Of the 260 workers detained at the plant in Greeley, many were immediately deported, and 18 were charged with identity crimes. I was there the morning the first 10 made their initial appearance in court. They entered shackled at the wrists and ankles.
I sat next to the father of one young woman from Peru. He told me that in order to get a job, his daughter had purchased a birth certificate and social security card from a woman selling her own identity. It surprised people to learn that in large immigrant communities like Greeley, there’s a vibrant trade in identity documents, and many American citizens with Hispanic surnames are cashing in.
(Read The Denver Post's coverage of the raids here).
I acknowledge that undocumented immigrants break laws by entering and working in this country, but I also recognize that they are driven to do so by desperate circumstances that are well beyond their control. Contrary to what Gunny Bob and U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo would have us think, illegal immigrants do not come here to take advantage of our social services or to commit crimes. They come to work and to send money home.
That’s why for me it’s so sad when ICE swoops down and breaks up humble families just scraping by. It looks to me like a shameless attack on the most vulnerable people in our society. And let us not forget that the management of Swift has not been served with a single indictment in connection with the December raids, which makes the whole thing look even more like a below-the-belt onslaught on the little guy.
So it’s outrageous for me to hear people like Gunny Bob and Tancredo spout off about how we need to round up and deport all 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country. We have a very real problem with immigration and a system that is kaput and barely functioning. Lawmakers need to tackle comprehensive reform now, but the ideas of right-wing xenophobes like Gunny and Tancredo do not advance the dialogue in any constructive way.
