After a 15-hour day reporting on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, I was grateful to be on the road, headed home. Anxious to temporarily forget the sad stories of abandoned children and frantic wives left behind, I scanned the radio waves for diversion.
But the Dec. 12 roundups of illegal workers at Swift plants in six states were the talk of the airways.
A particularly callous and xenophobic host on 850 KOA, known as Gunny Bob, had also turned his attention to the topic. He read an excerpt from a statement issued by an immigrant-rights group that condemned the feds for carrying out the raids without regard for “family values.”
Gunny Bob could not contain his disgust and incredulity.
“Values? What values?” he bellowed. “The breaking into my country value? The stealing my identity value?”
After 10 seconds of listening to Gunny Bob, I understood his politics on illegal immigration. No poor migrant driven by financial desperation to cross hundreds of miles of mean terrain wrought with natural and human hazards would earn his sympathy. As with most “news” pundits, Gunny is good at twisting facts and quotes to promote his own viewpoints.
Those of us with an understanding of the immigrants’ plight and a balanced view on immigration policy knew what the immigrant-rights group meant by its statement. Hundreds of children were left behind without one or both of their parents, and left with no source of income, mothers and wives faced homelessness.
