear apart families and this poultry plant will get a small fine and then continue on. The problem here is not the immigrants, it is American business. I am not trying to say you are anti-immigrant but I am just amazed at how many good DUers can't see the big picture when it comes to undocumented workers and why they come. They come,are treated like shit, are blamed for problems, yet the problem is American businesses who continue to look for cheap labor. OSHA probably could have fined that damn plant for unsafe working conditions as well.

I'm even amazed how some people here are indifferent to supporting the freakin' Minutemen asswipes. Read this thread if anybody was unsure about the racist nature of them.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=180x17550">racist minutemen

[Bluebear]

3. I am *not* anti-immigrant, quite the opposite!

That's why I keep my eve on stories like this and the Minutemen.

[Maestro]

6. I know Bluebear

I was just commenting on how these stories are all over place but people still want to bash undocumented workers.

[Bluebear]

8. Gotcha.

:toast:

[joemurphy]

11. I'm pro-immigrant, not the opposite.

To my mind these are ambitious, hard-working people that want something their home countries can't give them -- hope. They're the kind of people I like and respect. They want a mechanism to become citizens and don't have one.

We wink at their presence because they are willing to work cheaply. We give them no opportunity to get anything better. They pay taxes and social security but get no opportunity to benefit from it. They make our goods and services competetive in the vaunted global econonomy.

They are routinely cheated. They can't get mortgages. They can't get drivers licenses. All they get is a finger from Lou Dobbs who would criminalize them.

They are potential Democrats if we gave them some hope.

They have kids that are U.S. citizens too. I don't see how deporting their parents helps them or anyone else.

[Maestro]

13. Good going and well said

Joemurphy. I hope I see you in the next the thread that will come up some day bashing these people. We need all the support we can get.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. That's the kind of thing the KGB used to do to dissidents, pick them

up any old time, perhaps while their children were in school, so that the children would come home to find their parents gone with no explanation.

Yes, I KNOW that the parents were illegal, but that's no reason for the children to suffer. Those arrested should be allowed to go (under escort of course) and pick up their children.

I'd also like to know if la Migra is going to shut the poultry plant down or fine the owner's ass off for hiring illegal workers, or if it's just going to be a game of token fines, followed by the owner hiring a whole new crew of illegals.

[hobbit709]

7. Want to put money

on option B

[Maestro]

9. Token fines

for sure. This admin knows that the cheap labor keeps the fat cats rich. Think about it; no paid insurance for workers, no paid social security. It's all "contract" labor on the books if it is even on the books.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. This is repulsive!

I hope everyone here who has advocated sending immigrants back reads this.

[cynatnite]

10. These children are why these families came to this country

People want better lives and they want to work to get it.

This is a travesty in this country.

I've heard it said that wages in plants like these are very low.

[Maestro]

12. You heard correct.

They work for slave wages.

[kcass1954]

16. I work with a lot of immigrants from South & Central America...

No, they might not speak much English. And this entitles them to the lower paying jobs, working outside in the heat and humidity and whatever other nasty weather there might be. They are all in this country looking for a better opportunity, not just for themselves but for their children.

One thing that we might forget, or even not know, is that many of them were not "illiterate" in their countries. A good number of my fellow employees have high-school educations. They're very smart, just not able to communicate with English-only speakers.

edited for spelling (non-functional fingers today)

[Maestro]

14. Look at some of what freeprepublic has to say about this

Wingnuts R Us

[joemurphy]

15. Same Freepers were the exact opposite on Elian Gonzales

"Deport 'em" is kind of a simplistic and impractical answer to immigration. We've supposedly been doing that for years but it just doesn't work.

Most people as crass and irrational as this can't be argued with.